C4T #2

I was assigned to Stven Anderson.  His blog can be found at http://web20classroom.blogspot.com/.  I found his opinion on matters very interesting.  His first post that I read was about the revolt in Egypt and how it applies to the classroom.  He said that we should be using social media in the classroom in an effective way and creating a revolution in Education in the same way that we saw done in Egypt. (I would like to clarify here that he is not suggesting a violent revolution but a change in the way we use social media.)  I hqave mixed feelings about social networks in the classroom.  I do agree with Mr. Anderson that there are many very effective ways to use social media.  I am however also aware of students and their use of social media.  They do not use it to just make connections or to learn, they use it to gossip and find out what is going on over the weekend.  This leads me to the second post of Mr. Anderson's that I read and posted to.  This second post was about the way people are now using social networks as a veil of annonymity.  People say things on the internet they would never even think of saying outloud to someone.  This is one of the negatives of social media.  One of my favorite parts of this post was the rules a friend of his had prebiously posted and he copied here on his blog.  They were as follows:

What do we tell kids about comments on blogs, online articles, Facebook status updates?

1. PLAY NICELY.
2. If you disagree, you can do so without attacking another person’s character.
3. If you wouldn’t say it in person, don’t type it online.
4. Remember, there are human beings on the other end.
5. Remember, you are also a human being.
6. Rule #1 is really all you need.

I think that this is something all users of social media need to read and apply.  I know that in our own area of Mobile there have been some issues with students bringing weapons to school to settle fights started on Facebook.  Too many people are using these outlets in a negative way.  Overall I really agree with Mr. Anderson's posts and that social media, if used in the correct way, can be a tool but people must apply the rules!