Just Say Yes to Social Networking in Schools!

Because learning is a social construct, social networking absolutely should have a role within the school setting, especially in the school library media center.  The AASL standards for the 21^st Century Learner state that students should be able to “collaborate with others to exchange ideas, develop new understandings, make decisions, and solve problems.”  Technology affords our students the opportunity to do just that; to collaborate not just within the classroom or school but truly on a global level through social networking.  Despite reluctance from some schools, acceptance of social networking as educational tools is increasing.  The ALA’s 2008 study on the level of acceptance of social networking sites in schools found “that elementary, middle and high schools are beginning to treat social networking tools as an essential part of preparing students for the 21st century.” 

One way that social networking can be used in the library media center is to motivate students to read.  Ray Doiron, founder of worldreaders.org, explains why using social networking tools in schools is essential and how they can be used to motivate students to read. Students, he says, “have embraced digital technologies as the essential tools of their learning and living leaving adults to either abandon their old goals of encouraging the lifelong reading habit or harnessing the energy and power of these new digital technologies to help them achieve these reading goals.”

The school where I teach recognizes the importance and power of using social networking.  While sites such as facebook and twitter are blocked, several other social networking sites are used.  These include Googledocs, WordPress, Destiny Quest’s New Social Features, Glogster, and Shelfari. 

Some of the digital technologies you may want to “harness” in your own school in order to promote reading are:

www.shelfari.com

·         With shelfari you can build a virtual bookshelf to display the books you have read, are reading, and want to read. 

·         The social component allows you to have “friends” and see what they are reading/ make suggestions to one another

·         Students can read and leave reviews on books.

·         Many of the books also include supplemental information such as glossaries of terms, character lists, etc

·         Teachers and librarians can download a widget of a bookshelf to feature certain books.  This widget is easy to customize, edit, and post to your webpage.  http://www.shelfari.com/widget?WidgetId=186641 

·         Shelfari also gives students an option to browse “more books like this” See picture below for books like The Hunger Games

www.goodreads.com (similar features to shelfari)

·         GoodReads is very similar to shelfari in that you can build a virtual bookshelf to display the books you have read, are reading, and want to read. 

·         The social component allows you to have “friends” and see what they are reading/ make suggestions to one another

·         Students can read and leave reviews on books.

·         There are lists of books that can be helpful to students and teachers alike:

Destiny Quest

·         Destiny Quest now has a social component.  Students can log-in in order to:

o   Create virtual shelves and keep track of what they are reading, what they have read, and what they want to read

o   All users can rate the books (star rating system) that they have read and write book reviews that other students can see

o   These reviews can include text, audio, or video resources!

o   Users can give star ratings to books

o   Users can create a network of “friends” within the school district.  Once they have done so they can make recommendations of books to each other and have online discussions

o   The big “bonus” of Destiny Quest is it is limited to students within the school or district so it is a much safer alternative to some of the other open social networking sites.

www.glogster.com

·         Glogster is another wonderful social networking tool. 

·         This video shows some of the highlights of Glogster and how excited students are to use it:

·         One of the teachers in my department is using it at my school as an alternative to book reports/ book reviews. 

·         Glogster also allows you to create a bookshelf.  However, instead of linking to books, each book takes you right to the student review.  The students publish online and their peers are able to view and review their work.  The student product then becomes not only a great source of information but a wonderful suggestion way for students to preview and select books to read.

·         An example of one of these student created book reviews is at this link.  Notice that each text box includes a scroll bar once you hover over it.  This student has included text, videos, pictures, and music in her review of The Lovely Bones.

As you can see, I think that social networking should definitely be included in the school library media center!  Among their many other uses, they can be used to promote reading while giving students experience with technology and the ever-important opportunity to collaborate.  Reading is a fundamental skill for sucess in school and life and social networking can go a long way towards getting students interested and motivated to read!