Access to Social Media/Getting Around Blocks

From LiteracyTentWiki

Subject: [PD 4767] Social media
From: Combs, Kay
Date: Mon Jul 12 11:01:48 EDT 2010

You know, I don't believe that educators have truly grasped the concept of the explosion of technology. I am participating in post-graduate classes in higher education. I use all the social media technology available on my own time at home while working on my coursework. However, I work in a program that is involved in a school district. Currently are State doesn't allow access to Facebook nor gmail nor any of the other wonderful world's of technology that could make not only my life easier, but our student's life.

If I were to participate with my students in the realm we are discussing, I would have to do all of this from home using my own time and my own computer. One of the items I might suggest, is that if there were a push or advocacy to be done in social media for educators, it is to allow educators to use technology to the extent it is intended today. There is a multitude of social media tools available. I just attended a two-day Google workshop. The wealth of information and creation of social media just on Google is massive, but I cannot use most of this information in my daily teaching of adults because it is blocked from our school district.

I hear this every day, "teachers just are not able to use technology" this is why we are behind in using technology with our adult students. Well, I am pretty technology savvy and I have learned to use the technology from home and know educators are missing the boat. But, it is not their fault. It is not that adult educators across State's do not know how to use technology, it is that we are not allowed access to all the wonderful resources available. Unless we choose to learn on our own time, we will not be exposed to creating e-classrooms, blogging or even creating a Facebook page to share daily information with our students.

I would use all this social media and more if allowed, but I am not sure, ethically, if this is what I need to be doing from my home when I am not at work. Our students need to interact with us, develop a relationship. Think about it, aren't you closer to those you talk with every day than those you see once a week? This is the usefulness and glory of social media. Developing relationships, especially with our younger students. They need to reach us more often and daily.

Talking about social media and how we use it is one thing. This may not be the appropriate arena to express this, but being "allowed" to use it in our daily jobs with students is another. We need to be allowed to use it before we can say how we use it. Maybe I am in the minority, but I don't think so.

Kay Combs, M.A.Ed.
Coordinator - GED/ESL
Center for Lifelong Learning
Georgetown, KY

Subject: [PD 4770] Re: Social media
From: Jackie A. Taylor
Date: Mon Jul 12 12:36:08 EDT 2010

Hi Kay, All,

Kay, you raise several valuable points: the explosion of technology, teachers being left behind due to on-the-job access issues. How do we build those bridges with students if we are not allowed access to social media from adult education programs?

Has anyone else encountered this and successfully changed the rules at your program or school?

And should we be doing this on our own time? Or should we push for change, for example in our job descriptions and scope of work, so that we can interact with adult learners online from home until school access issues are adequately addressed?

Here's a recent article from Ed Week that discusses these issues in K-12 and how some educators have stepped up to the plate:

http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2010/06/16/03networking.h03.html

Jackie Taylor
PD List Facilitator

Subject: [PD 4781] Re: Access to Social media--how to get around blocks
From: Nell Eckersley
Date: Mon Jul 12 15:52:14 EDT 2010

Hi Kay and all,

I've been working with the public schools in New York City and they are challenged with exactly what you describe. Any online networking site or any emails with "adult" in the subject line get blocked. Such blocking is common in the corporate world too. It's an overzealous reaction to the new ways people communicate and how they challenge old ideas about privacy and work productivity.

I do think over time the wholesale blocking of many web 2.0 tools will stop, but the first steps to this are to educate ourselves and our IT policy makers. Having talked to a few IT folks, they are often willing to take off blocks on websites if the instructor explains why the site is useful and how they are going to use it. Wiggio is a good example. It is a social networking site, but the groups are all private so privacy and safety issues are very minor, yet it is often blocked just because it is tagged as a social networking site. But if I can explain this to an IT policy maker (who has the power to unblock sites) and they understand why it is useful and their security concerns are allayed, then often the site can be unblocked.

If the IT policy makers are unwilling to unblock sites, another idea is to create your own wireless connection either with a broadband card or through "tethering" to a cellphone or other wifi device. This limits the amount of device you can use, but it does create access where no access was before.

And of course there is the use of cellphones as a way to get around both internet access and hardware access. I recently came across a website where a person is reconditioning used iPhones and giving them to teachers. http://www.edumacnation.com/2010/06/donate-iphone-or-ipod-touch/ .

What have other people done to overcome the heavy hand of the website blockers?

Best,

Nell

Subject: [PD 4782] Re: Social media
From: Susan Gaer
Date: Mon Jul 12 16:00:00 EDT 2010

Hi Everyone! Sorry I haven't responded but I have been doing a lot of listening. This discussion is amazing. I don't think a year ago, so many people would have signed up for PD in this way. I have enjoyed everything I have read. I am a practitioner, not a director or a researcher. So my perspective is from the classroom.

In California, we have had a lot of layoffs and school closures due to a change in funding. I was teaching low beginning ESL for the last 15 years but last year moved over into GED/ABE/ and was a part time technology coordinator. This year due to funding cuts, I am teaching full time in ESL High Intermediate, ABE, GED,and High School Subjects.I am teaching a total of 15 classes in a individualized study program and 12 hours a week intermediate high where are focus is on reading and writing. In order to identify with so many students in so many different classes, social media tools are essential.

I am not an online teacher as our agency is not funded for online instruction. However, I try and make my class as much as a hybrid as possible to accommodate as many students as possible. A hybrid is a class that can be followed at home online or in the classroom F2F. Our discussions are held in class or via text/email. Most of the course material (outside of the book ) is posted online for easy student access.You can see my website at http://www.susangaer.com

We use Google Docs, Wikis and Blogs, Skype and Picasa. I haven't used Twitter yet, only because I can't express myself in 140 characters or less.

-)


So how do I deal with the following issues that Kay brought up? We use mobile devices. Many of my students use cellphones and have access to data. Last semester about 60 percent of my students could text and probably 30% had a data plan on their cells. If you have a data plan (if you use a smartphone, a data plan is required) you can hook your phone to the TV and project it that way. I don't personally have an Iphone, but some of my students do. I purchased the cable for 40.00 and we can hook it up to the TV.

I do all this because my students need to learn these tools to survive in a HiTech world. Many of my students are newly unemployed and are looking at learning how to be self-employed. Social networking tools are crucial in this new world we live in. I look forward to more detailed discussion of the tools next week in our small groups.

Susan Gaer
Google Certified Teacher

Santa Ana College School of Continuing Education

Subject: [PD 4783] Re: Access to Social media--how to get around blocks
From: Jacci West
Date: Mon Jul 12 16:24:38 EDT 2010

Hi Nell,

Just a note about the word "adult". About ten years ago someone visited an "unacceptable" web site from a listserve list that many adult literacy programs in my state subscribed to. To say that the resulting year was memorable would be an understatement!

I ended up coming in to the office early everyday to open the email account of the former Director so I could delete all the porn sites that were being sent to our email address to keep her from being so distressed. Even spam tagging didn't get them all due to the word "adult" in the name of our program. There should be a better way for our programs to have access to what is available to our students on the web.

Jacci West, Executive Director
Wayne Pike Adult Literacy Program
Honesdale, PA

Subject: [PD 4795] Re: Access to Social media-- the term Adult
From: Val Yule
Date: Tue Jul 13 07:23:22 EDT 2010

The term Adult should be reclassified to mean mature, responsible, delighting in care and nurture etc etc. The term children are learning it means is anything that they aren't allowed to do - which is having unfortunate results for their desires to grow up.

All that stuff should be reclassified as Immature Adult.

val yule

Subject: [PD 4788] Re: Social media
From: Alpha Computer Live
Date: Mon Jul 12 19:42:09 EDT 2010

Hi Kay,

I see your concern. There is a lot of fear with social media from educational institutions and businesses alike. Education will help ease the concerns of those who make the decisions. I have heard of teachers in classrooms interacting with their students using social media. They even do their work via these tools. I trust it is only a matter of time before the tipping point is reached. Then there will be a mad dash to catch up then. Educational leaders need to learn the benefits and risks of social media and work within acceptable boundaries.

Wishing you well as you blaze ahead,

Jeff Brown

Subject: [PD 4796] Re: Social media [PD 4796] Re: Social media
From: Marian Thacher
Date: Tue Jul 13 09:10:28 EDT 2010

Kay, Susan, Jeff and All,

Here's my perspective from nine years working with adult education technology at the state level - there's always a sticking point, and a way to get past it! Ten years ago, we didn't have the equipment we needed, then we had the equipment but no Internet access, now we have Internet access (generally) but we can't get to many of the sites we want to use.

There are two ways this will change - students will expect and demand it, and teachers will begin to forge ahead anyway, which is what we're seeing now. The tech savvy teachers who start using new tools and generating interest have an effect on their programs. Eventually, what was banned becomes commonplace.

I recently heard a program administrator say that he had his IT department stop blocking YouTube and other sites because he realized that students were going to them in class on their smart phones and sharing the info anyway. Could that be the wave of the future? I love Susan's idea of getting the cable to hook up a smart phone to a TV!

Marian Thacher
http://www.otan.us/

Subject: [PD 4802] Re: The End of Boxes and the role of social media
From: Debra Harlow
Date: Tue Jul 13 13:17:47 EDT 2010

The discussion seems to indicate that we are living the reality of Nine Shift! Go to www.nineshift.com to see the nine areas our lives will change drastically by 2020 due to technology. The book is a fascinating read!

Debra B. Harlow
Director, Adult Basic Skills Program
Piedmont Community College
Roxboro, NC

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