Social Networking

What is Social Networking?

Social networking – environments for people to register and establish profiles that provide personal information and photos. After creating their profiles, the user can make connections with other members that are part of the same social network. Most social network services are primarily web based and provide a collection of various ways for users to interact.

Information Sharing Includes:

• Chat
• Messaging
• Email
• Video
• Voice Chat
• File Sharing
• Blogging
• Discussion Groups

Examples:

• MySpace
  
• Facebook
  
• Xanga
• Live Journal

Advantages

• Very attractive environments for teens, as well as for adults
  
• Allows creativity for creating web pages
  
• Self-expression and friendship building
  
• Youth “play time” in such environments can build skills that will be a foundation for career success in the 21st century
  
• Many teens are safely and responsibly engaged in such communities
  

Disadvantages

• Unsafe disclosure of personal information
  
• Addiction
  
• Risky sexual behavior
  
• You don’t always know who you are talking to
  
• Beware of sexual predators
  
• Cyber bullying
  
• Dangerous communities
  

How to Be Safe When Using Social Networking

• Be aware of personal information you give out – don’t put addresses or phone numbers and never give out your social security number or other passwords
  
• Make your profile private, so only your “friends” can see your profile
  
• Know who you are talking to – some people aren’t who they say they are and never arrange to meet someone in person that you do not already know
  

Schools and Social Networking
Even though social networking might not be appropriate to use at schools, schools should be aware of these networks and inform students about the dangers of using them. If a school wishes to use social networking sites in the classroom, they need to be aware of what the students are doing. Some sites should be blocked and all profiles should remain private. The school should also come up with rules on using these sites.

1. A clear policy with a strong focus on educationally valuable use of the internet – not using them to just “play around”
   
2. Student education about online safety is a must
   
3. Effective monitoring of students when using social networking
   

Opinions and Thoughts
“I am a huge fan of social networking. I am from Oklahoma and I use it several times a day to keep in touch with people back home. I also use it to interact with other students here at the college, to get help on assignments or just go over notes that I might have missed in class. I think social networking is a great tool as long as it is used in an appropriate manner.”
– Lindsey Newpher

“I think it is a good thing to have in schools because it can help with certain research papers. In my school, we had restrictions so we could not go on sites like Myspace, Facebook, and online games so students would stay on task instead of going off task.”
– Samantha Miller

“I think that social networking can be both a very good, and a very bad thing. Websites like Myspace and Facebook can be a great social tool for kids to talk to friends on. They can talk to friends in different states that they have moved away from, ask homework questions to people in their class, and be invited to social activities. There are a lot of really beneficial activities they can participate in! But bad always comes with the good. There is always the danger of predators accessing there pages. I think that as long as the proper precautions are taken and children are being supervised and informed of these dangers to look out for, that social networking is a wonderful activity!”
– Khrystine Bosland

“I like the idea of social networking for students our age. It lets me keep in touch with friends that are all over the country that I don’t get to see everyday. I don’t think it is necessary or appropriate for schools (elementary and high school) to use social networking in the classroom. I think the schools are just setting themselves up for something to go wrong. It is known that there many dangers in using these social networking sites, so I think schools should educate their students on these dangers, not bring them into the classroom.”
– Ashley Tremblay

“I love Social Networking and would like to applaud a thank you to the people that came up with such great ideas; such as Myspace and Facebook. I am originally from Michigan and love to communicate with my old friends from there. Plus, I enjoy talking to my new friends and looking at their pictures. I also like adding my own pictures and spicing up my profile with interesting facts about me. It is a great way to meet new people and stay Also, you have to be careful and understand thatJin touch with the old ones some people could be lying about stuff on their profiles and make the right decisions to either accept their friendship or not. Another positive thing about social networking is it can be great for school use; if you missed or need some assistance in a class you can search/add someone from your class and get help.”
– Lindsay Boyer

“I personally love social networking! It is a great way to keep in touch with old friends and to stay in touch with new ones as well. However, I do not believe that schools should be allowing students to use these networks during school hours. It will be too much of a distraction and take away from lecture time. Because computers should be used within school, school boards should block any access to social networks.”
– Leah Zaremba

“I think social networking is great for out of school socializing. I do not think that schools should allow them or use them for any communication but they should definitely educate students of the risks and how to avoid them. I think social networking is great for meeting people and can also be very helpful if you have missed school or don’t understand certain assignments because it is easy to find other students in your class that can help.”
– Ashley Kemler

Virtual Classrooms

Virtual Classrooms

What is a Virtual Classroom?
A Virtual Classroom is private online space in Blackboard that teachers can use to support student learning. It is accessible via the Internet, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Just like your face–to–face classroom, a Virtual Classroom is a busy place.

A Virtual Classroom might contain:

Class Activities:
Group and individual learning activities
Discussions and chats with students, parents and guests
Quizzes and surveys
Homework activities and assessment documents
Full online courses with modules of work
Forums and synchronous chat sessions
Web Quests, Hotlists, Scavenger Hunts, etc.
Class Organization:
Important information for students and parents
Calendar and timetables
Unit overviews
Student grade/mark book and criteria sheets
Student homepages

Why use a Blackboard Virtual Classroom?
Many of the activities listed here are possible to provide in other online contexts. School websites, school intranets, and personal websites are all places where staff and students can access online content. So, why use Blackboard?
You do not need web authoring skills. Content such as lesson overviews, assessment tasks, criteria sheets, links to web resources, downloadable files, worksheets, tutorials and mark books can all be easily created through the site control area of Blackboard using templates.
Curriculum resources for students are available during and outside school hours, unlike most school intranets.
Students can only access their own Virtual Classroom via a unique Learning Place username and password.
Teachers absent on sick leave or attending a professional development activity can leave work for their students in their Virtual Classroom and check progress. Students on holidays can also check in with their class.
Assessment items can be tracked through the use of self-marking quizzes and short answer items in the grade book.
Students’ progress during collaborative projects can be tracked. Students can work together conveniently after class hours.
Students can submit drafts, plans and assessment items through the digital drop box.
Promote substantive conversations and deeper understanding through discussion with invited guests

Why Wasn’t This Available Before?
During the first year in operation, The Learning Place Blackboard license was limited.
Education Queensland was committed to ensuring that online learning was developed in a supportive learning environment and our Online Learning Coordinators facilitated hundreds of courses in writing online courses.
The license has increased, as there are now over 21,000 registered users in the Learning Place.
It has become clear that many teachers do not want to develop full online learning courses. They would however, like to use the internet to support student learning and create clear and open forms of communication between the school, students, parents and community members. An Open House Trial was successfully run in Term 3, 2003 with over 120 teachers participating. Many teachers just wanted to explore Blackboard and see how this e-learning environment could support what they do in the classroom.

How to Start Your Own Virtual Classroom:
For steps to see how to set up your own virtual classroom using Blackboard please see the directions from this link:

http://education.qld.gov.au/learningplace/onlinelearning/courses/gettingstarted.html

Personal Opinions

“I think this is a great thing to have available because not everyone can attend classes. I know for me I love taking virtual classes it really helps me in the summer time. I take classes during the summer online to stay ahead.” –Samantha Miller

“I think the perks of online classes are huge. It gives so many students more opportunities to succeed in when they may be in an unusual situation. Say if they become very ill, or they have a family tragedy that might cause them to miss substantial amount of class they would be able to keep learning and being part of the class. I know I am benefit greatly from virtual classes because I am on the basketball team and by me taking virtual classes I am able to keep up with my schoolwork even if we are traveling to an away. I love virtual courses.” –Lindsey Newpher

“Virtual classrooms are great for teachers and students because they help accommodate both their lifestyles in a learning environment 24/7. They are less time consuming, and instead of meeting for a class; you just work individually or in-group effort and then you have a deadline in the end. When I am a teacher I don't think that I will be using Virtual classrooms, since I want to teach elementary students. If I was to teach older children, then I would love to teach virtually:) I think we should include those links that were apart of the article-they were very useful.” –Lindsay Boyer

“I love the idea of virtual classrooms. I work over 40 hours a week and I’m also a full-time student, so completing my work whenever I have the time is very nice. It's also very helpful not to actually have to attend an actual classroom at a certain time. It makes for a more flexible schedule. There are also disadvantages to virtual classrooms. I don’t really like the group work aspect of it. When students are required to complete assignments together it makes it very difficult. Trying to find a time to meet with all group members at one time is very hard and is next to impossible. The virtual classroom is also very impersonal and this makes it very hard to work with people over the Internet. Even through all the advantages and disadvantages, I think all teachers and students should try this new phenomenon and see if its for them.” –Ashley Tremblay

“In my opinion I think Virtual Classrooms are a great idea! I have been taking virtual classrooms for the past 2 semesters and even though at times I think it may be harder then a in person classroom, I love the fact that most of the work I can do in my own home where I can do the work on my own time by the deadline. I also think it prepares students for life after an education, where most will be expected to do their work by a deadline, where they won't have their boss by their side the whole time.” –Leah Zaremba

“I think virtual classrooms are a fascinating thing! I love being able to keep up with my work at my own pace and not worry about having to go to a classroom at a specific time each week. One thing I don’t like is the group work aspect. It is tough to get everyone on the same page when you can only type messages to him or her and wait for an answer, sometimes not until days later. I still think they are a great idea and think they are extremely beneficial!” –Khrystine Bosland

The Website We Used: http://education.qld.gov.au/learningplace/onlinelearning/virtual-classroom.html