Hello everyone and welcome to my first blog post. This blog was created for my Education Media Class (Ed Media) and I will be discussing social tagging and it's effects on education. Above, you will see an image from the Wordle webiste. This image was through sites I had tagged on delicious. To finish off my first post I will pose this question: How do you feel about social tagging in the classroom? If anyone can tag a site with anything, how can you control the content that your students will be exposed to?
Posts
http://thecleversheep.blogspot.com/2008/10/top-20-uses-for-wordle.html
ReplyDeleteThat is Rodd Lucier's blog. He is on Delicious as well as "thecleversheep". He has some idea's on how to use wordle in the classroom and seems like the perfect person for us all to network with for this class.
I don't know if I'm completely comfortable with the idea of social tagging as of yet. I suppose I won't know how I truly feel about using it in the classroom until I have my own classroom application of Wordle. I'm not so sure how I'd control the content my students are exposed to when it comes to social tagging. Like anything on the internet, I'm sure there are dangers with using social tagging in the classroom, but I think for the most part, websites like delicious and Wordle are classroom appropriate.
ReplyDeleteIn Will Richardson's book, "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms", he describes a situation when a student stumbled across something inappropriate. The student gasped, then continued on working, not drawing a lot of attention to it. I think if you prepare your students for these events and if they are mature enough that you trust they will act appropriately, then it shouldn't be such a big deal. Maybe it would be good to have parents sign a permission slip to allow them to use the internet too so you cover yourself.
ReplyDeleteYes, I have been in a situation where a student was researching a photographer, and she stumbled upon some slightly erotic images the photographer had taken. I was so nervous, and was not sure how to prevent this. The student was 17 and mature, so I think age has a lot to do with limits on social tagging etc. I think with younger students there should be a way to limit what websites they can view and what they can't. Isn't there a program you can install on computers that block websites with a rating system similar to the movie rating system. Also, always to protect yourself as a teacher, parent and principal permission should be requested if you are at all hesitant about the material students will see in your classroom.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Laura on this topic. If you are going to introduce social tagging into the classroom, it must be with a mature class. Im sure we have all used google images, and have been trying to find an image of the most innocent subject, but somehow got a few inappropriate images in the bunch. With the internet it is hard to prevent this. All we can do is project ourselves and teach our students how to handle it in an appropriate manner.
ReplyDeleteI feel that social tagging can be beneficial, but it has to be done with the teacher viewing the websites and contents before the students get off and running. So, therefor, social tagging, like Philip said, must be done with a mature class and with students handling inappropriate material with a level of responsibility.
ReplyDeleteWow, I really like the wordle that you created. I never thought to use it as a way to send messages. Really cool idea. I will be using that in my class. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteAnytime you are introducing internet access to a class you open the door to the possibility of inappropriate content. I believe that, as media literacy becomes a more accepted part of the curriculum, teachers, parents and administrators will develop ways to approach this sticky issue.
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