The main discourse surrounding the issue of social media use in k-12 schools seems to center around two trains of thought:
1. Keep it out
or
2. Open the doors to commercial social media services (Facebook, etc.)
However,
a third possibility exists – the “walled garden” approach. Educators
can teach students how to use social media within the confines of a safe
and monitored school-run system. Examples
of this include
Edmodo and
Edu2.0 (the system I am piloting with my 6th grade). The idea is
that kids should learn about how to be good online digital citizens, and
that schools don’t have to use commercial systems to accomplish this. I
was excited to read about The School at Columbia
University, and how
they created their own social networking “playground” for kids to experiment in, make mistakes, and learn about computer mediated communication.
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