Stella Porto's List: K-12

"Yesterday I gave a keynote presentation at a schools conference entitled " The Social Learning Revolution", where I talked about the impact that social media was having on learning both inside and outside the school classroom.

During my presentation I mentioned a number of tools that could help classroom teachers provide a collaborative "networked learning" approach to classroom-based learning.

Although up to now I haven't really focused on school-based learning, let alone social learning in the school classroom, this is clearly a very important area, and I have been asked for some more resources in this area

So, today, I've begun by adding a new section to my Directory of Learning Tools called Social Learning Tools for the School Classroom - that is those tools and platforms particularly targeted at or useful for learners aged 5-18. As this is a huge age range, the list is also sub-categorised as follows, ie tools suitable for:"

"Social media is making a big impact on education. The threading of new technology with old standards has created new and exciting opportunities for teachers, school administrators, and students. What is the best way to improve education using social media? That’s the big question that Edudemic hopes to answer. You’ll find regular doses of helpful ideas, infographics, news, videos, and more when you visit Edudemic.

Do you ever wonder how schools, universities, colleges, and large groups in general should use social media? Students are often early adopters, frequent users, and overall lovers of technology and social media. Edudemic is run by a few graduate students and teachers with a passion for learning and educating. Want to help us? We’re always looking for fun, creative, and exciting writers to join us. Get in touch with us by filling out this form or simply dropping us a line at edudemic@gmail.com"

"As technology continues its march towards dominion over our feeble society, socially minded innovators are looking for ways to take the resources available to tech consumers and make them available and beneficial to those who need it the most: our youth

Technology in the classroom is not a new phenomenon, but it is one that is constantly changing and being adopted – in various capacities – by schools that have a means to incorporate innovative learning methods into their budgets.

Perhaps the argument for technology as a means of learning is a moot one – it certainly seems to be the way of the future – however, not every school can offer a tech-based future education to their student bodies and many parents are choosing to home-school their children."

"Schools are often at the forefront of intellectual thought, but they have sometimes been known to lag behind the rest of society when it comes to learning and adopting new technologies. Such has certainly been the case with social media technologies.

In fact, so reluctant were universities to adopt social media on campus that in 2007, only about half of colleges reported social media usage.

According to a recent report from the University of Massachusetts, however, colleges have finally caught on; in 2011, 100% of universities are using at least one form of social media–and they are reporting that it’s now an important and successful piece of their outreach efforts.

Check out the below infographic from schools.com to learn more about how colleges have been slowly going social."