Social Networks in Adult Classrooms
Twitter
Twitter is a social network created in 2006. Users can create an
account and start following friends and post their own “tweets, and hence the
chain of followers will start.
This technology can be used in ESL classrooms as a way of building
community especially in short courses. I can use it for the first three or four
days to post different questions, and as learners reply, they will start to
know each other on personal basis. It can also serve as an informal way of
learning outside class. As I give feedback, and because learners can read each
other’s posts, they will benefit from the comments. This will help them improve
their writing skills faster. Because each tweet is limited to 140 characters,
they will not find it time consuming to read or reply to posts. In more
advanced classes learners can use this technology for reflecting on materials
covered in class, or ask clarification from the teacher regarding a certain
point.
Ning:
It is a website that allows users to create a social network, either privately
or publicly. It can be used to post videos, photos, blogs, etc. I believe it is
beneficial for teachers who wish to interact with their students on academic
basis. Because the website will be public, learners will not be encouraged to
share personal information. This ensures that communication takes place for
educational purposes. This technology can be used outside class when learners
need to discuss a certain subject, collaborating with each other and get
feedback from the teacher. They can also use as a means of peer revision when
practicing writing skills. Every week I can assign a different book to read and
discuss with the class.
References
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and
other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:
Corwin Press.
https://en.wikipedia.org
I think your example of Twitter use for ESL and similar programs is wonderful! As you said all feedback can be seen by everyone in the group which means they can all learn from it. As you stated with only 140 characters it is not a lot to read so does not bog down new learners with walls of text.
ReplyDeleteI have never used Ning but it sounds interesting and is definitely something I will look into for future investigation and use.
I like your ideas for using Ning as a classroom supplement. I like the controls Ning gives to the host (such as approval of posts) which can assist in keeping the site professional and/or educational.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your reply Nancy. I believe teachers should be in control even when the learners are having fun. So this technology sounded great for me.
DeleteNing sounds like a wonderful media to share information that may add value to learning concepts that there simply wasn't enough time to include such as videos, photos or blogs. Thanks for sharing this site. Jen
ReplyDeleteHello Jen,
DeleteThanks for your comment. I got few comments on Ning. It seems it is still a new technology that we need to explore.
Heba
What a coincident! I chose both Twitter and Ning too for my blog but take a different approach for teaching and learning. This is the power of sharing information.
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of using Twitter to ask questions and get responses from the students. Twitter is, indeed, less time consuming for language learners, especially for the beginners who have very limited vocabulary for communication.
Hello Ling,
DeleteI noticed that we share many things. One of them is language of course. Unconsciously I believe we always think of ways to improve our teaching, or as we were able to learn a foreign language or two, we got the tools needed to help learners.
Hi Heba,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog! Thank you for sharing about Ning. I was not familiar with the tool. It seems user friendly and convenient. I like to idea of utilizing this technology for peer revision of writing.
Tannisha
Hello Tannisha,
ReplyDeleteExcuse me for the late reply. I received your comment via my gmail, but was not sure if I could reply from there. the Ning was also new to me, it seems there are more applications yet to be learned.
Heba