Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/29842
social learning Facebook and Twitter change how we teach left: World history teacher Ali Eeds works with student Amanda Hesterman on a social networking assignment. Story by Sherry Posnick-Goodwin • Photos by Scott Buschman Benito Mussolini’s status update on facebook.us — dated Oct. 31, 1936 — shows the Italian World War II leader smiling, confident and totally unaware that he will be executed. “I completely protected my country to its fullest by uniting with Germany,” he shares on his profile. Among “activities” he lists is murdering people who don’t love Italy. His “friends” include Adolf Hitler. He belongs to “groups” that favor fascism and totalitarianism. His profile, created by Vacaville High School sophomore Jennifer Daugherty, isn’t your typical high school report. But she was thrilled to be given the assignment of creating a faux Facebook page of Mussolini because it appealed to her love of social networking. “It was the best assignment ever,” says Daugherty. World history and AP art teacher Ali Eeds created her own facebook.us “web- site” with Microsoft Word because her school, like many K-12 schools, does not allow access to real social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter due to con- cerns it could be a learning distraction and violate student privacy. It’s a dilemma, since incorporating social networking al- lows teachers to meet students on their level, build on their technology skills and prepare them for the future. As a compromise between safety and students’ love of social networking, CTA members are creating in-school versions of social networks or using sites that can be contained for their class, such as School Loop, Ning, Edmodo and Schoology. Oth- ers use Facebook or Twitter cautiously. And they are discovering that social net- working, once viewed as a colossal waste of time, greatly enhances teaching, learn- ing and professional development. “I love it because my students are learn- ing and having fun,” says Eeds, who has been teaching for six years. “They can be creative, and it gives them a little free rein. For example, one student had Stalin post a comment on Roosevelt’s page saying, ‘When this war is over, I get dibs on East- ern Europe.’ Before, students had trouble understanding the alliances. But now they can see why certain leaders were ‘friends’ during the war and why, after the war, what held them together was over.” The APRIL 2011 | www.cta.org 13