Speak Up, Social Media!

Social networking in our schools. Words that strike fear into the hearts of many of our colleagues. However, I think it affords an intriguing possibility,  its potential in meeting kids where they are.

Today's student has been raised in an era of instant communication with information right at his/her fingertips.  I guarantee that most of my students spend a significantly larger percentage of their week on social media than they do on homework. Most would rather lose a finger than their phone. No, wait, not a finger, they need those for texting! Our students have obviously embraced a new form of communication filled with tweets, IMs, wikis and blogs. They are not even emailing anymore; email is so last week.  Why are we fighting this trend? What scares us about this new kind of communication?  I believe it is control. We are terrified that in allowing social media in our schools we are relinquishing control over how they spend their time at school and what goes into their brains while they are there. In outlawing social media at school we are forfeiting a key opportunity to engage students right where they are.  What have we to lose by boldly utilizing social networking to communicate with our students?

Now, what implications does social networking have for the media center? Well, in a recent study published in the School Library Journal it was found that media specialists are more likely to join social networking sites than teachers and principals, and they are more likely to adopt a variety of content-sharing tools for personal, professional, and classroom use. Obviously, media specialists are further down the road with adoption of social networking.  This should provide a leg up in making the media specialist and, by extension, the media center the coolest things at school.  Can you imagine a library full of QR codes providing library orientation, or students receiving tweets about new books based on the type of books they have previously checked out? How about students posting book reviews on a library blog? I can, and if you want your media center to be a  current, vital asset to your school, you should, too!

One complaint noted in the aforementioned study is that most media specialists are frustrated with their school districts blocking access to much of the social media they would like to utilize.  I know at my school, we are constantly running up against blocking of scads of worthwhile sites.  The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association, has prepared a useful resource to aid in educating the community and teens about responsible, safe use of social networking.  Check out their toolkit and start advocating for social networking in your school.


Here's  a website with an extensive list of social networking resources from Internet @ School.


 

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6705646.html