Social Networking Skills

    My school has become very big on using Google Apps for Education the past few years. Our SBTS has done a really good job of getting the staff and students educated on the affordances of GAE. Recently there has been a lot of discussion about the using of Google Plus feature on our GAE accounts. Once the Google Plus feature has been enabled teachers can then bring people into the classroom via Google Hangouts. We are always trying to find ways of bringing in outside mentors to talk with our students and enabling Google Plus will make this a possibility in a virtual sense. We have been cautioned that using a social media network like Google Plus has its downfalls. We are entering a virtual world that isn't protected by our county. We have to be smart about what we say and what we post on our Google Plus site. 

    I personally think this type of Social Networking is a wonderful way of showing students the appropriate way to use these types of sites. I think teachers should show students how we can use the sites for educational purposes and finding information. It also gives teachers the opportunity to highlight the importance of being responsible when using these sites. We can talk about how posting pictures of comments may turn someone away from wanting to connect with me because my profile is offensive or inappropriate. It would also be good to show students how connected everyone is and that when you post something, everyone can see it. I realize teachers have a lot to teach students these days and adding social networking responsibility is just another thing we have to do, but I feel like it is very important. We have so many useless skills we teach students that they will never use (obsoledge), but being responsible on the internet is a skill that needs to be taught. Modeling appropriate usage with explicit teaching will help students form healthy and safe internet usage skills.