Educational Value of Social Media

Dear Parents,

As you know for the past two weeks, our classroom community has been exploring Colonization and Christopher Columbus.  Part of our journey with this Unit, is implementing the International Society for Technology Integration National Educational Technology Standards (NETS).  Your students will be using some Web 2.0 tools to write digital books, make collages and write an article using information from YouTube videos.  Read our class blog and preview the learning tasks your children will be accessing through our Weebly page:   http://msgosse.weebly.com/If you click on the BUTTON icon above the Twitter Bird symbol, it will take you to our Twitter page.  Here is a video to help you understand the "bigger picture":

Part of this technological journey is incorporating social media pages into our classroom.  I would encourage you to review our “safe use” policies with your student and review with them how to enter an appropriate post.  We have already reviewed and implemented these polices in the classroom environment per our discussions during Open House last month.  In the article Reading, writing, and research in the digital age, the author Kathryn Zickhur mentions some statistics regarding teens and technology use.  Ms. Zickhur’s report is part of the Pew Internet Research Project.  According to the author, 80% of teens use social network sites, 78% use cell phones, 37% use Smart phones and 23% use tablets.  Please review the slide show embedded in the article as Ms. Zickhur discusses in Slide 7 that “Mobile is the needle, social is the thread. How information is woven into our lives”.  As you continue through the slide show, you will see the data that has been gathered as we have become a more digital society.  Our students are learning information at a far greater rate than we did, and we must use all tools available to create equitable access to information and knowledge.  The link for the article is listed below:

http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/11/04/reading-writing-and-research-in-the-digital-age/  Should you have any questions or concerns,  we welcome face to face conversations, your phone calls, emails or posts.  Thank you for taking the time to review our class information with your student.  I look forward to our Colonization Unit. 

Kind regards,

Ms. Gosse

References

Zickhur, K. (2013, November 4). Reading, writing, and research in the digital age. Retrieved

October 24, 2014, from http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/11/04/reading-writing-and-research-in-the-digital-age/

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0xa98cy-Rw October 24, 2014