Getting started with social networking at your school

SOCIAL NETWORKING 2011TWITTERWhat is Twitter?Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that allows you to get in touch withthe rest of the world by means of 140 word text messages.How can I start using Twitter?First, get a Twitter account. It is important that you make a brief description of yourself underyour profile, so those who see it can decide if they’d like to follow you or not. Do not giveprivate accounts.There is an Edutwitter community to find other teachers like you. Start following those whoseinterests are similar to yours.Start tweeting, for instance, a web you know, a resource you like, anything you find interestingand want to share. Use hashtags #. A hashtag is a tag that helps us find messages about thesame topic, e.g. #esl shows that the messages under that hashtag are about English as aSecond Language. So as to find messages about a specific topic you can use TwitterSearch orTwitterFall.How can I use Twitter with my students?First, let your students know that you are on Twitter, give them your url, eg.http://twitter.com/mjgsm, ask them to follow you. Then, why not creating a list with all yourstudents, or several lists, depending on the groups you are targeting? It’s easy, just go to yourprofile and click on Create a list: . Then,Mª Jesús García San Martín. February – March 2011 1

SOCIAL NETWORKING 2011decide if you want to make it public or not; if you make it private nobody will see it. Your listwill appear like that: . Let your students know thatthey have a list for them on Twitter, send them direct messages, include them in your list.Everything is ready for you to start communicating through Twitter, so let’s see some simpleideas:  Use twitter as a notice board, send news about your lessons, announce homework, projects, events, anything going on in class or at school.  Use it as a meeting point for first impressions about a book you’ve told your students to read.  Create a hashtag # with the name of an author and invite your students to tweet posts about his life for a certain period of time.  Create a hashtag # with the name of a vocabulary field and tell students to tweet as many words in English as they can related to that semantic area.  Make a paper with all the tweets; you can use http://paper.li/; e.g. http://paper.li/mjgsmUseful sites to read and get ideas:http://aulamagica.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/twitter-ideas-para-su-uso-en-educacion/http://internetaula.ning.com/group/twitterenelaulahttp://profedigital.cl/?p=209Mª Jesús García San Martín. February – March 2011 2

SOCIAL NETWORKING 2011FACEBOOKWhat is Facebook?Maybe the most famous social network in the world, Facebook is a place to stay in touch withyour friends, relatives, colleagues, and with your students, too. Surely they are bound to be onFacebook, so it might just as well become the ideal place for their learning.How can I start using Facebook?First register and create an account, for example for your school, for your class groups and soon, e.g. www.facebook.com/eoi.luarca. Then surf around so as to be familiar with the network.Do you know the difference between profile, group, page, account? Get in touch with otherpeople with the same interests as you, such as other teachers, other schools. Publish schoolevents, links, videos, photos, use Facebook as your school noticeboard, diary, etc.How can I use Facebook with my students?First, take into account the minimum age of students to be able to go on Facebook, they mustbe at least 13. Even though, we mustn’t forget that using social networks such as this one withstudents under age is our responsibility when done at school, since it is a channel whereprivate information is provided, so always use everything responsibly and tell your students todo so as well.If you decide to use Facebook with your students to tackle a specific task or project, the bestthing to do is create a group or several groups so as to be in control of the management and tobe able to restrict the number of members of the group. Just click on , fillin its details in the window that opens and click on Create:Mª Jesús García San Martín. February – March 2011 3

SOCIAL NETWORKING 2011When everything is ready you’ll see a final window similar to this:You’ll see your new group in your Facebook page , and you’ll be ableto edit or delete it whenever you like.Everything is ready for you to start working with Facebook in the classroom, so let’s see somesimple ideas:  Send homework  Answer doubts  Announce events, delays, absences  Start discussions  Etwinning projects  Sharing your favourite book, film, song and explain why it is your favourite  Uploads videos recorded by students  Uploads resources for their learning  Make study groups  Start workshops  Involve parentsMª Jesús García San Martín. February – March 2011 4

SOCIAL NETWORKING 2011Useful sites to read and get ideas:http://www.acurbelo.org/blogs/2007/11/18/facebook-y-sus-usos-en-la-educacin/http://es-la.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=148865081823611&id=111640415515869http://www.seguridad.unam.mx/noticias/?noti=4078http://unatizaytu.blogspot.com/2010/08/taller-de-redes-sociales.htmlPBWORKSWhat is Pbworks?Pbworks is a free online workspace, similar to a wiki, where you can have a collaborativeenvironment for you and other teachers, or for you, your students and other students.How can I start using Pbworks?First go to Using Pbworks in Education and sign up to the free basic plan. Once registered, justlog in:Mª Jesús García San Martín. February – March 2011 5

SOCIAL NETWORKING 2011Join a workspace or Create your new one. As an example you can have a look at thisworkspace; it is a workshop for language teachers to share resources, experiences and ideasabout the use of the internet for teaching foreign languages. Surf around and see how it isorganized: wiki, pages, files, and so on.How can I use Pbworks with my students?First think about the uses you can make out of your workspace, the goals you intend toachieve, its purpose, what you want to do with it.Mª Jesús García San Martín. February – March 2011 6

SOCIAL NETWORKING 2011Choose your security terms, if you’d like your workspace to be public or just available for thoseyou invite or approve.Mª Jesús García San Martín. February – March 2011 7

SOCIAL NETWORKING 2011You are ready to start managing your workspace:Invite members to your workspace, your students, for instance; let’s imagine you are going tocarry out an etwinning project with another school. First invite the other teachers to join,Mª Jesús García San Martín. February – March 2011 8

SOCIAL NETWORKING 2011agree on the topic of the project and the use you are going to make of your workspace, editpages, upload resources, together in a collaborative way, decide on the tasks for the students,on the frequency they must collaborate in the workspace, let them know, ask them to join andstart working on the project.Everything is ready for you to start working with Pbworks in the classroom, so let’s see somesimple ideas:  European projects: etwinning, Comenius, Grundtvig, etc.  Sharing resources  Starting a collaborative project with your students for a certain period of time, on different topics, such as a virtual guide around a city, a project on healthy eating, about an author, a book, a film, a review, and so on.Useful sites to read and get ideas:http://usermanual.pbworks.com/w/page/11632089/FrontPagehttp://pbworks.com/content/supportcenterOTHER OLINE RESOURCESDIIGODiigo is a social bookmarking online site for you to bookmark your favourite resources, create alibrary and share it with other teachers or students.Example: http://www.diigo.com/user/mjesusmSKYPE EDUCATIONSkype Education is a beta version of standard Skype to connect with other teachers, to talk toyour students, to share resources, etc.Mª Jesús García San Martín. February – March 2011 9

SOCIAL NETWORKING 2011INTERNET EN EL AULAInternet en el aula is a social network for teachers, to share resources, ideas, experiences. Itcontains several groups discussing about different subjects and how to integrate ICT in theclassroom. It’s been created by ITE and it offers different kinds of applications, blog,messaging, events, workshops and so on.Example: http://internetaula.ning.com/profile/MJesusGarciaSanMartinGOOGLE DOCSGoogle docs is the free space provided by Google to upload and share documents,spreadsheets, drawings, forms and so on.Mª Jesús García San Martín. February – March 2011 10

Getting started with social networking at your school

by M. Jesus Garcia

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