A new study by alum Christine Greenhow finds social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook have more educational potential than you might think.
Perhaps even more important than the impact of social networking on the classroom, however is the impact that the classroom can have on social networking, by teaching students how to be responsible “digital citizens” online. At their most basic level, these sites can be launching points to discussions on Internet ethics. “If we want kids to be digital citizens, we must model that behavior for them,” says Greenhow. As it stands now, however, most schools do the exact opposite, actively discouraging student use of social networking sites by blocking them on school computers — sending the message that they are dangerous or inappropriate. As Wiske says, “A lot of people can do a lot of damage driving cars, but we shouldn’t tell kids not to drive cars.”
LINK: Harvard.edu
