Response to "Should Schools Teach Social Media Skills?"

Around Halloween I recall seeing a headline about a women who dressed up as a victim of the Boston Marathon bombings and posted a picture to her Facebook account.  Because of the poor choice of costume and poor choice to post the picture publicly the girl was fired from her job amongst other things. Social media can be an amazing tool when used the right way however many of the younger generation seem to be lacking social media etiquette.

A school in San Francisco has started using a specific curriculum to teach students about using common sense online and with social media. While this seems like a great idea many educators may just sigh as it is just one more thing they are required to teach their students. Similar to Reproductive Education, many teachers and parents believe that Safe Social Media should be taught at home.

As more and more people get rejected from colleges or let go from jobs because of poor choices made online it seems to me we could help this younger generation learn from these unfortunate mistakes.

Shanhai, A. (2013, December 04). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/12/should-schools-teach-social-media-skills/

Response to "3 Keys to Making BYOD Work for Your Classroom"

BYOD or Bring Your Own Device is a very popular acronym out there in the educational world today. Basically this allows students to use smart phones or tablets in school to participate in different lessons or assignments using websites or apps. BYOD has some major benefits, its less expensive than buying class sets of devices and also much easier to obtain.  Almost all students have some form of device these days, it is quite easy to come by. Although some districts try and prohibit students using devices at school this is an easy way for everyone to have an equal access to some form of technology. Obviously there are also cons to BYOD, such as distractions caused by devices but the way technology is moving in education BYOD may be the way to go for older students.  What do you think? Would you use BYOD in your classroom?

Paretsky, I. (2013, December 05). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.edudemic.com/keys-to-byod/