By: Sammi Coakley

Ishizuka K. Facebook Fracas. School Library Journal [serial online]. April2009;55(4):17-17. Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed April 29, 2009.

The article “Facebook Fracas,” discusses both the pros and cons of the decision of Wisconsin Schools to ban Facebook, and IM Fraternization between staff and students.

The Cons The Hewitt School in New York City has also followed the Wisconsin schools with

support from the Director of technology who asks a very important question to consider: “Would you contact a potential or current employer via Facebook?” The answer for most: No. To maintain professionalism most applicants applying for a job would focus upon face-to-face communication rather than social networking. Facebook contains personal information that an employer may find offensive and could steer them away from further interest in the applicant.

The article also discusses that LM-NET offered an open debate for the use of Facebook for professional networking where many considered social media usage between teachers and students to be inappropriate. To view the discussion visit www.lm-net.info.

CLICK TO CONTINUE WITH

THE SLIDES FOR THIS

ARTICLE.

Back to main menu.

Pros of Facebook(and other social networks) In the article it discusses many positive uses of the social network Facebook. One librarian says that she uses Facebook in order to share information regarding her

book club with the students who are members of the club. She even states that some of her students inquire upon homework via Facebook and that the social networking has been a positive experience for both her and her students.

One teacher even asks “If we block access to Facebook and MySpace during school and create policies about who can contact students, how on earth can we expect kids to learn responsible use?” If Facebook and MySpace were allowed in schools they could be discussed publicly in order to teach the students how to be safe and avoid predators and scams while networking online.

Some teachers are even saying that even though they wouldn’t consider friending their students on Facebook, they would consider friending their student’s parents with a Professional Facebook rather than personal one. This way they can communicate about upcoming books, projects, and events at the school quickly and easily.

The article also discusses other positive networking websites that can be easily accessed by all users: www.flickr.com allows users to use licensed images for sharing purposes, www.picnik.com offers great photo editing software without download, www.gimp.org is a picture manipulation website, www.cooliris.com “transforms searching for photographs into an amazing visual experience”, and www.jakesonline.org/flickrsites.htm is a one-stop resource site offering access to different educational and Flick based tools.

CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE WITH

THE SLIDES FROM THIS ARTICLE.Click for: Main menu.

Sammi’s thoughts on FACEBOOK FRACAS

I thought this article was unbiased, discussing both the pros and cons of Facebook in an educational setting.

Not only did the site discuss Facebook, but it offered other (more “professional”) social networking sites, some of which I have used and are very helpful!

I think that creating a PROFESSIONAL Facebook as a class would be a good idea for peer-to-peer and peer-to-teacher communication if, and only if, it is not used for subjects that don’t pertain to the class.

Picnik.com is by far my favorite site discussed in this article. It’s a fun photo-editing website that comes in handy! CHECK IT OUT! Everything is done online, while saving space on your hard drive!

Return to Main Menu.This is my last article: End show.

aha moments!

Since the beginning of the interactive “read-write-web,”

in the 1990’s it has spread widely across the world

with many social networking sites such as:

Blogger ( www.blogger.com),Live Journal (ww.livejournal.com),

Twitter (www.twitter.com),Facebook www.facebook.com, Myspace (www.myspace.com),

and many more that keep the user constantly connected to the

outside world. Programs are even downloadable for

on the go use with iPhone applications, and BlackBerry compatible programs that

connect to the social networkingsites via the “Edge” network through

a cellular company,which offers constant connection to

the internet via a Smartphone.

Click here forMain menu

CLICK HERE TOCONTINUE WITH

SLIDE SHOW

Pros Cons

Wikis

•Wikis have built-in discussion panels for each

web page that make group discussion easy.

•Wikis are fully searchable with the most up-to-date

information.•Wiki’s promote both

online and offline collaboration for research with classmates and offer

a place to share that information.

• Contributing to a Wiki is not as self explanatory as

contributing to a blog.•Using a Wiki requires a

user to have basic knowledge of hyper text

markup language (HTML), but on the positive side,

Wikipedia offers a website to teach HTML:

(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Cheatsheet).

Blogs

•Blogs have been long accepted in education for

social networking.•Blogs do not require to the user to be familiar with hyper text markup

language (HTML) in order to edit their page.

•The article does not discuss any cons about

blogs.

Wikis and blogs in Education:

I think that this article presents some good pros and cons about using Wikis, but the pros seem to outweigh the cons.

I feel that this article was somewhat biased towards the use of wikis in education because in it’s discussion of blogs it did not mention any pros and cons, but simply dismissed them.

I like that Wiki offers a website that will help users learn HTML code.

This article also gives good examples of Wikis that have been used successfully in education, which is a plus to the creditability of the article.

This article offered great information.Return to main menu.This is my last article, end show.

aha moments!

Sanchez D. networking Your Way To a Teaching Job. Education Week[serial online]. March 04, 2009;28(23):35-35. Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed April 27, 2009.

The beginning of this article discusses the personal experience of the author, Sanchez, trying obtaining a job in the teaching field upon graduation by using the “old fashioned ways.”

These “old fashioned ways” consist of: searching for jobs via ads in the newspaper classified section, submitting paper applications to potential employers, and networking with other teachers that one has come in contact with through personal experience and in student teaching.

Though the article states that these methods are still widely used, it is suggested that using social networking may be a quicker and more efficient method of obtaining a job in the field of education and giving potential new teachers a chance “put themselves out there,” more than the old methods allow.Back to Main Menu.

CLICK HERE TO

CONTINUE SLIDE

SHOW.

When networking comes down to

utilizing the same people you see

every day to help aide you in your search for a job,

imagine the networking

capabilities there are while networking

online. ..

…imagine a network created for teachers in which people

could communicate back

and forth with previous

professors and mentor teachers

from their student teaching in college. The

opportunity for network expansion is endless, as are

the job opportunities.…for example…

Main menu. CONTINUE SLIDE SHOW.

I really liked this article, as it helped explain simple ways that social networking is beneficial

in the education field. Though it only discussed networking for the

purposes of obtaining a job, it left room for thought about networking between teachers and

students PROFESSIONALLY in order to create a positive learning environment that classmates

can share almost instantly.

This is my last article: End show. Main menu.

Aha moments!

What are your thoughts on social networking in education?