Blair McEachnie-George's List: Critique of the use of Social Networking in Education

• University of Minnesota researcher Christine Greenhow breaks down how her research has found that social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace can have an impact for learning and educational growth for high school students. By working with students in a Minneapolis high school to study how they use the social sites, she has discovered that the benefits may just outweigh any risks.
  

• Are social networking sites good for our society?
• Social networking sites have no way to verify that people are who they claim to be, leaving people vulnerable to solicitations from online predators who are able to mask their true identities. In Feb. 2009, MySpace identified 90,000 registered sex offenders with profiles on the site, while Facebook declined to reveal how many were present on its site. Even if the sites agree to remove sex offenders, they cannot identify all of them or stop them from creating new accounts. [6]
  
• Social networking sites make cyberbullying, a type of bullying that occurs online, easier and more public than bullying through other online activities such as email and instant messaging. A 2009 study found that 17.3% of middle school students have been victims of cyberbullying. [7] Victims often experience a drop in grades, decreased self-esteem, and other symptoms of depression. [8]
  

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• Educational Benefits Of S
• ocial Networking Websites
• • ncreased access to resources
   
  •   Collaborate with other teachers
   
  •   Exchange lesson plans and information
   
  •   Can reach parents who are incapable to come to school
   
  •   Can form partnerships with schools in other states or countries
   
  •   Cheap and effective way to convey details to parents and get word out about school and events

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• et Feedback
  You can use social networking to get feedback on ideas immediately, or to ask questions and get answers quickly. If you're developing a product or even just an idea, you can bounce it off your friends and social networking contacts and find out what they think about it. You can also ask questions and receive answers in near-real-time, if your contacts know the answer or if you're a student in touch with teachers.

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  Positive and negative effects in the use of social networking in education

   

  December 17, 2009 by zhengliu

   

    

   

  I’m interested in the topic of social networking and social media using in education. When I read Rachel Reuben’s article “The Use of Social Media in Higher Education for Marketing and Communications: A Guide for Professionals in Higher Education”,  I learned a lot and at the same time I think there are both positive and negative effects in the use of social networking in teaching and learning context.

   

  From the positive perspective, using the social networking in teaching and learning context, students can study better. In the traditional classroom, not all the students completely absorb and understand the content taught in the class. When they do their homework, they maybe encounter some troubles. With the social networking, they can have a discussion or collaboration with anybody, even a teacher, a professor or an authority in the field, to solve the problems.

   

  The use of social networking can make students study effectively and efficiently. When they meet some problems, they can get a help from the social networking or some intelligent technologies in time rather than waiting for their teachers to answer their confusion. It also saves a lot of time.

   

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   But it also makes sense to think about ways to incorporate specialized social networking tools in class. The Flat
• Classroom Project is one example where educators have built social-networking sites (mostly using Ning) specifically for use
• in class and home assignments. Not only does this allow for educationally relevant communication for students in the classroom, but for them to interact with students in far away classrooms both in the U.S. and abroad so students around the world can reach and learn from each other.

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• • Benefits for teachers and students