Teachers and lecturers are getting the lowdown on how to use social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo in an educational way.Most schools and colleges in the UK block access to the websites but they are missing out on their potential for education, a government-funded guide says.The report for Childnet International and funded by Becta, the government body for technology in learning, says while teachers and lecturers may be using social networking services they may not recognise the educational potential for their students.Schools could help students develop "e-portfolios" where learners can record their achievements and collect examples of their work, the guide suggests. Or teachers could use social networking services to set up groups that "semi-formalise" students' online communications and "document discussions and milestones as they go".Young people are more likely to have learned their social networking skills from their friends or classmates than from any formal instruction or support from adults.
"We are trying to overcome the distance you feel in distance education by being socially connected," Snoddy said. "You develop socially as well as intellectually in college. This doesn' tmake sense. Do people not complete DE courses because they feel distant? More likely because most of the courses are complete crap and are offered by questionable faculty. It is more likely that the courses selected for special treatment in this article were a step above the usual crap that gets served up as DE and were presented with a little imagination and care.
