2. Fun Facts Was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 As of July 2010 there are more than 500 million active users . People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook. There more than 55 million status updates each day and more than 2.5 billion pictures are uploaded to Facebook each month. Among children under 18, Facebook was ranked third in the top 100 searches of 2009, behind YouTube and Google.
3. Why use Facebook in the classroom? It’s free. Fast and easy to use. Builds bonds between classmates. Builds bonds between teachers and parents. It’s the latest technology. Engages learners in their studies. Allows peer feedback.
-teachers can post status updates for the parents-Students can stay connected with their classmates and build a community through the online world-it’s a way to motivate students to become engaged learners rather than learners who are primarily passive observers of the educational process-Teachers can keep parents updated on facebook by telling them what’s going on -It can be a place where teachers post videos, hw, assignments-It has been said that students will invest and energy in building relationships around shared interests and knowledge communities
-teachers could have students do research projects and post information on the group wall or blogEx: like for younger children can do a proj. with weather and the teacher put up their work on the group page
-give status updates of what they are going to be learning in the classroom each week (ex: plants, new voc. Words….This way the parents are aware of what their child is learning and if-let parents know about upcoming events (parent teacher conference or open house) and field trips-Reminders to bring in permission slips, money-Teachers can put up links that parent can their child can look at while their at home or extra information that might help with hw
-people who are for social networking in the classroom say: “the concept of social networking in the k-12 school environment is very attractive. It employs the latest technology, it’s fun and you can even justify incorporating it into most curriculums.”-People who are against social networking in the classroom say: “ Older, more sophisticated teens and adults are better prepared to understand and deal with the negative aspects of social networks. Younger teens and children are not. One thing that our research at Children online has demonstrated for years now is that whatever children are doing online this year, next year they will be doing the same thing at a younger age.