technology, facebook for educators

8/12/2019 Technology, Facebook for Educators

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Facebook for Educators

During the last twenty years education approaches have changed trough time.

Nevertheless, it seems that teachers do not change or improve as the situation

requires; education has evolved and nowadays is pretty difficult to teach students

and is even more difficult to gather their attention. Being a successful educator

implies to use all necessary tools related with education process and others that

can be helpful.

Social Networking, has arisen in the

last five in an extremely incredible

speed; Facebook is the most

common one, it seems foolish but

facebook can be a helpful media in

order to teach a particular topic and at the same time focus the students attention

in something they already like and are willing to do it; old-fashioned teaching

approaches are based on the idea of prohibiting students use devices inside the

classroom during classes because this technologic stuffs decrease learning.

Furthermore for some educators social networks like facebook are just for social

protocols and no way are useful for the teaching-learning process.

This analysis focuses on the use of Facebook as a technologic tool for teaching

learners. The proliferation of digital, social and mobile technologies has created a

culture in which youth participate more in creating and sharing content, profoundly

changing the way students communicate, interact, and learn. In many cases

students spend as much (or more) time online in an informal learning environment-

-interacting with peers and receiving feedback--than they do with their teachers in

the traditional classroom. There are seven ways in which teachers can use

facebook in order to develop a class.

1. Help Develop and Follow Your Schools Policy about

Facebook

Facebook already has many policies, rules, and restrictions for its users no matter

they are adults or minors, these policies are useful and prevent facebookers to be

victims of cyber bulling, and sexual harassment. Also policies increase privacy, and

allow keeping in touch with friends, family, and a lot people you have something or

a lot in common.


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Schools policy is not different to

Facebooks policy; the first step should be

decide whether or not social network can

be helpful and accurate for the institution;

then teachers should see if the education

goals can be easily achieved by using

facebook not vice versa; and finally set a current policy, that means to be aware of

all the apps, games and gadgets and its constant updating, a policy set in one

specific year could not be effective for the next one. An adequate school policy

must involve the whole school or at least the people who is able to use this social

network, because instead of using it as a recreation web now can be used as a tool

for enhance and improve all the knowledge and information taught in the

classroom.

2. Encourage Students to Follow Facebooks

Guidelines

In addition to developing and following your schools policy on Facebook, its

important to encourage students to follow Facebooks guidelines. Learners and

teachers should be aware of all the policies and rules that can allow or restrict

users during their navigation in the network.

Facebook protects minors users, 13 is the minimal age to access the web.

Nevertheless there are some kids who lie in order to become facebookers sooner.

For that reason is important that teachers let their students know about the correct

use of these social networks for education

purposes. Besides teachers must encourage

students to use all the Facebooks tools in order

to report abuse or bad behavior of others users.

On the other hand students have to be aware of

their own behavior avoiding bullying other people

and what kind of privileges they have and whatrestriction they must respect. In short when it

comes about education process some

commitments ought to be set and follow for both

parts educators and learners, and at the same time the policies of the social

network too.


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3. Stay Up to Date with Safety and Privacy Settings

on Facebook

Facebook has some privacy settings which are very helpful and necessary in order

to use those as part of the teaching process; a priority for Facebook is givingeveryone control over their privacy. This helps create an online environment where

teachers, parents, and students can connect and share safely. Unfortunately if

users do not use them it is not possible to be safe in a world were sexual predators

take advantages of neglectful kids; these settings differ according age, minors are

surely more restricted than adults and the pages they can access through

facebook are limited. Some features that can enhance your privacy on Facebook

are:

Connecting on Facebook: which shows the wayhow people can access

and look at your stuffs in your profile. Sharing on Facebook: which shows you the possibilities of how you can

display your messages, thoughts, pictures,

and so on. These go from the most private

to the most public one.

Apps and Websites: these are all the

games, pages, forums, links in which you

can access via Facebook.

Block List: this allows you to block other

people and restrict them to find out your

information.

With all of this is much easier to get students using in the right way social

networking for learning. It is work of the educator make a great effort in letting

know students that if they are committed to do it is going to be under these safety

and privacy settings, otherwise is not possible.

4. Promote Good Citizenship in the Digital World

Educators are role models and students from little kids to teenagers learn some

behavioral aspect from their teachers too. It is important that students behave

themselves even though they are in the online world; the E-community also have

rules that resemble for those ones in the real world.


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Teachers should encourage well behavior and students should know that

educators expect this well behavior too. There are many ways to define digital

citizenship, but we feel that it comes down to three main components:

Conducting yourself in a civil manner in the

online world just like you would be

expected to behave in offline world.

Universal rules of social conduct apply in

both environments.

Behaving responsibly and compassionately

with your online actions. And anonymity is not excuse to behave in an

improper manner. People would be easily offended by your comments and

you could be marked as a stalker and bully.

Watching out for each other in your online community much like you would

in your real world neighborhood. By doing so, you are promoting a healthy

and safe online community. Do not keep in silence if you see an improper

act.

Facebook already allow users to denounce bad behavior, teachers should enhance

this too; one thing that affects education and school environment is Cyber Bullying

which is more easier to do and travel faster than normal bullying, because can be

done via texts, e-mail, and social networking. Unfortunately people who suffer from

cyber bullying often do not report those abuses. The problem has become somebig and spread so fast that some institutions ask web users for support in order to

avoid this problem; Cartoon Network encourage kids, teens and adults to fight

against bullying in www.bastadebullying.com with a great acceptance among

children.

Educators and parents can make clear to students that what they post online is

traceable; it is not as anonymous as they might think. In the event that legal action

is taken, online services and Internet Service Providers can be required to provide

identity information to the proper authorities. In short responsible behavior is
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required in order to navigate in the internet. Digital citizenship implies to take care

and look after everyone and protect the welfare of our students when emotional or

physical harm is being inflicted.

5. Use Pages and Groups Features to Communicatewith Students

in the educational environment between teachers and students always have been

a proper way to establish relationship; as tutors,

teachers demand respect from students and give the

same in return. Using Facebook this does not have to

change at all. There are some ways to communicate

with students that are professional and appropriate.

For people new to Facebook, it may seem a little

confusing. Here we want to make it easier to

understand. Youll get more clarity if you understand

these four Facebook features:

Home:This has your own News Feed, which includes updates from friends.

You are able to comment and see what is going on with everything on the

social network. Furthermore displays all the possible web links that could be

interesting for the facebook user, such as Barcelona FC, Discovery

Network, and Naruto Shippunden and so on.

Profile:This shows a persons photo, interests and other info about them. It

is unique and displays a lot of information of the user, also their preferences

such as music, movies, sports, and relationships. As teachers we should be

aware that our privacy settings must be high and have an appropriate profile

picture.

Groups: This is a good tool for projects. Groups can be closed, open or

private. In this features teachers should get focused because in that way

they are able to keep in touch with large groups of students at the same

time.

Pages: Pages are a public space for businesses and celebrities, amongother things. You are able to choose the pages you can receive information

about.

Communication between students and teachers is mostly formal; in facebook it

should seem inappropriate for an educator have his/her students as a friend on

Facebook. For that reason educators can create groups on facebook as a manner


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to keep track of their students without friend them; display materials, set

homeworks, and information, clear doubts about a topic discussed in class, and

many other uses, are the benefits of this groups; the advantage of this groups is

their privacy because their members share only among classmates.

It is sure that teaches also can create pages that have the same features of privategroups but are public, it means parents are able to see what kind of information

and stuffs their kids are seeing and downloading. In this way the relation between

tutor and learners remains the same, but they are using Facebook as an improver

of the education process. Both, groups and pages are good choices to start a

forum in which students can be part of their own learning.

6. Embrace the Digital, Social, Mobile and Always-

On Learning Styles of 21st Century Students

It seems strange but in order to use the

advantages that offer Social Networking, teachers

should promote among their students the use of

social media such as facebook; there is no doubt

that most part of teens and adults use their

cellphones to be connected.

The term Always on, should be part of the

course goals when it comes to the incorporationof technology into the learning process; understanding and incorporating these

digital learning opportunities into teachers coursework will increase student

motivation and enhance learning. These are some features that make Digital

Learning an effective tool for an academic course.

Interactive:Students who create their own content and interact via social

media can express their identity and creativity; then share it with others, in

that they enhance the use of digital tools.

Student-Centered: Shifts the learning responsibility to the student,

requiring students to take a more active role in their own learning process,teachers on the other hand end up being just facilitators and helpers when

the situation requires.

Authentic: The use of social media and technology should be tied to a

specific learning goal or activity; students should be able to feel interested in

the use of a social network for study out of school time.


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Collaborative: Learning is a social activity, and many students learn best

through working with a group of peers. This collaboration and peer feedback

can take place in either a virtual or in-person environment. Students are

able to compare their thoughts and doubts about topics, assignment, and

classes.

On-Demand: Course content should be made available on-demand so

the learner can view course materials

when, where, and how they want to

view the content, whether on a desktop

computer, mobile phone or other

handheld device. There are many ways

to keep in touch, so there is no excuse

for teachers avoid using these social

media tools.

Mobiles are for sure the most common and practice device people use to be

connected to the web; facebook have platforms and apps in order to allow

smartphones access to the social network, let the users to do all the functions and

setting they would do using a computer.

7. Use Facebook as a Professional Development

Resource

Being a teacher is not an easy job; educators have to learn new and more effective

ways to teach contents that twenty years ago were taught in a specific manner.

Nevertheless, with the use of technology teachers can find out awesome ways to

teach, facebook can be used as resource in the learning environment.

Educators face the same problems in every part

of the world; ten years ago there were books or

articles in newspaper or magazines where a

teacher can read other teachers experiences

about issues in the classroom, school, oreducative environment. Nowadays using social

networking educators can share their

experiences, thoughts, and skills in order to teach

a particular group of students, and for solving

problems related with education. There already

exist pages with that purpose of sharing knowledge among educators and people


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who deal with education problems like psychologist and so on. Nevertheless if

educators want they can create their own group or page using facebook in order to

share with the teachers they want like the same school, city, country or continent.

Remember that education approaches can vary according cultures so an approach

used in Japan could not be so effective in Bolivia.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that technology is spreading pretty fast in the world; new devices

allow people to connect to the web, and for that reason they should take advantage

of that. instead of seeing Facebook and social media as a distracter that steals

students attention, educators should notice the potentialthese social webs have in

the education process.

Applying the rules, being aware of Facebook policies, and using privacy settings,

are very important. Then make students compromise with the purpose of using

Facebook as an extension of the learning process; if both teachers and learners

can enhance the education process and the exchange of information and most

important take advantage of the students love for social media such as Facebook.

technology, facebook for educators

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