Re: [Phys-l] Social networking for educational use

[Mike Viotti <mike.viotti@gmail.com>]

I don't use social networking in my classroom at all, but I can say that
social networking sites are blocked in NYC schools, and I would imagine many
if not most school districts either do the same thing, or are on their way
toward doing so.  So, if you wanted to do anything involving Facebook, it
would have to be homework.

I am toying with the idea of students using twitter to summarize readings.
I was inspired by a public radio piece where I heard of someone tweeting
"book reports."  It's fun trying to summarize, say, 1984 in 140 characters;
you have to pick your words carefully.  For physics, it could be a good way
to get students to assemble information into a neat, complete package.

I've never seen any literature on this specific idea, but I've never even
attempted to look.

Mike

On Thu, Feb 10, 2011 at 1:42 PM, Cynthia Retotar <
cretotar@fc.summit.k12.nj.us> wrote:

>     I am currently in a masters program at the University of Virginia,
> studying for a MA in Physics education. As part of our assignment this week,
> we have been asked to evaluate the use of social media (such as Twitter and
> Facebook) for two purposes: 1)
> classroom use and 2) professional networking, resources and development.
>
>     I have accounts on both Facebook and Twitter.  I view these forms of
> communication as a fast way to broadcast information, which could be useful
> for classroom use.  I recently discovered that Twitter has a survey option
> that looks interesting. I’ve
> spoken to fellow Physics teachers who use Google forms to do surveys.
>
>     I’d love to hear from anyone out there that has been using Facebook,
> Twitter, Google forms or any other methods to teach in the classroom.  I am
> not leaning toward using Facebook or Twitter in my classroom at this
> time. My fear is that while the
> students are on either Facebook or Twitter for educational purposes, they
> will be distracted by the hundreds of posts from their friends that have
> nothing to do with my class.
>
>     Have any of you been using social networks for classroom use or
> networking with other teachers? What words of advice can you give someone
> who seems reluctant to use social networks?  Are there any unique uses that
> you have come up with? What
> positives and negatives have you experienced?
>
>     Thanks for any suggestions that you can make.
>
>
>
> Cindy Retotar
> Teacher of Physics
> Summit High School
> Summit, NJ
>
>
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