Social networks are spaces on the
web where people can meet and share ideas, pictures and opinions. They are very
diverse and most platforms have a specific purpose: share pictures (instagram)
or to share short thoughts (twitter), just to name a few. Most people use them
for entertainment but due to their high reach more possibilities are opening every
day since it is a fact that young people get more
new information from the technology they use outside of school than they do
from their teacher in the classroom.
It is possible to use social
networks for business, maybe to promote a small personal company, to find a new
job or one of the latest: to teach! By using social Networks you can teach a
variety of things: how to cook, how to dress up with style, music, and of
course languages. Obviously our concern is the later. According to a research
conducted by the British Council in 2007 “The
Internet has affected the preferred learning styles of young people wanting to
learn English around the world.”
The final results
suggested that “if teachers are to remain relevant and
effective, then they need to use 'learning technologies' to help students reach
the world outside the classroom” this impose a new challenge for teachers in
those countries in which the use of technology is growing more and more. This does not mean that teachers have
to leave the classrooms or formal teaching environments but maybe to blend
their courses a little bit with online resources.
We can help
students to learn more effectively by working collaboratively. Teachers
might find they are more successful if they: organize group work in their
classes, make fun exercises to motivate students and finally teachers may take
on the role of 'facilitator' rather than the role of 'giver-of-knowledge'.
It is also important to take into
account another finding of the British council study that claims that “students
who felt they were getting enough opportunities in their lives to socialize
informally were also successful in their learning”. Combining both studying and
socializing helps them to be successful at both.
In order to incorporate this tools teachers
need to be aware their students’ knowledge about this technologies, their
available resources and of course their favorite ones. Teachers have to find
sites that students like, guide them though it appropriate use for learning purposes.
The BC study mentions the “five top social
networks for teachers and learners of English”:
4.
Second Life - an online world in which you
have a character that can walk around and meet people.
Reference:
Dalton, A. (2007). Teaching and
learning through social networks. Available at:
Finally, here
you can find a very interesting article. They give advice to teachers on how to
deal with some situations that may occur
when using Social networks with educational purposes,
There is also an article on the
online version of “The Guardian”. The author of this article states that: “We are late to the party. Children now default
to social media in nearly every aspect of their life. They use it to
communicate with their friends, play games and watch TV. Our failure to provide
language learning resources must partly be due to teachers and parents who
either don't appreciate or don't understand the power of social media.”
http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2012/apr/10/language-teaching-social-media
