Using+SNT's+in+English

=Using Social Networking Tools in Secondary Education=

According to the Western Australian Department of Education, blogs //“provide a communication space that teachers can utilise with students whenever there is a curriculum need to develop writing, share ideas and reflect on work being undertaken in the classroom. From an education perspective the availability and ease of use of blogging software makes creating blogs a viable classroom activity and a means for teachers to communicate with other teachers.”// ([|here])

An article in the Brisbane Times circulated in other Australian newspapers analysed the pros and cons of using social networking in education, pointing out that while technology may be engaging and relative to children of a ‘Digital Age’, there are privacy issues that arise within these sites, escalating when it comes to inappropriate personal contact between teachers and their students//.// //T// //The reason why bans are so widespread is that the debate about social networking and education tends to focus on incidents of misuse: teachers caught venting about students on private blogs or Facebook pages, students organising a Facebook hate page directed at their teacher or when inappropriate contact, or comments, pass between a teacher and student. These are serious incidents that require careful management.// The rest of the article can be found [|here]

A secondary English teacher Neil Whitfield has set up a Wordpress webpage for his HSC ‘ESL and more’ teaching area of study and modules to link his students to the prescribed text and other resources, acting as an ‘enabler’ to this information, rather than just spoon-feeding it to his students. His Wordpress HSC English blog can be found [|here], an excellent example of a digital English classroom. Blogs are not the only way of doing this (as English is a subject spanning different creative media). Some Social Networking tools and management programs that may be useful in a teacher’s arsenal include:

*Ning *Moodle *Blogger *Wordpress *FictionPress (to allow students to upload their own creative writing and link it to the class blog) *YouTube media type="youtube" key="4P785j15Tzk" height="390" width="480"

These [|blog]s enable teachers to reflect, discuss, and explore possibilities for the use of ICT in education. Social Networking Tools allow students to explore information on their own whim, be free from the sometimes-oppressive nature of peer pressure, and use different media previously unused to engage to aural and visual learners.