Six years
ago when my teenagers stopped checking their e-mail to text on their phones and
use FaceBook for socializing instead, I got a phone with a QWERTY board and
joined FaceBook. It was a case of “if
you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” Just like
black and white TV and movies, print materials seem to be moving further and
further into what will soon be considered the distant past. Kids want cool, up-to-date stuff, and they
want it now. What they don’t realize is
that social networking is not only highly fashionable and contagiously fun, it
is also an amazing opportunity to share, collaborate, learn, and grow as a
person. As a side note, I find it funny
that Courtney’s 2007 book, Library 2.0 and Beyond, refers to MySpace as being
“the largest social networking website with well over 100 million members.” So
much has changed in five years! As of
July, 2011, Facebook has more than 750 million users (Facebook, 2011). Educators need to keep up with the changes and
offer new ways to entice students to read, learn, and like it.
The Cobb
County School District uses Follett’s Destiny OPAC, which offers a few ways for
users experience social networking at school.
They can share favorite titles with each other and rate and review books
they have read by creating their own Destiny account. They are strictly prohibited from discussing
anything other than school and book related subjects. We have already revoked Internet privileges
for several students who misused their “empowerment” opportunity for malicious
purposes. This is a scary aspect of
social networking in school: kids can be
mean.
When students write a book review,
it is not automatically published; the media staff gets a “Processing Needed”
alert and evaluates new reviews to decide whether they are appropriate and
“worthy” of publishing. We have trained
students in “Destiny Empowerment” using a PowerPoint presentation that walks
them through the process of reviewing a book.
They know that their review will not be published if it contains
spelling or grammatical errors. The
review will be tossed out if it is inappropriate or says something lame, e.g.,
“Read this book! You will love it!” One middle school student actually reviewed a
Harry Potter book saying, “This book sux!”
I had to have a little talk with him.
As with any Internet innovation
that is added into the educational setting, some degree of caution must be
implemented. We need to monitor student
usage of social networking while encouraging the use of its different forms in
order to enhance the learning process.
At the risk of sounding trite, we need to meet students where they live:
on the Internet. Engaging students and
introducing them to the benefits of sharing and collaborating while they are in
school will help them to become the kind of people we all want to be: “enthusiastic lifelong learners.”
Courtney, N. (2007). Library 2.0 and beyond. Westport, CT:
Libraries Unlimited.
Facebook.
(2011). Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?timeline
Online Marketing Trends.
(2011, March 29). Retrieved from http://www.onlinemarketing-trends.com/2011/03/myspace-vs-facebook-who-is-winning-and.html
I very much enjoyed reading this post. One of the things I always think about with social networking is teaching kids to be careful about what they post. I am glad you are able to evaluate reviews before you post them. Kids don't always think things through and the immediacy of social networking can get them into trouble. Last year one of my son's friends posted a terrible comment about her teacher's new haircut on Facebook. Both educators and parents need to teach kids social networking etiquette. I also think about teachers, and really anyone in the workforce, posting inappropriate comments and pictures on their personal pages. My husband recently had to ask one of his employees to remove a post that could have been construed as offensive. If a 40 year old man can make a bad judgement call about a Facebook post imagine what a 13 year old can do! Thanks for your insight.
ReplyDeleteIf you can beat em, join em! Right Sue! It is good to know that your school and district has checkpoints in place to monitor student comments on book reviews in Destiny. Kids are mean and many do not have filters when it comes to vocalizing their thoughts. Honestly, I am an extremely private person but Facebook has allowed me to create stronger relationships with old classmates and family members. I can see what they are doing daily and it makes me really happy that I have this peek into their lives as well as they can look into my day-to-day drama. Of course, you would think that as adults we know what is appropriate to put out there on online sites, but that is not always true. I am loving the "empowerment" training sessions you do for your students on responsible online book reviews. It is good to know that your site gets so much action, even if it is negative sometimes. I guess students want attention and want an outlet to be heard. We have to stay many steps ahead of these students to ensure their safety and online responsibility when using social networking sites for instruction purposes.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of using social networking for book reviews. I had no idea that Destiny included this feature, what a great surprise! I totally agree that we need to get on board with social networking in the media center and use it to our advantage and for a good purpose. Students who collaborate, discuss and review literature in online groups will create relationships with one another and this could lead to more in depth learning and comprehension of what they are reading. Thanks for introducing me to this feature of Destiny.
ReplyDeleteSuzanne