Reflect upon the Pew research and think about how your students connect with each other outside of the classroom walls and the content they create and share. How can we apply this understanding to our instruction in light of the potential challenges and risks?
Since I teach mostly 10-14 year olds, I will discuss this week's topic in the context of that age group or "teens."
What I found to be interesting in the Pew Project is the apparent dependence of teens on the internet for a variety of things: social networking, entertainment, purchases, and information. “Among families with children between 12 and 17, more than three-quarters (76%) now have broadband internet access at home" and "nearly two-thirds of teen internet users (63%) go online every day" (Lenhart, 2010). The internet has obviously become increasingly important for them. Not only that, but having a number of techy gadgets (about 3-5) has become as common as having shoes! Of those gadgets, a cell phone and mp3 player are the most common. I can vouch for the truth of these statistics even in my small, rural Christian school.
What I found to be interesting in the Pew Project is the apparent dependence of teens on the internet for a variety of things: social networking, entertainment, purchases, and information. “Among families with children between 12 and 17, more than three-quarters (76%) now have broadband internet access at home" and "nearly two-thirds of teen internet users (63%) go online every day" (Lenhart, 2010). The internet has obviously become increasingly important for them. Not only that, but having a number of techy gadgets (about 3-5) has become as common as having shoes! Of those gadgets, a cell phone and mp3 player are the most common. I can vouch for the truth of these statistics even in my small, rural Christian school.
A random idea I have thought of based on how prevalent ipods are among my students is to make a podcast or even have them create podcasts on content we are studying. To go a step further, we could create educational songs in class and then put it on their devices. In this way, students could be listening to 'educational content' anytime and anywhere, even sharing them with friends and family!
Another fact I found good to know was the prevalence of teens on social networking sites (73%), most of them commenting on a friend's page or picture (Lenhart, 2010). The most relevant information I learned was how teens lead the pack in sharing content, remixing content, and interacting with blogs. This tells me that teens are not afraid to publish things about themselves or content that interests them. That is exciting to know as a teacher, because it gives me a heads-up that my students should enjoy posting original work online at school.
What the Pew Project doesn't tell us though, is why teens like to share information online so much...My guess is that it is a communication medium that they are more comfortable with being vulnerable and honest in, versus face-to-face in the classroom. They can be more open with their thoughts and feelings, and not face rejection as quickly or potently (except for online bullying). That leads us to the idea that online communication can be just as vulnerable to bullying as face-to-face, which is something the teacher and school need to have a policy in place to help prevent and deal with as necessary.
Another potential challenge to having students share content and feedback in class is parental consent. I have pretty conservative parents that are uncomfortable with their child having an email address. I was able to convince all of my parents how useful and safe it would be for my students to have gmail this year though, because of my access to their email and ability to limit their recipients to in-school addresses.
Despite these challenges, I have found that students love to share their work with each other, and I often find them verbally telling each other what they are posting before their post is even published. Collaborative documents can be a little chaotic at times, but they enjoy working and watching each other's work real-time. In Edmodo, some of my students have posted random things, which others quickly respond to in facebook style. With these things in mind, I think a teacher can foster a safe online environment, with guidelines, that engages students and allows them to create and communicate online. Plus, parents can be given access to view their child's published work, and comment on it themselves.
Here are a few online sites that could take advantage of students' interest in social media and commenting on each other's work (the sites in bold are ones that I currently use with my students):
References:
Lenhart, A., Purcell, K., Smith, A., Zickuhr, K. (2010). Social Media and Young Adults. Pew Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Social-Media-and-Young-Adults/Part-3/1-Teens-and-online-social-networks.aspx
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