The document discusses social networking in education based on several surveys from 2007. It found that while 52% of school districts prohibited social networking sites, 60% of students used these sites to discuss education topics and over 50% discussed schoolwork. The document also discusses how social networks could be used to increase collaboration, creativity, and connect students with experts if used for their publishing capabilities. However, it notes that No Child Left Behind's focus on quantitative test scores presents a challenge to expanding social network use in schools.

1. *
Miss Wipapan Ratchapanya
54120803102
TESOL 5

2. *
In July 2007, the National School Board
Association published results of three surveys
regarding social networking, which included 9-
to 17-year-olds, parents, and school district
leaders in charge of Internet policy. While it
came as no surprise that 52 percent of all
districts interviewed prohibited any use of
social networking sites in school, an interesting
result with implications for schools was that
"almost 60 percent of students who use social
networking talk about education topics online
and, surprisingly, more than 50 percent talk
specifically about schoolwork"

3. *
Interest in social networking in education is global, as
evidenced by the wiki Social Networks in
Education, which contains a "must-see" extensive list of
social networks used in a variety of educational
environments or for educational purposes. While open-
access sites like Flickr, MySpace, YouTube,and
Facebook might easily come to mind and contain
relevant curricular content or groups with dedicated
purpose (e.g. YouTube's education channel or Flickr's
Visual Story Telling), schools often ban their use. They
might be considered just too global and too scary.

4. *
If we want social networking to make a
difference in instruction and learning, the
medium should also be used for its
publishing and production aspects, reaching
higher levels of collaboration and
creativity, and for enabling learners to
network with experts and peers in a manner
where their work gains legitimacy within the
larger community of experts in various
fields. It also makes learning more
interesting.

5. *
Even with evidence of safe social networking
possibilities to help students acquire skills needed for
the 21st century and to meet standards within
curriculum frameworks of major national education
organizations, there remains one challenge to an
expanded use of social networks in schools.
Namely, this is the current NCLB accountability
system with its singular quantitative measure of
achievement based on test scores.