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Social Tagging in the Classroom
Websites such as Twitter, delicious, and wordle have made social tagging easy and accessible to the public. While these sites can be of great benefit in the professional and private world, what is their place in the classroom? Do they have one at all? Sites such as YouthTwitter offer social tagging, but with limits - are limits necessary when using social tagging, or even the internet in general, in the classroom? Are we protecting our students too much?
I'm not yet sure what purpose such sites can have in the classroom, but I think I'll be able to find that out when I apply such sites to my own classroom. Sometimes I feel as though we are protecting our students too much, but at the same time, without certain filters on our schools computers, I'm pretty sure schools can lose funding if they don't apply them.
ReplyDeleteThe sites certainly have purpose in the classroom. As long as the objectives as to what the students will learn are clear.
ReplyDeleteAs far as limits, I think there has to be limits in the classroom. Students work well with limits, at least that is what I have experienced. Students will test every limit they are given if they want to anyway. If a student gets frustrated by not having access to a particular website, then that could be looked at on a case by case basis. There is also the added fear of limits for security because of students wondering onto websites that are not age appropriate.
This question has come up a few times, and I firmly believe that you must teach your students how to maturely handle situations that they may face on the internet. I don't think we should eliminate social tagging from our classroom out of fear of what our students may come across.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that we would be protecting students to much. There is a lot of content that is on the net that they need to be protected from. Limits are good, and it may help educators if these sites had customizable security tools.
ReplyDeleteI really think it depends on the age of the students and how we, as teachers, are using social tagging in the lesson plan. Limits are good, like Chris said!
ReplyDeleteI think that there is a place for social tagging in the classroom.If not for anything, but helping students who have trouble with the computer, going right to the tag to find what they need. Or another students sharing what they have found. There is definately a place for them in the classroom. I think we will find later that they are helpful.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, I think that the limits generally placed on public computers in most schools and libraries are extremely restrictive. Not only do they limit content that is relevant and valuable, but they exert an almost punitive control on social networking. I'm hoping to see a change in attitude as we realize that this generation has developed a certain capacity for self monitoring.
ReplyDelete