Educational Technologies Blog
Facebook
is a social networking site where people go to connect with friends,
family, co-workers, and fellow students. I am a firm believer in the
world of Facebook and what it has to offer. I use it every day to stay
in touch with my friends. The reason I chose Facebook is because I
believe it is very easy to use and I have witnessed the learning power
that is available on the site. Facebook enables people to connect with
each other on many different levels. There are personal pages as well
as the ability to create pages for businesses and groups. One way I
would use Facebook for educational purposes is for a group setting much
like the online blackboard in our class. You can create a private group
page that can be used for a classroom and no one can participate in it
other than those in the class. There, students would use the page to
share class material and ask questions. It is a way for students that
only meet in class once or twice a week to connect with each other
outside of the classroom. In addition, students could share
announcements, links, ideas, thoughts, pictures, etc. with the members
of their class and myself.
Twitter
is also a social networking site where people go to connect with
friends, family, co-workers, and fellow students. However, the
difference between Facebook and Twitter is that Twitter allows people to
connect beyond their own social circle. Twitter is a more extended
networking site where people can actually connect with celebrities,
sports stars, musicians, and other famous people. In addition, the way
people communicate on Twitter is much more open. You can view other
people’s pages more openly and do not have to “friend” someone in order
to see their page. One way I would use Twitter would be to have my
students explore Twitter and see what kind of subjects they can find
tweets about and use that information to write reports about their
Twitter experiences. Through the search function it is very easy to
search for different interests and get other people’s thoughts and
opinions. We know that wisdom is gained through life experiences and
Twitter is a great way to expand one’s knowledge.
I
chose Facebook and Twitter because of the numerous possibilities they
offer for reaching out beyond our normal everyday lives and interacting
with people that we normally would not speak to face to face or by
phone. I can honestly say that I enjoy using social media and it has
helped me connect with old classmates, old friends and distant
relatives. I believe that learning through others is a very important
aspect of lifelong learning. There is always someone out there that is
smarter than myself and if that person shares their knowledge on social
media, I am able to collect and store that knowledge for my own personal
growth. I enjoy the news and political views that are shared as well
as personal stories from other people’s lives. These are all things
that I would like my students to experience also.
Teaching
business classes is the goal that I am working towards. Both Facebook
and Twitter offer special site features for business advertising. I
think this is an important feature that I would bring into my classroom
and share with my students. As a business person, anytime you can get
free advertising for your business you have to take advantage of it.
Social media is one of the best ways to get your products in front of
several people with just the click of the mouse and you can do that
without even setting up a special page. All you have to do is post it
on your Facebook wall or tweet about it on Twitter. With so many more
people using social media instead of print news, taking advantage of
these free sites is one of the best ways to spread the word.
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