Social Networks in the Educational Setting

This week we learned about many wonderful social networking sites and how they could be used in the classroom.  Many of our students are fluent in the latest social networking technology.  Could this same technology be used to reach the students?  The answer is Yes!  Twitter, and Diigo are being used by teachers to help students work collaboratively.  These same sites are also being used by teachers to network by share ideas and resources.  This leads to a great professional development opportunities.

Diigo is a social bookmarking site that allows the user to save material found on the internet in one place.  The user can add tags that help organize the material that has been saved or bookmarked.  However, that is not all that Diigo can do.  It allows the user to highlight selected material online and save these annotations.  Diigo also has a sticky note feature that allows the user to jot quick notes to accompany saved sources.  This comes in handy for those of us who find great resources and then go back later and not remember what was so special about the information.  Sounds a lot easier than hand written note cards!  Here is a great Diigo Introduction video.

Introduction

The Basics of Diigo

The videos also mention that there is an educators account that is free and allows teachers to create groups by adding their students.  Diigo is a great collaborative tool.  Interested in getting started with Diigo?

Another networking site that is beneficial to teachers is Twitter.  Many teachers are now utilizing Twitter for professional development.  Twitter is a fantastic way to keep up-to-date on the latest trends in education.  The exchange of ideas and resources benefits any who choose to mine its treasures.  Teachers can find educational chats and join them live.  Twitter is another way to keep students and parents informed about school.  They can easily be alerted through Twitter of new class blog postings.  Most students are familiar with the use of social networking and this provides a great way to reach students in an engaging way.

It is easy and free to join Twitter and start tweeting just click here!

Here is a great tutorial video on using Twitter.

How can educators use Twitter?  Watch this!

Here are some more great links to additional resources for making the most of Twitter.

Educational Chats

List of great people to follow

I hope I have provided a lot of great tools and resources for educators.  It really is easy to become a connected educator.  If I can, so can you!