The Facebook Phenomenon:
Using Social Networking to our advantage in the School Library Media Center
I say "Yes", to social networking in the school library media centers. Or should I say... "Like!" Social media and new technologies excite, engage, and motivate us all, and if we're going to reach our communities, we've got to stay current. All of us spend some time in our day reading, writing, and communicating online. It's important that media specialists and teachers take this trend and use it to our advantage.
The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) reported from their longitudinal study in 2008 that social networking tools are becoming more and more vital to students' educations. The AASL president in 2008, Sara Kelly Johns, said, "Group collaboration and discussion are becoming more evident in the learning process. These processes create a community of learners where a student can help lead the educational process."
Facebook, Google+, and Twitter are the most popular worldwide of the social networking services, and are probably the least utilized in the schools. These sites are blocked in many school districts, but could still be used to create a community of learners outside the school day. The public relations from a presence of the school library on these sites could provide a positive influence for the whole school program. Since Facebook is on top right now, I'll focus on it in this blog post.
Facebook has been around since 2004. Since so many people are on Facebook, it's free, and it's important for a library to be open and available to parents and students alike, I think it's a no-brainer on whether a library should have a Facebook site. There are many websites with suggestions on what to put on a Facebook site and one I liked that included many common sense ideas is http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/features/05272011/facebook-libraries
While written with public libraries in mind, many of the ideas are applicable to school media centers. Some of the items suggested for Facebook pages for libraries include:
1. Post things designed to invite conversation.
2. Update frequently and regularly. Keep it interesting.
3. Post personable status updates. Phrase the status like something you would say in conversation to invite response.
4. Be witty and share interesting stuff about your library.
5. Use an "invite" link to encourage people on school websites to become fans of your library Facebook page.
Let's use Facebook and other social media to our advantage in the School Library Media Center!
Katie Harris, Team 2
I love all of the ideas for getting students excited about learning and I totally agree that social networking outlets get students excited about learning. But as educators, we really have to be careful about the types of social networking that we encourage students to participate in or become a part of ourselves. Facebook definitely has a down side when using it with students. We can not control what others post and what they post can be seen other's pages. This could be a PR disaster for schools and teachers.
ReplyDeleteI think the first step in using social networking tools is teaching students about the Internet. It is important that they understand that what ever they put out there is out there forever. Delete want fix poor judgement on the Internet.