Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Social Networking/ Facebook Response




Social Networking

I feel social networking in general is a great social tool but primarily for outside the classroom.  I was totally against it at first as many are but quickly found that reconnecting with old friends was pretty cool.  I still get annoyed by those people that post every time they walk the dog or go to bed but overall I can unsubscribe to anyone I choose and fit my page to my liking.  I also use Facebook as a great chance to keep up on current events and people's views on the topic.  
As far as in education, I think it can be a good tool for joining groups to find out information on topics of choice for use in the field.  However, I don’t think it’s use in the classroom just yet is possible without being abused.  As Richardson puts it, something like 90% of schools block Facebook and for good reason I think.  I also agree that you should never become Facebook friends with students.  After they graduate, long after they graduate, it probably OK but I guess the connection to the school might still be there with siblings etc still in school.  The bottom line is probably to never put things on your facebook page you don’t want your boss to see.  


Facebook Groups of Interest for Science Teachers

1) National Association of Biology Teachers-Life Science Education- This site has only 303 members which surprises me.  I found it to be very informative.  There are some links to amazing articles on here as well as information about conferences.  I noticed some political ads as well as employment opportunities.  I also found some good advice about implementing technology in the classroom.  What a great site!

2) National Science Teachers Association- There were no groups to join for science teachers specifically but there was a “place” to “like”. It had 6,287 likes so I assume if you “like” it you will get updates and information but cannot post to it.  This site was not quite as good as the Biology one because there were no posts and comments that were like a “blog” to get information from.  The information is from one source.  There are however a lot of valuable links to news stories and articles as well as conferences and other event nationwide.  

3) ISTE- This site also had some valuable links about technology and conferences.  There are 10,888 “likes” for this site.  Of course there are links to purchase some of their materials as well.

4) Biology- Community page about science- This page is more for anyone who wants to know more about Biology in general and not specifically for educators.  It has 12,704 likes.  Right off the top I noticed a bunch of articles about new advances in medicine.  There was some information on a few new drugs as well.  A lot of other articles too about a wide range of topics.   

Classroom 2.0
I feel like things are organized a little better in classroom 2.0 than in facebook.  There is a lot more information regarding education which is good for teachers.  There are a lot of question and answer sections which can be really helpful.  A lot of other educators actually respond to the questions which is good.  There are a lot of links on the sidebar which take you to a specific subject,  area, or tool.  I found an ipad in education group that was really interesting.  Some teachers from this group have tested out the ipads for a year and have a lot of good advice.  Also found another group related to cell phones and schools.  There seems to be a lot of controversy on this topic.

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