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

Digital Citizenship Lesson

Digital Citizenship and Space Spinoffs on Edmodo

Content Areas

Science

Digital Citizenship

Grade Levels

3-5

Standards

Colorado Model Content Standards in Science     

3. Earth Systems

1.     Earth is part of the solar system, which includes the Sun, Moon, and other bodies that orbit the Sun in predictable patterns that lead to observable paths of objects in the sky as seen from Earth

a.     Space exploration has produced data to answer questions about the solar system.

NETS

3. Research and Information Fluency

    Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.

b.     Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media

d.     Process data and report results

5. Digital Citizenship

Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology     and practice legal and ethical behavior.

a.        Advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology

Lesson Objectives

Can I successfully manipulate the social networking website Edmodo?

Can I take notes on the Space Spinoffs website and create a summary?

Can I upload my summary onto Edmodo?

Can I collaborate with my classmates by posting comments on their blog posts in a respectful manner?

Marzano Strategy

Summarizing and Note Taking

Lesson procedures

Before the class:

1.     Teacher creates an Edmodo account and a group for the science class.

2.     Upload the Space Spinoffs website onto your Edmodo group: http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/nasacity/index2.htm

3.     Upload your Digital Citizenship Policy onto your Edmodo group.

During the Class:

4.     Bring students to the computer lab. Direct them to the Edmodo website and walk them through creating an account. Have students write down two copies of their account usernames and passwords: one for the student to keep and one to give to the teacher.

a.     Edmodo is a very secure website to use at school. Only people with the code for your class can see what is being posted in your group. Once all your students have joined the group will be locked so nobody else can attempt to join.

5.     Give students the code for your science class group. Circulate and help students manipulate the website and join the group.

6.     Have students open the post about digital citizenship and read your digital citizenship policy. Go over it as a class. All students need to post an electronic signature in an Edmodo post that they read and understand the policy.

7.     Next, direct students to their main assignment: Space Spinoffs. Students need to explore the website and take informal notes.

8.     After thirty minutes of exploration and note taking, students need to type a summary of their findings on Edmodo.

9.     When they are finished with their summary they must comment on two other students’ summaries.  At this time we will discuss appropriate comments and inappropriate comments.

10. I will follow the Edmodo live newsfeed as the posts are appearing to monitor my students’ work.

Discussion of Social Networking

Social networking has changed substantially in the past several years. There is really no demographic that isn’t part of social networking online. Teenagers to people in their early thirties are the most prominent on these sites.

    I am part of several social networks. I have a Facebook, Pinterest, and Tumblr for personal use. I have an Edmodo and separate Pinterest for teaching. I have a personal and professional twitter that I never use. When I was young I had a myspace but I no longer keep it up. I have multiple blogs for professional use.

    Using social networking I think is extremely beneficial. The sites allow me to keep in touch with friends that live all over the country and world. Sites like Pinterest help me with ideas for cooking and crafts and teaching. In school, they allow me to show my students proper netiquette so when they are older and have their own sites they know about privacy settings and digital citizenship.

    I have not had very many negative experiences using social networking. The sites can be kind of a waste of time. But as long as you are smart about what you put online and keep your privacy settings up to date there is really nothing to worry about.

I have never used social networking with my kids. My students are only eight and nine years old so I always assumed I would never use social networking with them. However, lately I’ve been hearing about lots of different integration ideas for students as young as kinders.

    I went to the Technology in Education conference and saw a presentation from one school where they have one to one laptops and they use google hang outs and google chats and docs. (I don’t know if google counts, but used in that way I think it does.)

    I also saw a presentation about using individual student blogs to create audience and purpose for their writing. Kids post their writing and then people and students from all over the world can see it and comment on it. The students also go out and look for other student writing to comment on. It makes the writing meaningful. I will put together a blog for student writing next year. My kids don’t type their writing projects (for a lack of devices available to us at school) so I will scan their handwritten pieces and post them on a class writing blog.

    Another presenter spoke of Edmodo, which I will absolutely use this coming fall as homework for my students. I can post an article online and the kids have to go on and read it and answer questions or write a summary. They can also talk to each other if they are stuck on homework.