Different social networking platforms that can also be used in education

Nowadays, everybody is engulfed in social media – you, me, the young, the old.
One critical approach to render learning is to reach students where they are, which
includes locating social networking outlets that can be used in the classroom. While
social media inherently combines with subjects such as language arts and social
studies, tech-savvy teachers should realize that teamwork can function in any
classroom.

Here are 10 social net working sites that can be used in education :

1. Twiducate
Defined as a “walled garden,” this platform is advertised as a protected place for
teachers and students to collaborate. It is simple to use and helps teachers to build an
online class environment using a class code rather than an email address. It also
provides teachers full power over who enters and what is written. It’s also absolutely
secure.
2. TweenTribune
TweenTribune brings students up to date with social affairs, such as the
Easthampton teen whose tongue froze to a metal pole and New Jersey Governor Chris
Christie’s plan to lengthen the school day and the school year. It brings students into the
habit of reading the news and helps them to focus on the activities of the day.
Unfortunately, it contains ads (but which website doesn’t?). It just covers the good news
of the day– just don’t come expecting the latest on the Syrian crisis.
3. 30hands Learning Network
The 30hands Learning Community is an outstanding cloud-based solution for
educators who want to communicate with others, track/manage students, plan activities,
and more. It is one of the best social networking sites for students.
4. Brainly
 It is a cool social network where students can ask questions and other students
from all around the world can address them.

5. ClassHook
A perfect resource for finding instructional videos/clips that can be “skipped” to
avoid objectionable material.
6. Classloom
It is a friendly social network that helps students and educators to connect and
access resources on every mobile device. Classloom is a top-performing and one of the
best social networking sites for students.
7. Blackboard
It is the world’s pioneer in course management applications. The choice to use
Blackboard is normally taken at the district level, while individual schools can do so on
occasion. Blackboard is an extremely strong, safe, one of the best social networking
sites for students, and an all-encompassing forum. Many younger teachers would be
comfortable with it as a product of their teacher preparation programs. The
disadvantage is the expense. This is a really pricey network, but you get what you pay
for. However, it would miss any versatility for the most technologically savvy teachers.
8. EDU2.0
This is about instructors who wish to incorporate course management
programmes such as Blackboard without incurring extra costs. Edu2.0 begins by
including a free trial of all of its premium services. After the trial period expires, certain
functions are disabled, however, you can continue to use the standard platform for free.
These features would be sufficient for the normal consumer, but might not be sufficient
for “control users.” Edu2.0 is cloud-based which would not necessitate a large
expenditure in computing space.
9. Wikispaces Classroom
Wikispaces Classroom demonstrates that collaboration is second nature to Wiki
participants. Wiki Classrooms are private media networks that provide news feeds and
networking resources. It’s secure when you pick who gets invited — teachers, parents,
and administrators. Within the web, you can delegate, work on, discuss, and evaluate
projects. It is also capable of handling multimedia. The best thing is that Wikispaces
Classroom is completely online.
10. Edmodo
It is one of the best social networking sites for students. Here’s just another
fantastic free classroom management device. It has news feeds, evaluation software,
networking functions, and protection features.

Give the advantages and disadvantages of social networking sites

List of the Pros of Social Networking

1. Social networking gives you a chance to connect with people around the world.
One of the most obvious advantages of using social networking is the opportunity these
websites provide you to reach people from anywhere in the world. As long as there is a
connection to the Internet and a profile created, you can become “friends” or a “follower”
of someone and check-in with them at any point in time.

2. This technology gives us access to easy, instant communication tools.

Social networking gives us the chance to stay connected with one another wherever we
happen to go. You don’t need to have access to a landline to call someone with this
technology today. Sending a letter through the traditional mail seems like an eternity.
Forget about answering machines or voicemail – just leave a comment on someone’s
page and they’ll get a notification about it immediately.When we stay connected to
social networking, then all we need to do is pick up our smartphone, boot up the
computer, or open the laptop to start communicating with someone. You can even use
an app that connects to your profile to take advantage of these benefits no matter where
you are in the world.

3. Information happens in real-time blocks on social networks.

Before the Internet came around, we all had to wait for the daily newspaper or the news
broadcasts on television to know what was going on in the world that day. Even when
cable news came around to give us 24/7 access to stories, we had to sit, watch, and
wait for the stories we wanted to see.

4. Social networking creates brand exposure for businesses.

Any type of professional organization can use their social networking presence to
connect with their current and future customers. Most platforms allow businesses to sell
their products, either directly on the social media site or through a link to the company’s
sales page. This process makes it easier to expand the reach of a company through the
use of these one-to-one connections that are possible.

5. Being on a social network is a lot of fun.

The average person in the United States spends between 35 to 45 minutes every day
on their favorite social networks. Some might call this behavior an addiction, but it
wouldn’t be that way if people weren’t having fun checking in with others or staying up-
to-date on the latest news and information. Humans are naturally social creatures, so it
feels satisfying to have likes, hearts, or comments left on a posit. You can create
friendly conversations in the comfort of home while seeing what everyone is doing
without needing to ask them.

6. Social networks are a useful law enforcement tool.

73% of law enforcement officials in the United States say that they believe social
networking sites help them to solve crimes with more speed. 85% of the police
departments in the U.S. use social media to investigate local offenses. It is a tool that
helps officers track down and arrest those who brag about their crimes online. This
advantage has led to numerous prosecutions, including hate crimes, and identified
multiple people in videos where inappropriate actions occur so that the proper charges
can be brought against them.

7. This tool can help students perform better at school.

About 3 out of every 5 students say that they use social media to discuss educational
topics if they have access to the Internet. Half of students say that they talk about their
school assignments with their friends thanks to the tools offered by these platforms.
George Middle School, which is located in Portland, OR, introduce social networking
programs to engage their students and found a 50% increase in grades. There were
also declines of chronic absences and an increase in the voluntary extra-credit.

8. Social networking helps people who are shy or socially isolated to connect
with others.
About 1 in 4 teens say that their experiences on social media have helped them to feel
less shy when interacting with others in real life. Almost 30% of the young people in that
group say that these encounters help them to feel more outgoing, while 1 in 5 say that
their confidence got a boost.

9. The elderly can feel more connected to society because of social media.
The Pew Research Center conducted a study in 2015 to see how senior citizens felt
about the use of social media. For those in the 65 and older age demographic, which is
one of the fastest growing groups on social networks, they felt happier because of the
online contacts that were available to them because of this technology. They could talk
to their family, see pictures and video of their grandchildren, or access the bulletin from
their church.

List of the Cons of Social Networking

1. Social networking exposes us to a lot of information.
When social networks first started, the platforms became a place of meaningful
connection. You would share videos, photographs, and letters with the essential people
in your life. Now that there are millions (and sometimes billions) of people on a platform,
there can be a lot of white noise that drowns out these conversations. Between the
political arguments, posted selfies, shared links, and brand videos that enter the
average news feed every day, it becomes pretty overwhelming to have all of this
information at a glance.

2. There are privacy issues to consider with social networks.

Because there is so much data sharing happening with the modern social network, the
amount of privacy that we have for the average person is shrinking a little bit every day.
The user agreements that you agree to follow when signing up for this service might
even create a license which allows the platform to use your content without attribution –
including your pictures.

3. Cyberbullying and peer pressure are significant issues.

If you struggle to fit in with your group of peers, then you might feel some pressure to
behave or communicate in specific ways to feel accepted. This disadvantage tends to
impact teens and young adults the most, but it can also influence anyone. It is not
unusual for the negative behaviors to be worse online than at school or work because
bullies feel like they can be anonymous when sitting behind a screen or using a
smartphone.

4. Some people substitute online interactions for their offline relationships.

Our constant connections with one another create a change in how we approach our
relationships. You can pull up the social profile of a friend with a simple tap or click.
Then you can message that person, leave a comment, or like one of their posts. We
often substitute these actions for the face-to-face conversations we used to have, which
reduces the number of social skills that we can use outside of the digital realm. Because
of this disadvantage, some critics of social networking would say that our activities
promote anti-social behavior more than it encourages new connections.

5. Social networking can become a severe distraction for some people.

When someone becomes distracted by the information available through social media, it
can take them up to 25 minutes to become focused on their original task. Do you check
your phone when you wake up in the morning? How often do you scroll through
Facebook or Instagram? The time spent on these platforms, along with the time it takes
to recover from the distraction, can cost you up to 70 hours of productive time per
month.

6. It can disrupt your sleep cycle.

When you expose your brain to electronics, then it can change the emphasis of your
mind from wanting to go to sleep to staying engaged with social media. The blue light
spectrum from some devices can be stimulating as well, but the danger with this
disadvantage is that you’ll start to think more about what other people are doing or the
information on your profile instead of trying to get some rest.

7. Using social networking all of the time can lead to a sedentary lifestyle.
Because social networking typically happens on a mobile device or a computer, it can
promote the habit of sitting down in a single spot for too long during the day. Some
people check their feeds when they exercise, but it happens more often when there are
quiet moments that feel boring. If you’re using social media for 70 minutes every day in
a seated position, then this habit can start to create changes that lead you toward a
sedentary lifestyle.

8. Social networking can spread false or unreliable information quickly.

When traditional media reporters were polled about their use of social media, over 78%
of them said that they used their platforms to check for breaking news. The problem
with this habit is that there tends to be a lack of fact verification before the sharing
process happens. People tend to want news that conforms with their beliefs instead of
the data being a direct observation of current events.

9. Students who use social networking too often have lower grades.
About one-third of students say that they are on social media while studying or doing
their homework in ways that are not educationally productive. This activity reduces the
quality of their work, which often leads to lower grades. Non-users of social networking
averaged a GPA of 3.82 in the United States, while those who continued to use
Facebook and similar sites had an average GPA of 3.06.

10. Social media creates more time wasting opportunities throughout the day.
Internet users between the ages of 16-64 said that they spend about 1.7 hours every
day on their various social media sites. That accounts for about 30% of the total amount
of time that they spend online each day. One-third of those who were surveyed said that
their networking activities were the biggest waste of time in their day, ranking it above
watching television, playing fantasy sports, and shopping.
 Valuing

Distance learning is a form of learning without a face to face contact with the
teacher and delivered via telecommunication. In the past, this involve the
correspondence course wherein the student corresponded with the teacher via mails.
This turned out to be beneficial since universities added students without having to
construct classroom while they enjoy being able to work anytime and anywhere at their
convenience. With the advent of newer technologies, distance learning is delivered via
computer-based media thus called online learning or e-learning. This made classroom
borderless and learning boundless. This way enhanced by the emergence of web 2.0
tools which made collaborative learning easier.

Learning nowadays is viewed differently. The present generation of learners has

access to information at their fingertips. The teacher is no longer seen as basically the
dispenser of knowledge but rather as one who expertly directs the learners to take their
own track in searching for answers to questions raised inside the classroom. Every
chance or corners becomes a learning space. With technology, students can possibly
continue to join class session even if they are not physically around. The library is not
only a physical structure where they can read published books but has also become
virtually.

Online distance learning is not a new concept. Some schools, higher education
institutions in the country, and education agencies such as the Southeast Asian Ministry
of Education Technology (SEAMEO-INNOTECH) provide this mode of learning. It
allows flexibility in learning to a certain extent.