Social Networking in the Classroom

	What age of students is this appropriate for?	What is the process to set up accounts?	How can I monitor my students?	How is the safety of my students addressed?	Is it user-friendly?	Is this targeted for a specific content area?
Kidblog	All ages	Teacher initially creates accounts and then gives login information to students	Teachers have control over everything the kids are doing	Very good privacy settings Adjustable by the teacher	Good lay out and easy navigation	All content areas Lots of writing blogs
Edmodo	All ages	Teachers initially creates account Students create their own personal account and log in to the teachers “class” with a code	Teachers have control over everything the kids are doing	The site is completely private. Nobody can see it unless you are a member of the “class”	Very user friendly Easy to manipulate	All content areas I use it for science, social studies, current events, and reading responses
Twitter	All ages to use as a whole class (9-12 might have their own accounts)	Setting up an account is fairly difficult The teacher would set up one account for the class	The students are not on the site on their own, so this is not a concern	The students are not on the site on their own, so this is not a concern	It is somewhat user friendly My students wouldn’t be able to manipulate it on their own	All content areas Designed for personal use, but lots of teachers, classrooms and children’s authors are on twitter
Blogspot	All ages use as a whole class (9-12 might have their own accounts)	Setting up an account isn’t too bad The teacher would set up one account for the class	The students are not on the site on their own, so this is not a concern	The students are not on the site on their own, so this is not a concern	User friendly for a teacher, not for students	All content areas I use this for a whole class writing blog to create audience and purpose in my students’ writing