Thing #18

MySpace link.

It important that we as educators know how social networking works, our students are in love with it! I chose MySpace because that is what my daughter uses and she said that this way we could talk back and forth. I asked her what is wrong with the phone, her response was, "MySpace is for when you don't really want to talk to someone" ??? OK so what part of that did I not get...it is totally mind boggling that so many people have these pages and have spent countless hours designing and downloading the little bells and whistles. I can see how this could get out of hand and some teens as well as adults would not use it in the way in which it was intended. I see that we as educators need to meet our student's somewhere here in the middle. We need to see the value and the benefits of MySpace and/or Facebook and become creative in its classroom use. Student's already are on their pages any and every chance they can get so why not utilize it in an appropriate way. There are many widgets and tools that could be included to make it work for the classroom. Can you imagine the look on your student's faces when you tell them, "OK, today we are using our mobile lab cart and the computers, log on to your MySpace or Facebook account and go to the blogging area. WOW it could happen :)