ICT - Teach it, don't fight it
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5 average rating | Comments (5)
Last Updated:
10 October, 2011
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resources
Social networking is no longer an enemy of learning
Social networking should be taught more widely and in more depth in schools. No longer are we able to stick our heads in the sand about these communication tools. Nor should educators distance themselves from using them.
What concerns me is that the use of social networking has become part of a hidden social curriculum in which teachers have no part. Children are talking about it earlier and earlier in primary schools, and it quickly becomes part of the way they interact - an extension of the playground.
Of the 20 million reported minors using Facebook across the world, 7.5 million are under the age of 13, with five million of them under 10. In Europe alone, 38 per cent of nine to 12-year-olds have a social-networking profile - that equates to, say, 12 of your class of 30.
These seem conservative figures to me, and I think key stage 2 is where a great deal of good can be done to support young pupils and help them to develop lifelong habits.
The vast majority of schools block social-networking sites, giving a loud and clear message of “we distance ourselves from these tools and they are not to be used here”. Which has greater impact: blocking sites or e-safety weeks? We can’t have it both ways.
A flurry of PSHE and ICT teaching sometimes takes place when negative incidences of social networking occur. These knee-jerk reactionary methods are unsustainable. We have to look at the broader teaching of online communication, citizenship and interaction, with these tools in the centre of our gaze.
A decade ago, it was all about embedding ICT in and across the curriculum; nowadays our efforts should be about refining this point of view. It is about time we sorted out the C for Communication in ICT and helped our pupils to improve their navigation of the social-networking landscape.
That is not to say we advocate our Year 4s signing up to Facebook, but we should look more broadly at how we can use these tools in a positive way to support learning.
- Lesson and curriculum activities should develop collabora- tion and communication skills by working together online, with individual classes within schools or with other schools around the world. It is all about communication, and the more widely these types of opportunities are used as part of the broader curriculum, the more positive the impact will be.
- Where appropriate, classes should be using blogs and other social- networking platforms to publish and celebrate work and to engage pupils beyond the classroom. Class blogs are a fantastic way to begin the conversation about online behaviours.
- Teachers and senior leaders need to get up to speed. Better CPD opportunities should be provided to schools, not just for policy writing, but also to examine how social media can support learning. We often fear things we don’t fully understand.
- Teachers who use social media as part of their professional, self- initiated learning should be encouraged to act as role models to children in schools.
- Web access should be unfiltered and open.
- Parents should be frequently engaged in discussion about this topic, especially at KS2, as they also begin to seek guidance and understanding about what to do.
Tom Barrett is a senior consultant with Notosh Ltd
What else?
TES Resources has material to help you analyse the advantages and disadvantages of different social-networking sites - useful for generating classroom debate. There is a Teachers TV video exploring both the traps and treasures of social networks, as well as a video in which a languages teacher discovers the benefits of using social media in school.
All resources can be found at www.tes.co.uk/resources001.
Comment (5)
A great call to action Tom. We need to debate the use of these tools in more of an open way than is currently happening in many circles. I agree with many of your points, particularly the ones on providing CPD and encouraging those who are using social media as part of their professional learning.
I like the fact you link these tools to collaboration and communication- these are all skills widely recognised as needing to be developed in school. However, for contemporary learners the skills of collaboration and communication exists across several planes, and I don't think we can necessarily segregate those that happen in the traditional classroom and those that occur in the wider context of online.
Completely unfiltered and open web access in schools is a difficult one. Whilst I agree that generally blocking tools that have a small risk associated with them is often largely unhelpful, the internet is still a place where there is potential for very young children to stumble upon material that could be very disturbing to them.
Parental engagement, and even parental education opportunities are a key issue. These tools and communities are developing, and we need to work with learners young and old to develop the structures of them. The danger is approaching esafety in terms of 'telling parents the right way to do it', rather than simply providing a platform for people to discuss the issues and develop the use of the tools as they see fit by themselves and their children.
Lots of interesting avenues, thanks for once again reminding us this is an important issue to consider deeply and broadly.
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12:23
19 September, 2011
oliverquinlan
This is exactly why we have formed the Social Enterprise - Social Media for Schools (http://www.socialmediaforschools.org.uk) to help schools use and exploit these channels.
As Oliver has pointed out in his response there is no "right way to do it" but it is vital that communities are given the means by which to extend and connect locally and internationally.
We are launching two surveys - one for parents and one for senior managers. They will be anonymous and each person who fills in their details will have a unique web address to go to to prevent people spamming or filling in multiple surveys.
I would be very grateful if people want to voice their opinion to get in touch for a unique token that gives them access to the survey here:
http://socialmediaforschools.org.uk/?page_id=90
We will be sharing the results of our surveys at BETT.
Leon Cych
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17:30
19 September, 2011
eyebeams
I strongly agree with Tom that
'it is about time we sorted out the C for Communication in ICT and helped our pupils to improve their navigation of the social-networking landscape.'
It seems that we have been guilty as teachers of concentrating on the I and the T, but not the C. Perhaps this is why ICT is still seen by many as something that happens in ICT suites? To be fair, using technology for communication and collaboration is the hardest part to develop in learning.
And Oliver is bang on when including parents in arriving at a collaborative solution. A ‘done to’ model for parents isn’t going to create long-term change. I also like someone's description of social media as weapons of mass education. It would be fantastic if this could come true!
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23:33
21 September, 2011
chrisseymoursmith
My name is Derek Baird and I'm one of the co-authors of the 'Facebook for Educators' guide. My co-authors, Linda Phillips and BJ Fogg, Ph.D.) have partnered with Facebook to develop a best practices guide for educators.
One of our key recommendations is that educators use Facebook Pages or Facebook Groups as the primary way to communicate with students.
The primary benefit for using Facebook Pages in the classroom is that teachers can interact with students without having to accept a friend request from their student(s).
Most importantly, when educators (and coaches, youth leaders, youth pastors) use Facebook Pages to interact with youth it creates a clear separation between their professional and personal life.
In 'Facebook for Educators' we share 'real life' uses cases from other teachers in the USA and UK who are using Facebook in their classroom.
Here are some additional resources for educators interested in using Facebook in the classroom:
The 'Facebook for Educators' guide is available for free in the following locations:
Facebook Safety Center (scroll to the bottom) http://www.facebook.com/safety/groups/teachers/
Facebook for Educators website http://facebookforeducators.org/
Facebook for Educators Page: http://www.facebook.com/FBforEducators
You can also get a copy of the Facebook for Educators guide in English, Spanish, German and Portuguese here:
http://www.scribd.com/collections/2978508/Facebook-for-Educators
We have also created several 'How To' handouts to help educators get started using Facebook:
http://www.scribd.com/collections/2978485/Facebook-101
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3:59
5 October, 2011
fb4edu
We cannot 'block' what exists in their lives - this would be short-sighted. It's no different from saying that we have a zero tolerance to bullying - does that make it go away miraculously? No. It's about equipping the learners with skills to communicate in an ever-expanding world on the net. Put the C back into ICT I say!
I have used a class Facebook page to communicate to parents this year and this has been hugely successful with almost complete buy-in from all parents. We have used this forum to celebrate the learning in the classroom through published blogs, wikis, Flickr365 images by the children and more. The class use Edmodo and we have been teaching and learning net-iquette - how to be safe online, what is appropriate to communicate, cyber-safety, social graces online and more.
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21:01
10 October, 2011
krivett1