Using Facebook in the Classroom

In general, there are many risks involved with using the internet in the classroom.  There are numerous inappropriate sites on the internet that students can stumble upon.  According to Bernie Poole (a Professor in instructional technology),  teachers can't simply take away internet privileges if they catch students misusing it. So in order to keep students from abusing it, teachers should properly explain what is considered appropriate and inappropriate use of the internet.  

As for using Facebook in the classroom could be both proper and improper, it all depends on the limits teacher put on it.  Facebook suggests that rather then teachers friending student they should create classroom pages or closed groups.  Doing this helps avoid confusing personal life with professional life. Before using Facebook into your classroom you should first look into your school's policy on doing so.   

Facebook for Educators is a Facebook page created in 2011 by Linda Fogg-Phillips, Derek Baird, and BJ Fogg.  although it claimed to be the "official Facebook for Educators guide", I found it difficult to 
navigate.  Facebook in Education is another page on Facebook for Educators. I found this page a lot easier to navigate and much more informative.  they have separate folders for all their success stories, resources, and such.

According to Sarah Kessler, if teachers are going to use Facebook in the classroom then they have to be very specific with what they will be using it for.  Guidelines should be  created and then  fallowed through.  she also suggested creating interactive groups and pages rather then friending students.  Kessler also acknowledged the age restrictions put on Facebook and offered some alternative sites to use.

Personaly I think Facebook could be a really valuable tool to use in the classroom.  As long as it is used appropriately, it would be easy to implement since students are already familiar with the cite.  We as teachers need to keep up with the times.  Like our proffesor said in her video, Facebook is the second most popular site on the internet.  Educators would be remiss to ignore its popularity and power.

After reading through the list of the best Web 2.0 Applications for Education, I came across the sitehoover website.  Sitehoover gives users the ability to make a homepage to keep track of go-to sites.  The site also gives users the opportunities to make folders for specific themes.  This website can help students with and without disabilities.  It gives students with disabilities the extra organizational support that is often needed.  When students start a research project, they can create a folder to house the websites used for that specific assignment.  This site would also be great for when it’s time to type the work cited page. 

On my sitehoover page I put together some of my favorite websites.  On my page I have two folders. One houses some of the math websites and videos I like to reference and use, and the other has ELA videos I like.  I also have some of legitimate sites I use for searching topics.  

While the numbers given in the “Do You Know” video were impressive, they did not take me by surprise.  For years society has become increasingly internet centered.  Schools have started to transition to e-books.  Often times, e-books are cheaper than textbooks.  They have also made the switch from tradition black boards and white boards to interactive smart boards.

Mod 3 Reading Response

UDL in the Web 2.0 World

The article "Web 2.0: A New Generation of Learners and Education" written by Dina Rosen and Charles Nelson, addressed the many changes in technology that we have experienced in just a short timeframe. 

"Gillmor (2004) wrote, "In the past 150 years we've essentially had two distinct means of communication: one-to-many (books, newspaper, radio, and TV) and one-to-one (letters, telegraph, and telephone).  The Internet, for the first time, gives us many-to-many and few-to-few communication."  This change in communication has given teachers all over the world the chance to communicate with each other.  They can meet up on a website to share and critique lesson plans.  Teachers can use blogs and sites to produce mass social sharing of information, images, and more.

The internet plays a major role for applying an EDL in the classroom.  With the internet teachers and students can access an unlimited amount of educational sites.  There are websites that cater to all different types of learning styles.  Teachers are able to make changes to their lesson plans quickly with the use of Word Processor.  Word can also be used for students who can’t use pens or pencils.

This class in itself is a form of UDL.  Because this course is purely online, students have much more leeway in when they work on assignments.  This is beneficial for people who have children or who work. 

The Today Show video was hilarious and mind-boggling all at once.  The utter cluelessness of the anchors was really funny, but I couldn’t really fathom how someone couldn’t understand what the internet was or what one could do with it.  It has been so prevalent in my life that I can’t, and don’t want, to imagine life without it.