April 2008 — News
Print this articleClick here to receive your FREE subscription to T.H.E. Journal
Spotlight: Free Social Media Tools for Educators
While most districts are still tackling Web-based collaboration tools from pedagogical and security perspectives, a large number of teachers are already out there using these tools to supplement instruction, engage learners, and encourage their students to become producers of information, as well as consumers of it. In other words, they're experimenting. And here are some of the free tools they're using to do it.
While the breadth of social media tools for education is fairly staggering, we narrow down the categories to three here, focusing on those in which there are clear leaders in technologies and the value they provide to educators. (All of the tools discussed here are free, so value refers to volume of features, quality of implementation, and relevance to learning.)
1. Digital Media Sharing
There's no shortage of media sharing sites out there that allow individuals to post and view content of all kinds. But for schools, general media sharing sites like YouTube pose some obvious problems. Teachers and administrators certainly don't want to walk in on their students viewing the latest twist on Faces of Death, to catch them watching adult content, or to get tangled up with potential copyright issues.
Two fairly prominent media sharing sites address these issues by ensuring that their content is education-focused.
TeacherTube takes an approach that's fairly similar to YouTube but provides a mechanism for users to flag videos as inappropriate for education, and registered users are supposed to acknowledge that they are educators. It allows teachers to upload videos from their students (or from themselves) and to view those submitted by others. It also includes a range of other social media functionality, including blogs, viewer comments, and a rating system for videos. Media can be viewed by "channel" (i.e., elementary, middle school, high school, academic subject, athletics, etc.) and searched by tags (algebra, chemistry, etc.).
SchoolTube takes a somewhat different approach through a pre-approval process, which it describes as "moderated [I]nternet media content sharing for teachers and students." Only registered teachers can approve videos to be posted, and all content adheres to local school policies and SchoolTube's code of ethics. In addition to student- and teacher-generated videos, it also includes lesson plans, links to resources, and activities.
2. Learning Communities
Online learning communities combine a wide range of content. In some ways, TeacherTube and SchoolTube can be considered online learning communities themselves. But here we're referring to sites that take a broader approach and focus not so much on digital media as on education tools in general--including assessments, learning/course management, textual materials, and other resources. In other words, complete online learning solutions.
