MANAGING ICT The social revolution
Adam Garry offers his advice on social media, online tools and
mobile resources in the classroom
comes to using technology. By integrating social media into their learning
environment, teachers are able to reach their students at a level that they understand and which draws in their interest. When earlier this year, researchers from the
M
University of Massachusetts asked a representative sample of Us schools whether they use some social media, 100 per cent said that they did, compared to four years ago, when only 61 per cent did so. It is clear that social media is increasingly a
medium through which teachers have the potential to reach the majority of students and in combination with an integrated learning platform, there are a range of tools which can support transformed systems for learning. there are social media sites to suit various types of
learning. for example, websites like Youtube allow teachers to upload supplementary material so students can learn in the comfort of their homes, whereas websites like Ning allow for private “conference-like” environments.
Youtube also allows students to find answers to
questions and help them solve problems. the best way of introducing yourself and your classroom to social media would be to first choose which social networking sites work best for you and then establish a “Personal Learning Network” (PLN). Most social networking sites differ in what they are
designed to achieve and it is important to choose one that will be best for different learning environments. so if social networking was a building, facebook would be a lobby to chat with your friends in, twitter would be a hallway where you quickly pass on messages, Ning would be a conference room for private discussion, Blogs would be lecture halls to talk at length about one subject, Wikipedia would be the library, and Youtube would be the media room. In addition to social media, there are plenty of other
online resources which can enhance classroom learning and make education more creative and effective. teachers have access to a range of useful things
to help with teaching such as websites which offer free printable resources (
www.sparklebox.co.uk), free video lectures (
http://freevideolectures.com), help with organising online searches (
www.sweetsearch.com), or that help with students producing information (
http://ed.voicethread.com/products/k12/educator/). Elsewhere, there is no doubt that the mobile phone
has had a profound influence on how people function in everyday life. the smartPhone has become more of a necessity rather than a luxury and a lot of mobile phone applications are being developed in order to help with various aspects of learning. A study last year by Project tomorrow, a charitable education group in the Us, found that 67 per cent
ost of today’s students own their own mobile phones and spend at least a portion of every day on social networking sites. they are increasingly outgrowing the former generation when it
of parents said that they would purchase a mobile device for their child to use for schoolwork if the school allowed it, and 61 per cent said they liked the idea of students using mobile devices to access online textbooks. Android is a user-friendly Linux-based operating
system for smartPhones and tablets with over 300,000 applications, many available for free. functions like tethering (or portable wi-fi) and video-calling are possible, as well as access to social networking sites on the go. With the ability to have 24/7 access to internet applications, students can expand their learning environment to wherever they are. this idea of a socially mobile learning environment
has already been put into practice and has proved to be a success. the Hall County public school district in Georgia, UsA, contains 33 K-12 schools and has been aiming to create an exciting new learning platform. they created HALLConnect, an online learning
platform that allows students and teachers to work collaboratively. Course content is indexed by both state requirement and learning style, so individual students can interact with educational materials in ways that are most engaging and effective for them. Even universities have embraced the coming of
new social media and have integrated it into various different aspects of university life by using social networking sites like facebook. Many already have departmental pages, information pages for prospective students, offer virtual tours of their campus, and Alumni groups. the University of stanford’s album, Summertime at
the Farm: A Walking Tour, is just one of many you will find on its page that show off the picturesque 8,180-acre campus. the humble beginnings of social media have given
way to a new way of living. the classroom can be extended to anywhere with an internet connection and because of mobile resources, a student can have access to the classroom using online tools wherever they are and whenever they want.
SecEd • Adam Garry is the global education manager for Dell. Introducing the Lightspeed Suite
The all in one e-safety solution
The Lightspeed Suite
The ten components of the Lightspeed Suite are designed to enhance your school’s internet learning experience. Protecting students from inappropriate content is at its heart so with the Lightspeed Suite you can safely unlock the power of the internet for education. Choose an all-in-one solution or mix and match to get just what you need.
• Web Filter • Mobile Filter • My Big Campus
• Educational Resource Library
• Campus Mail • Email Archiving • Spam Filter • Antivirus • Power Management
• Advanced Web Traffi c Reporting
Sign up for a personalised demonstration:
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Visit us at BETT
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All 10 components in just one box
That’s the promise of the Lightspeed Suite. All ten components can now be accessed through just the one small box and all from just the one supplier. Your school can have web fi ltering to block innappropriate content, an internal protected social network, access to a huge educational resource library plus another seven performance enhancing components just by installing the one box on your network. Your IT department will thank you as well. You don’t need to stitch together different components from different suppliers as they are all built in to the one appliance. Complete protection for your students and a safe learning environment. Don’t block learning, unblock the power of the internet for education.
The Lightspeed Rocket appliance
SecEd • January 12 2012
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