Issues+Related+to+Social+Media+in+General

The group members (up to six of you) are listed below: Heather Couch Tiffany Uy


 * ISSUES RELATED TO SOCIAL MEDIA IN GENERAL** (asynchronously, each of you, when you have time, EDIT this page and put in the name of the subsection you want to add here. At the end there will be one sub-section written by each of the teammembers. You do not have to put your names on your section. We will be able to explain how we know who did which section later in the feedback. For grading be sure to review the rubric (see SIDEBAR).)

There are a number of schools who are jumping onto the social media bandwagon by initiating a community on Facebook as a substitute for a school yearbook, or by starting an open forum for students to voice their opinions and ideas. Several articles have very strong views as to why social media can be productive and beneficial for schools to utilize. For example, the article entitled, "Fifth Period is Facebook" argues that instead of banning Facebook or ignoring its existence, teachers and administrators can use this social media tool as a way to reach out to students, identify counseling needs stemming from student issues (such as bullying), and start a venue for educational conversation and inspiration (such as creating and posting video clips as a literature response). The author confidently states his opinion as pro-social media in schools.
 * __How will schools adapt social media to benefit students?__**

__**Why are some schools resistant to embrace social media?**__ While there are numerous advantages to using social media tools, and many websites, wikis, podcasts, and the like have been posted in order to help educators broaden their views to using YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc. to enhance their instruction and reach todays' "digital youth," there seem to be just as many disadvantages to doing so. How will schools deal with students who use social media tools inappropriately and break school policies while during their own personal time? Moreover, how will schools deal with teachers who violate their professionality and faculty honor codes via social media tools? While it is important for educators to maintain their professional conduct at all times, aren't some uses of social media tools meant for personal use? Would it be wise for teachers to "friend" their students and/or students' parents via Facebook and the like? And while this is a "sign of the times," and the picture of a 21st century classroom includes use of social media tools in and out of its classroom time, there are still many unanswered questions about the boundaries and issues related to use of some of these tools.

Based on the podcast I listened to most businesses are failing in their understand and use of social media. Many companies think that they don't need to allocate funds to social media, but they are quickly learning this is an oversight.
 * __What can we learn (pros/cons) from business and how they are using or misusing social media?__**

That we are bringing up little robots who can't tie their shoes or jump rope. Look at the overwhelming amount of overweight kids we have today. Social media will only make this worse.
 * __What are some troubling aspects of social media?__**

__**How is social media affecting people, specifically youth?**__ Social media is great, but is it robbing kids of their childhood? Are they reading less? Will their imaginations and creativity be stunted from all this?