The Socially Networked Classroom

 The Socially Networked Classroom by William Kist is a great book for teachers who are new to introducing social networks into the classroom.

I agree that social media allows a great deal of interactivity. Facebook and Twitter are trending social networks. Kids are indeed more connected to other people than compared in history. Thanks to the advanced technology, kids can stay connected with their friends and close with their family during this pandemic. The book mentioned that children are increasingly meeting and talking with people whom they will never meet face to face. Such a thing is a worry to many adults, educators, and parents. This is the reason to hear more about the ‘Helicopter Parents’. The consensus on helicopter parenting is that it is bad. It hurts kids because they never learn to do anything for themselves. It stresses out parents, who now spend way more time with their kids than they did it in the 1970s. ‘Helicopter Parenting’ is a bad or good thing? I always ask this question to myself and never satisfied with the answers.

Yes, we need rules for technology and find ways to integrate technology in the classroom but I feel allowing students the usage of internet from cellphones and iPad will create distractive learning and is not safe. It should be integrated for only educational purposes. Texting in the middle of a class is disturbing not only for the individual texting but the teacher and the rest of the class. I agree with the author, on how we change our identity and get media influence our decisions. We do nonlinear reading most of our time especially when we are reading a thriller storybook, I do it with television series., but we can’t apply this nonlinear fashion in all reading.

It was interesting to read how she used a silent film Charlie Chaplin’s ‘The Kid’ in her language art classroom which made her students wonder about the story. Reading about the film text I deeply understood how we can implement the film text in the classroom. I could use film to create writing assignments that would engage students and help them develop key skills required by the common standards, such as using evidence to support claims, analyzing literary and informational texts, and using precise words, telling details, and sensory language.