Using Technology in the
Elementary Classroom K I D S A FE SO C I A L NE T WORKING
Go ahead. Ask your students how many of them use Facebook. And get ready for a surprising amount of hands to be instantly raised. Kids are hanging out there before and after school, so why not apply their ‘expertise’ to a more educational use. Of course, your school filter will have a lot to say about that, but
ClassTools.net has a wonderful work-around in the free template Fakebook at
www.classtools.net/fb/home/page.
Fakebook allows students to create an imaginary Facebook-like profile and wall for historical figures, authors, story characters, animals, etc. Since Fakebook is essentially a timeline of events, students could also use Fakebook to map out the storyline of a book or the sequence of events in history (for example, the Lewis and Clark expedition) or “A Day in the Life of Our Class” listing out what happens in one day in your classroom.
Fakebook also has a suggested generic grading checklist (click the Markscheme link). Download and adapt to your own page requirements.
THINGS I LIKE ABOUT FAKEBOOK: 1. No registration or email needed. At the end of the 1st
session, hit
Save and you’ll be prompted to enter a password of your choice. Use your password at your next session to open your page and continue editing. See #2 Yucky below. 2. You decide what goes into the Profile, which makes it convenient for more difficult Fakebook characters (e.g. a magnet). You may want to have a listing of possible profile topics for students to choose from.
3. No Flash is used in the making of a Fakebook page, so this site plays well on an iPad.
4. Fakebook will give you the embed code for your page, or you can print it, or you can download. YUCKY STUFF:
1. Ads on the page. Even though they are for educational products (mostly for teachers), they still ‘get in the way’ and can be easily clicked on. Have to spend money to join Classtools Premium to remove ads.
It’s simple to use. Start a profile by typing in the name of the person at the top of the page. Fakebook will automatically pull in an image from the web. If you don’t like that image, students can upload a different one. Add friends (again, instant pictures), create Profile info such as birth date, death date, job, relationship status, interests, etc. and then work on posts and comments to tell more about the person. Lots of higher-ordered thinking and creativity with the added benefit of looking at a variety of perspectives by ‘friends’ with their likes and dislikes. Students will have to set up posts in chronological order with older posts at the bottom. In the wrong place? Click and drag to perfect the ‘timeline’ effect. So easy to use!
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2. Returning to your saved page isn’t intuitive. When you save, you need to record not only the password you chose, but also the URL of your page. When you return to your page, click Edit Profile and enter your password. If you don’t save the URL, you’ll have to search for your page from LOTS of pages with the same character! Time saver tip: Set up a template document with all the info that will be needed to create a Fakebook page. Once students have researched, collected, written, revised, and edited all their info you can then let them loose on the Fakebook web page.
Marilyn Western is the 2008 MACUL Teacher of the Year, a former member of the MACUL Board of Directors, a Discovery Educator Network (DEN) scholar, and a Mt. Pleasant Public Schools 5th/6th grade computer lab teacher. Outside of the classroom, she has worked as the 1998-99 MDE Technology Using Educator on Loan, a MI Champions course designer and instructor, a technology trainer for Clare Gladwin RESD, Gratiot Isabella RESD and Bay Arenac ISD, a national presenter for the Bureau of Education & Research, and a district Tech Guru. She can be reached via mwestern@
edzone.net.
Winter 2013 | MACULJOURNAL
By Marilyn Western
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