Podcast

Dana Boyd’s podcast on social networking sparked some thoughts about the relationship of social networking and education. Before taking this social networking class, I had some experiences with social networking but I never thought about the implications of using social networks with education. Social networking sites have become extremely popular, especially with teens. While some adults are criticizing and trying to prevent teens from accessing and using various social networks, I believe that instead of preventing teens from using these sites we need to become knowledgeable and stay up to date on what is popular today. As an educator, I believe that we need to bring more social networking opportunities into our classroom, lessons, and curriculum and embrace this new technology. As Dana Boyd also discussed in her podcast, I believe that instead of trying to enforce rules on our students in regards to social networks, educators should be encouraged to create a public profile and demonstrate role model behaviors publically on the network for students to see. If more educators and adults were to take this approach instead of being so hesitant, we may be able to have a positive impact on our children and students.