Thing 18

For this post I explored social networking sites I am involved with and the usefulness they can serve to teachers. https://twitter.com/#!/rgrubb1013 This is a link to my twitter account on which I follow several educational profiles that can give links to resources for those involved in all levels of education. I am not going to include a link to my facebook, on which I am friends with teachers, because of privacy issues. I believe it is important for educators to know how to use these sites not only to connect to fellow teachers for advice and help with issues but also to understand the features offered and how their students use the sites to help with bullying prevention. It is not appropriate for teachers to be friends with their students, of course, but by knowing how the sites are used teachers can be helpful when bullying has happened on these sites by helping the proper parties understand the sites. When beginning this exercise I had no idea the amount of educational resources offered by these sites. The first people I followed when creating my twitter account were profiles like educational bloggers, professionals, and national educational "tweeters".  I really liked using twitter for educational purposes better because of the character limit on a tweet to help target the main point and by allowing "tweeters" to attach a link for more useful reading. I do not feel these tools should be used in the classroom because students are so familiar with the technology and would be more apt to check their own profiles instead of participating in the assignment. A useful feature of facebook is the use of groups for similarities and private groups to help communicate more effectively with members. A useful tool for twitter is the ability to write a main point and direct followers to the resource mentioned. Social networking is good for just that and I do not feel I will be using these in my classroom with my students but rather for myself.