Room at the Top

No matter what the focus of the article may be when it comes to social networking and the classroom, there is always one element that is considered: the parents. With social networking comes the threat of online bullying and other online predators. Parents rightfully have a problem with these types of problems and this has been a large barrier when it comes to filtering social networking into the classroom. The article “Powering up our education system” has acknowledged this problem, and has worked to introduce the positive aspects that Facebook and Myspace, and other blogs have offered to parents. With the use of these networking sites, parents can track their child’s progress better than every. What if each classroom in high school used the blackboard application for students and parents to access? Let’s say I’m in high school and I’m doing terrible in math. (Hypothetical example of course). My dad is asking me every week how my grades are and I tell him everything is fine. He believes me because he doesn’t really have any way of finding out the truth, unless he calls my teacher and he really doesn’t want to do that. So he backs off and assumes that I’m passing. The report card gets sent home and I failed math. Dad is raging mad. Things aren’t good. If only we had had access blackboard. In case I didn’t make it clear, I think the use of blackboard, or some other type of networking site in classrooms would be greatly helpful for parents. My dad could have asked me how my grades were, and I would have said fine. But maybe he had checked blackboard before he asked me, saw my grades and progress, and knew that I was failing. He would know on a daily basis if he wanted how I was doing in school. For a student, this access for parents might be a nightmare; at least it would have been for me when I was in high school. But realistically it is the answer for communication. It is easily accessible, up-to-date, and confidential.

Source: Google Blogs

Author: e Government & E.U.

Title: Powering up our education system

Link: http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single9702

The article “Could networking sites be future homework” seems to be a fitting piece to cap off a goal that I have been pushing for the past six articles. The article addresses the financial issues that surround the meshing of technology and teaching, but what I found to be more interesting was the teacher and school board interviews conducted in order to gain a better understanding of how instructors truly feel about the future of homework. Many were excited, they realize that the technology not only excites students, but it also provides a new and valuable method for students to express themselves and solve problems. Take for example the student who struggles with writing. Maybe they despise the typical research/word document standard format that I have been enduring for the past three years of college, four years of high school, and two years of middle school. At this point, I die a little inside when I start a new essay. The procedure is simply getting dull. I sit down, fire up the laptop, open a word doc, open up thesaurus on the web, and start digging into the pile of books I have on the table next to me. Sometimes I wonder why I pursue an English degree. Anyways, the student who doesn’t want to go through the process that I went through, or struggles with it, could have the option of the blog or any other type of online writing. It is the start of an entirely new genre; one that students get excited about these days. If teachers can find ways to get students excited about homework, then do it, because when I was in high school, the good old’ fashion word doc didn’t get me fired up too much.

The article goes on to discuss one major problem that online networking brings when introduced to the classroom: advertising and marketing. Students who had the opportunity to use Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, and any blog would also be exposed to endless advertisements that flaunt themselves on these sites. So the question is how do you access and introduce the muscle of these sites into the classroom without adding all of the fat that comes with them. I don’t have the answer to that because, quite frankly, I don’t know how to separate the two. I do know that there are multiple sites that the schools can subscribe to or find for free that have limited to no advertising, so teachers can start there. Whatever the answer may be, I do know that teachers can change the future of the classroom and start to excite students about education, and that possibility cannot be ignored because of a few minor problems such as advertising.

Source: Google News

Author: Michael Brindley

Title: Could networking sites be future for homework?

Link: http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/