Spinning the Social Networking Web in the Classroom

A few years back, while working as a high school teacher, I spent a good portion of my summer caught up in the dilemma that almost every teacher I’ve met faces: how to better engage every student with every lesson. I racked my brain, and when it hurt, I sought the brains of other teachers to find out what they were doing to reach all of their students. I never found what I was looking for, and when the new school year began I returned with the lesson plans from the year before; the “new and improved” version was hardly a step up.

One day a brilliant idea came to me—not in my sleep, or walking down the street and seeing something inspirational—this idea came to me out of necessity, coated with a thick layer of frustration! What if an online platform existed where teachers could share their ideas, lesson plans and students’ work … all in one place? At the time it seemed like a stretch. But five years later, I’m tuned in to the fact that this does exist and it’s called social networking.

Social networking offers a simple and accessible solution for reaching students, their parents and the larger learning community. It kills many birds with one stone and it allows teachers to promote sharing their lessons, ideas and plans with other teachers, along with “showing off” the classroom to others. According to Australian teacher, Simon Brown, social networking ultimately “connects with each student (one to one); builds a supportive relationship outside of class (one to many) and encourages collaboration between students (many to many).” Ning, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, are excellent social networking sites for the classroom.

The aforementioned sites are for the “heavy hitters,” for those who are somewhat comfortable with social networking. For the rest of us who like to ease into situations, there are a whole lot of teacher-specific social networking platforms in existence. I haven’t stumbled across one yet that does it all, but each has a niche.

For instance, PBS Teachers Connect provides a place for teachers to share their ideas with one another. There’s also Moodle, which is a free open source for teachers to design learning communities. TeachAde gives teachers the ability to “create, search and share resources to enhance their teaching and professional development as well as network with other teachers.” Social networking is part of the solution to reach all students and to share information. Now, if only all of the resources could be in once place!

Jen O'Neill
Education Writer

P.S. FindingDulcinea is launching its own tool for teachers in just a few weeks!  Stay tuned. (Notice we didn't call it a "social network").  If you want to be one of the select educators who get a beta preview, you can sign up at our Educators page and join our Education Advisory Panel.