Comments on: MySpace, Conversation, and Songs of the Heart http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2006/04/22/myspace-conversation-and-songs-of-the-heart/ Weblog of Wesley Fryer Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:55:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: How-To Primers http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2006/04/22/myspace-conversation-and-songs-of-the-heart/comment-page-1/#comment-1588 How-To Primers Mon, 24 Apr 2006 02:20:46 +0000 http://www.speedofcreativity.org/?p=949#comment-1588 <strong>Social Networking Sites and Education as Conversation</strong> Another very interesting post from the Wesley Fryer’s “Moving at the Speed of Creativity” blog: “MySpace, Conversation, and Songs of the Heart” talks about the need for educators “to be paying attention to how studen... Social Networking Sites and Education as Conversation

Another very interesting post from the Wesley Fryer’s “Moving at the Speed of Creativity” blog: “MySpace, Conversation, and Songs of the Heart” talks about the need for educators “to be paying attention to how studen…

]]> By: Cheryl Oakes http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2006/04/22/myspace-conversation-and-songs-of-the-heart/comment-page-1/#comment-1587 Cheryl Oakes Mon, 24 Apr 2006 00:18:55 +0000 http://www.speedofcreativity.org/?p=949#comment-1587 Well, this is an update, I underestimated the power of think.com!!!! my students were very busy, 89/200 participated on the think.com website during our school vacation! That is incredible. Cheryl Well, this is an update, I underestimated the power of think.com!!!!
my students were very busy, 89/200 participated on the think.com website during our school vacation! That is incredible. Cheryl

]]> By: Stephanie Sandifer http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2006/04/22/myspace-conversation-and-songs-of-the-heart/comment-page-1/#comment-1581 Stephanie Sandifer Sun, 23 Apr 2006 19:37:10 +0000 http://www.speedofcreativity.org/?p=949#comment-1581 Wesley -- Very well put! I don't think I could have expressed this any more perfectly -- the concept of "Education as a conversation" as opposed to content delivery is very foreign to our policy makers, the public, and many educators. And yet... if we all became more reflective I think we would all recognize that our deepest and most powerful learning occurs within the context of dialogues and conversations. Whether those conversations are occuring face-to-face or online, they still have the power to increase our growth and learning. It's time for educators to harness the power of the social network sites so that our children are engaging in conversations that constructively contribute to learning for all. Wesley –

Very well put! I don’t think I could have expressed this any more perfectly — the concept of “Education as a conversation” as opposed to content delivery is very foreign to our policy makers, the public, and many educators.

And yet… if we all became more reflective I think we would all recognize that our deepest and most powerful learning occurs within the context of dialogues and conversations. Whether those conversations are occuring face-to-face or online, they still have the power to increase our growth and learning.

It’s time for educators to harness the power of the social network sites so that our children are engaging in conversations that constructively contribute to learning for all.

]]> By: Cheryl Oakes http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2006/04/22/myspace-conversation-and-songs-of-the-heart/comment-page-1/#comment-1575 Cheryl Oakes Sun, 23 Apr 2006 13:46:11 +0000 http://www.speedofcreativity.org/?p=949#comment-1575 I am glad you mentioned think.com again. In our school district we are just finishing up a week of school vacation. For the past month I introduced our 3rd and 4th graders to think.com: and explained internet safety; discussed cyberbullying; how to incorporate surveys and votes into their webpage’s; demonstrated a closed email within think.com; and actively monitored 200 students on this website. This is a teaching social network and I am the facilitator and moderator! Now, while my students have access to the world, they begin the conversations with their own schoolmates. They get “stickys”, the equivalent of chat messages publicly on their webpage’s from all over the world. They choose to ignore the middle school and high school kids, for the most part; they don’t speak the same language. They speak to their buddies in our school and make friends with students outside of their classroom walls. They ask questions starting with your favorite color, favorite class, (we talk about not putting favorite friends as it may hurt someone’s feelings and we are a bully free zone at our school and the internet is a virtual bully free zone as far as my students are concerned) and now favorite music, president, holiday. They were surprised to have some “friends” in Texas vote on the musicians and like their favorite musician. However, they were stunned when someone from the United Kingdom voted on that same musician! This project is a great project for young people to start with, I am having a say in how they will use myspace and Xanga later on. I am not naïve enough to believe that there will never be bullying or sharing information with this group of students but I do know that they know it is not COOL to share personal information and it is not COOL to be mean to someone. Students this age are really black and white when they view the world. I immediately get sticky messages or email when they observe someone has done wrong! These are teachable moments. On the other hand, it has been a great teaching/learning moment for parents of these students. A few are rightly “afraid” of the social networking they have seen in the papers and nightly news. I explained that this think.com is a closed site and I am moderating. I also reinforce that as parents they need to be aware when their student is online, whom they are talking to and what they are saying. This is a partnership and I am teaching the parents as well as the students. My dilemma this weekend has been how will I follow up with my think.com lesson? First of all, I will praise all the students who have participated. They really followed the rules, monitored themselves and whew! they continued conversations and participated all week long. If I had to guess it would be about 75 of the 200 students making over 500 hits to the think.com site throughout the vacation. Two students continued conversations with their classmates from Florida and Arizona where they vacationed. Some students with special needs began the vacation week writing one word messages, yet ended the week writing full sentences! This is motivation! But, all this great stuff is not available on the web; it is a closed site. I think they are ready to showcase their skills. So, next week I am introducing them to Project Poster, http://poster.4teachers.org/ This is a teacher-moderated site where students can publish their work for all to see. I will keep this introduction simple by having students “showcase or introduce” different areas in Wells, to the world. It also makes their think.com site still their “social network” while demonstrating another use for the web, that of publishing their scholarly work. This is too important to put to rest, I want to continue engaging and motivating my students to communicate to the world. I want to continue to have parents participate in the conversations so I am moving to a more open web offering. I’ll keep you all posted. I’ll post updates at http://www.cheryloakes.com Over and out! I am glad you mentioned think.com again. In our school district we are just finishing up a week of school vacation. For the past month I introduced our 3rd and 4th graders to think.com: and explained internet safety; discussed cyberbullying; how to incorporate surveys and votes into their webpage’s; demonstrated a closed email within think.com; and actively monitored 200 students on this website. This is a teaching social network and I am the facilitator and moderator! Now, while my students have access to the world, they begin the conversations with their own schoolmates. They get “stickys”, the equivalent of chat messages publicly on their webpage’s from all over the world. They choose to ignore the middle school and high school kids, for the most part; they don’t speak the same language. They speak to their buddies in our school and make friends with students outside of their classroom walls. They ask questions starting with your favorite color, favorite class, (we talk about not putting favorite friends as it may hurt someone’s feelings and we are a bully free zone at our school and the internet is a virtual bully free zone as far as my students are concerned) and now favorite music, president, holiday. They were surprised to have some “friends” in Texas vote on the musicians and like their favorite musician. However, they were stunned when someone from the United Kingdom voted on that same musician!
This project is a great project for young people to start with, I am having a say in how they will use myspace and Xanga later on. I am not naïve enough to believe that there will never be bullying or sharing information with this group of students but I do know that they know it is not COOL to share personal information and it is not COOL to be mean to someone. Students this age are really black and white when they view the world. I immediately get sticky messages or email when they observe someone has done wrong! These are teachable moments.
On the other hand, it has been a great teaching/learning moment for parents of these students. A few are rightly “afraid” of the social networking they have seen in the papers and nightly news. I explained that this think.com is a closed site and I am moderating. I also reinforce that as parents they need to be aware when their student is online, whom they are talking to and what they are saying. This is a partnership and I am teaching the parents as well as the students.
My dilemma this weekend has been how will I follow up with my think.com lesson? First of all, I will praise all the students who have participated. They really followed the rules, monitored themselves and whew! they continued conversations and participated all week long. If I had to guess it would be about 75 of the 200 students making over 500 hits to the think.com site throughout the vacation. Two students continued conversations with their classmates from Florida and Arizona where they vacationed. Some students with special needs began the vacation week writing one word messages, yet ended the week writing full sentences! This is motivation! But, all this great stuff is not available on the web; it is a closed site. I think they are ready to showcase their skills. So, next week I am introducing them to Project Poster, http://poster.4teachers.org/
This is a teacher-moderated site where students can publish their work for all to see. I will keep this introduction simple by having students “showcase or introduce” different areas in Wells, to the world. It also makes their think.com site still their “social network” while demonstrating another use for the web, that of publishing their scholarly work. This is too important to put to rest, I want to continue engaging and motivating my students to communicate to the world. I want to continue to have parents participate in the conversations so I am moving to a more open web offering. I’ll keep you all posted. I’ll post updates at http://www.cheryloakes.com

Over and out!

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