I think, at least for my first blog, it is important to discuss the reason why I am starting to blog in the first place. I have recently read an article not only on the merits of social networking in the classroom, but for it being the future of electronic learning for our students. Most of the learning our students take part in on the day to day are in more informal settings with only about a fifth of learning taking place in the classroom. Maybe this is one of the reasons the “dreaded” idea of homework was created and is still a large part of what teachers are trying to teach their students. So, if most of students’ learning takes place informally, there has to be more effective ways to harness these generally informal learning opportunities to create useful, informal educational possibilities. After discussing these issues with my peers (a small group of Social Studies Education graduate students), we came to the conclusion that as long as a web-based platform could be limited entirely to being an informal educational tool, on that could be easily accessible whenever, wherever, educational social networking could greatly supplement practices in the classroom and allow for more constantly occurring collaboration not only between students, but between students and their teacher(s). Expanding the relationships and education from the classroom to social networking platforms can not only allow limitless, constructive correspondence, but can help students realize that their education is always in mind and is important to those that educate them, as well as having their personal interests accounted for.
Intrigue Me 