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/