Thing #18

In today's world, educators have to understand social networking and how it works.  Why? Because as educators, I think it's important to say on trend with current events and what is popular with students.  It can make what we teach more interesting in the classroom if we can use references like Facebook and Twitter.  We, as teachers, can't live back in the world of candlelight, Little House on the Prairie days. We have to stay current to be able to keep in touch with our students. 

Also, social networking sites help us to connect with other's in our field and that is priceless.  We live in an age where we can connect with teachers from all over the globe, why wouldn't we want to take advantage of that?!? 

I can see setting up a Facebook page for your classroom as just another way to keep in touch with parents and students about current assignments and homework.  However, I do not see a need for teachers to have twitter in order to communicate with their students.  I think that almost crossing a line that teachers should never cross.  We are not their to be friends with our students. We are there to be educators.  I think Twitter is more of a "friend" site than a way for teachers to communicate with students. I think Facebook is a much better way for teachers to communicate with their students if they want to do that on a easy social networking site with little to no fuss.