Thesis+2

Maricarmen
flat

Running head: //Add the first few words of your title (Anywhere from five to seven words).//

The use of social networking in teaching

Maricarmen Ruvalcaba Hernandez

UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE AGUASCALIENTES

Summer 2012

**INTRODUCTION**

The use of technology has been essential in educational systems, Mexico is not an exception, as people live in a changing world, society changes as well. Schools have implemented the use of internet in their classrooms, therefore teachers apply the ICTS in their classes, specially using social networking site, it is a very useful resource in teaching-learning process, because it helps students to have a different way of learning inside or outside the classroom, it helps students to be collaborative and interact with people around the world and practice the second language in a real context, but there are some risks and challenges which do not let teachers to accomplish their teaching-learning goals.

Most of teachers have started using social networking sites in their classes in order to encourage students in their subjects, motivate them and create a social context. "Everybody talks about using technology, but what is the effect on learning?" (McCurdy, S. 2010). Nowadays, technology is in classrooms, it allows teachers and teachers interact and promote social interaction. "Technology is a good master and a bad master; there is no substitute for excellence in teaching"(McCurdy, S. 2010) using technology could be as dangerous as useful in teaching, because of the risks and challenges teachers face when use this kind of educational tools. And the other hand, some teachers stressed that there is a danger that professors would use new technologies just because they seemed cool, rather than for any specific learning tool. Because teachers face several risks and challenges when using social networking sites, they should equilibrate these kind of situations in order to accomplish their teaching objectives.

The Social Networking Sites are defined according to Boyd and Ellison (2008) the definition of social network sites is “web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system”. Some others define Social Networking Sites like the platform which permits users to interact, interchange information and create a personal profile.

Nowadays, it can be says that Social Networking Sites are platforms which promote online collaborative learning in schools. The importance of using the Social Networking Sites in teaching is that students may interact, communicate and learn in a meaningful and real context outside the classroom using tools they already know how to use them. **The most common social networking sites in schools.**

The use of technology has been relevant in schools, traditional methods of teaching have turned to social networking through a group of computer-based applications known as Web 2.0, this application permits teachers to create an atmosphere of collaborative learning in their classrooms.

“Web 2.0 or the ‘read/write’ Web, refers to a group of Web-based applications (blogs, wikis, podcasting, multimedia sharing sites) focus on online interactivity, inclusion, collaboration, authentic materials and digital literacy skills” (Haythornthwaite & Kazmer 2004; Lankshear & Knobel 2007; Thomas 2009). The use of social networking sites in teaching pretends to make students be more collaborative, to have a opportunity of getting knowledge through the digital world. “Web 2.0’ is a recent and loosely used term to refer to a phenomenon which has developed out of the use of the World Wide Web as an applications platform.” (Graham, 2005).

People is using social networking sites a third of their leisure time. “The popularity of SNSs such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn demonstrate the addictive appeal of online and virtual communities across generations and cultures, particularly their attraction to teenagers, housewives, students and a new group of recently enfranchised elderly digital immigrants” (TNS 2008). For example, Facebook, has more than 400 million of international users, it has been translated into 70 languages, so it makes it the most popular site around the world. It makes Facebook the most used social networking site in schools.

Facebook is a social network that provides information to students by sharing ideas and communicate with their family and colleagues and friends, "Even though Facebook is widely known as a digital means of communication, it is also a means for gathering information. We encourage teachers to take advantage of information online on Facebook", (Pilgrim, J. & Bledsoe, C. 2011). Every day new social networking sites are implemented in society, Twitter is a new site which has become popular between teachers and students. Twitter has more than four million users in Mexico, and among the more than 30 million people with regular Internet access, 95 percent have profiles on Facebook. Teachers are using these kind of tools in their classes in order to give students the opportunity of sharing information, contextualizing education process, being collaborative and acquiring social skills.

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">**Common risks using Social Networking Sites in schools.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Social networking sites have been adopted by specially teenagers and young people around the world, bringing new opportunities for self-, learning, ways of relationships, and the management of privacy and intimacy including in schools as educational tools. On the other hand, there are also opinions that social networking site increases the number of risks using it, such as loss of privacy, “sexting”, cyber- bullying, harmful contacts, exposure to inappropriate contents and so on, schools have to focus on the interdependencies between opportunities and risks, the need for digital or media literacy education, the importance of building safety considerations into the design and management of social networking sites.

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">To learn how to use these kind of sites with educational purposes like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter in classrooms concerns to privacy. "The first set of concerns relates to the disclosure of personal information by the students themselves. Applying the principle of user autonomy, this does not give rise to risks of legal liability, but may give rise to a range of risks, including misuse of the information by other people. The second set of concerns, on the other hand, relates to the posting of personal information about a student by other people, including the possibility of other people altering someone’s personal information." (De Zwart, M. Lindsay, M. Henderson, M. & Philips, M. 2011). It is recommended by teachers to create two accounts, one for communicating with the students and another for personal connections, it is obvious that technology has improved learning and teaching process, but more research should be done in further investigations.

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Many schools, while claiming to include up-to-date technology in the curricula, limit student and teacher access to social media websites, instead of guiding them in the correct use of these tools, they are prohibited access due to a fear of what they are. Schools, instead of building a brick wall around social media and pretending it does not exist, should actively teach students and teachers how to use them wisely. "The Most teenagers are taking steps to protect themselves from the most obvious areas of risk . Most teens believe some information seems acceptable – even desirable – to share, while other information needs to be protected." (Lenhart, A, & Madden, M. 2007). The objective here is what students may do with the information, they get from the pages, they have to be responsible about their postings, so teachers may control them in order to achieve their goals.

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Teacher realizes that the risks of people using social media are real and not to be taken lightly, but there are also risk and danger offline, teachers instead of banning Social Networking Sites to keep students safe is to teach them how to prevent risks. "The interdependencies between risks and opportunities are partly due to youthful exploration and risk-taking practices — it being part of adolescence to push boundaries and seek out new, even transgressive opportunities". (Hope, 2007).

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">**Common teachers’ challenges using Social Networking Sites in teaching.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">One of the most common challenges teacher faces, when educational authorities have given their opinions and concerns about the appropriateness of teachers ‘friending’ students, including the potential risks facing both teachers and students of exposure to inappropriate conduct or content, consequently, educational authorities have banned teachers from using Social Networking Sites to contact students in order to avoid these kind of problems, therefore it makes teachers and students to miss the opportunity of using this tools for education. Some schools have tried to ban the access to internet instead of encourage students to take their own responsibility for their actions by using these kind of educational tools.

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">The need for computing in support of education continues to escalate in this digital age as world changes related to technologies used in the education process. Today education and schools have been appliying technology in their classrooms using the most modern equipment, but what happen when schools do not have the facilities or the range of connectivity is not enough? it is true that students have laptops, smart phones, ipads, and so on, but are they using these kind of equipment in an efficiently way? Are they using internet with real educational purposes?, something true is that it makes possible for students to use their time more efficiently, have the access to databases and information from the Internet, and work collaboratively with their peers. The implementation of the Web 2.0 is breaking with the traditional internet. But there is another common challenge that teacher faces, technology changes rapidly, We have been involved in the evolution of digital resources and still teachers challenged when it comes to successfully integrating technology in our everyday teaching.

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Teachers must not fight a losing battle, they should be moving with the students and the current digital edge, rather than moving against it. “Social networking and other forms of digital communication have radically transformed learning, giving students unprecedented access to a world of knowledge”. (Brydolf, C. 2007) For these reason teachers should focus on the advantages it brings to their students in classes. Postmodern times are characterized by ambiguity, change and diversity, today's world is in a era of constant and rapid transformation, where convention is rejected and innovation celebrated. The explosion of educational technologies is simply a refection of such changing times.

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Besides that, the use of social networking sites is growing, students and teachers have presented new legal, ethical and professional challenges for teachers and school administrators. Teachers may face the risk of censured speech, professional misconduct and posting inappropriate information including comments and pictures on these kind of websites. Teachers should teach students to be responsible about what they post in order to have control of their classes through social media.

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">**Benefits using Social Networking Sites in teaching.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Most of teachers using Social networking sites agree with the benefits which they bring to schools, teachers say that students who do not like to participate in class have been encouraged into the class activities through the use the sites. "Students who may be reluctant to speak up in class are participating in book discussion blogs and writing for real audiences. There are new Web tools emerging all the time that are enhancing learning."( Wenkart, R. 2007). Motivating students to participate in classes has been a big deal to teachers, and social networking sites give them the opportunity of make students active in their own learning. "Educators and advocates of new digital literacies are confident that social networking encourages the development transferable technical and social skills of value in formal and informal learning (Crook and Harrison, 2008)

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Students from today get bored by traditional pedagogy, they do not like to sit quietly while teacher stand s in front of them and give them class using only blackboard. It is urgent that schools start engaging students to capitalize enthusiasm for using digital tools in teaching. "An important question is, how many of these new ways will ever be integrated into instruction—or even understood—by educators?"(Wenkart, R. 2007) Students become unmotivated in learning English because they feel that they are doing has no real purposes, these kind of tools encourage students to use English for real reason and for real audience, social networking sites help teachers to bridge the gap between how we teach and how learners want to learn.

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Some teachers and educational researchers have given more attention to the educational advantages of Social Networking Sites use. “Social networks support self-governed, problem-based and collaborative learning processes”, (Dalsgaard, C. 2006) therefore students are responsible of their own learning. Another important benefit, using specially Social networking sites is that information has never been easier accessible than it is today. "The popularity of social networking among youth and teachers of the net generation is undeniable"(Schlager, 2009) so it makes social networking sites as one of the most popular educational tool from today. Teachers and students should take advantages from using social media, it makes easier and attractive their education.

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Self-directed learning is another benefit using social networking sites, students can direct their learning process by themselves, they work collaboratively with their partners and gather information to study an specific subject, they can find lots of pages, links etc, which engage them to participate in forums, debates and researches. "We live in an age of digital technology where information is available at any time. The rationale behind the use of social networks as a tool for professional learning includes the idea that the Internet is this generation's defining technology for literacy (Coiro & Dobler, 2007)

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">The point is about the use of Social Networking Sites as an educational tool which presents some of the practical difficulties in balancing the benefits and risks of Social Networking Sites. They allow students to have interactions outside of the traditional and social context of the school. "When it's used in a positive way, it can be an extraordinary tool." ( Brydolf, C. 2007). Coming form traditional classrooms settings, even teachers have difficulties absorbing active learning methodology, as future teachers, they need to break the passive mold and take ownership of their learning-teaching process in order to engage students to create an effective collaboration and interaction through web tools.

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Creating independent learners and independent users of the language while preparing them to use new technology and media in English are goals XX1 century teachers should have. Help students to develop new skills and sub-skills, to integrate these new skills in their lives.

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">1. Which are the most common risks and challenges teachers face by using social networking sites?

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">2. Do/why scholar authorities ban the use of social networking sites?

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">3. Do teachers us social networking sites with real teaching purposes?

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">4. How do teachers use social networking sites in their classes?

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">5. Do social networking sites promote collaborative work?

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">6. Are teachers prepared to face changes the technologies challenges?

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Note: The title page begins your thesis and should include a running head, the title of your paper, your name, institution, and date..

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;">**Abstract**

<span style="font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px;">Note: The abstract is on a separate page and is a 120-word summary of your thesis. That is, an abstract should include the problem, purpose, method, and findings of your research.

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;">**Title**

<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;">**Method (Approx. 500 words)**

<span style="font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px;">**Research Design**
<span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;">**Results and Discussion** <span style="font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px;">The results are the findings of your research. The discussion is your conclusion of your findings. Make sure you have a good mix between results and discussion – not too much of one while sacrificing the other. Provide visuals when doing so makes it easier to understand the data (e.g., graphs, tables, etc.). <span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;">**References** <span style="font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px;">Follow APA formatting when completing your references section. Alphabetize references according to author or title (when there is no author) and single space between the references themselves but double space between each reference. After the references section, provide an appendix for each item: questionnaire, survey, observation sheet, etc. In your text, say, //(See Appendix A)// - not in italics. <span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;">**Appendix A** <span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;">**Appendix B** <span style="display: block; font-family: times new roman,times,serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;">**Appendix C**