Week 3 Assignment 1 Social Networking Technologies

Social Networking Technologies

The two social networking technologies that have the potential to enhance adult education, which I want to introduce are Edublogs and Wikispaces.

As the name suggests, Edublogs (http://edublogs.org/) is an education blogging service. In addition to blogging, learners can participate in discussions, post videos, podcasts and documents, and create their own class publication. I have selected this technology because it is designed for educational purposes, so it does not include any advertisements or inappropriate content; it is easy to use; and it offers a variety of learning tools. I might incorporate this technology to my professional practice by creating a class on the page. This would enable me to monitor every entry that my learners make to their blogs and their peers’ blogs. I would give my learners weekly assignments to prepare and post on their blog, related to the content we cover in class. They would also be responsible for reading a selection of their peers’ blogs and commenting at least on two of them. I would grade these entries and give my learners feedback on a weekly basis. Another way I would incorporate this technology into my teaching is by asking my learners to download the IOS or Android application on their mobile phones. Then, I would give them short homework tasks, such as “Report the most delicious food you have had today” or “Write about the most boring part of your day” and ask my learners to write short entries on their blogs for these, using their mobile phones. This would improve their fluency in using the language, since they would not have the time to plan their writing, and it would be fun to read one another’s entries.

Wikispaces Private Label Education (http://www.wikispaces.com/) allows schools to create their own space, but it is also possible for instructors to start with their own classroom wiki on Wikispaces. Through a wiki, learners can easily add and edit written work, as well as sharing ideas, photos, links, and the like. I have selected Wikispaces, because it can be reached on every device, it enables the addition of widgets, it has a discussion board, it logs every change made onto a document, and it has adjustable permissions, so the educator can control who sees what. I have been using this technology in my writing courses to encourage collaborative learning. It works well, especially with projects where I assign my learners to gather information from various sources. I provide them the link of articles and videos on the wiki, and assign my learners different parts of each source. Then, I give them the essay topic and ask my learners to share the parts of their source that they feel are important and can be used when writing this essay. They all comment on one another’s notes, add, edit, or delete them. Once they are comfortable with the information they will use, they write their essays individually and share them on the wiki. The second way I incorporate this technology into my teaching is by engaging my learners in peer feedback. Once every learner shares his/her essay, I ask my learners to read at least two of their peers’ essays and provide feedback according to the criteria discussed beforehand. Learners write their second drafts according to the feedback they receive from their friends and submit me this revised draft. That way, learners become more independent, as they take responsibility of their learning.