Facebook, Twitter and You Tube blocked in the classroom despite teacher demand

UK teachers are being stifled in their classroom creativity by outdated restrictions on IT usage according to new research released today by social media education company, Magic Studio (www.magicstudio.co.uk).

Three quarters of teachers want to bring User Generated Content (UGC) sites such as You Tube into their teaching and nearly half (42%) want to introduce social media tools such as Twitter or Facebook into the classroom. However, over-protective IT policies mean that 57% are blocked from accessing UGC sites and 68% from social media sites.

The potential benefits of social media in the classroom are clearly recognised by teachers, with 63% of respondents saying that they felt these technologies would increase pupil’s engagement with learning.

The sorts of services being demanded by teachers were clear. 50% of respondents wanted to use YouTube in the classroom; 17% Facebook; 16% Flickr; 10% Bebo and 10% wanted to deploy the emergent ‘micro-blogging’ service Twitter.

Martyn Farrows, Director of Magic Studio, said: “Kids are using social media all the time, every day in their home lives then, when they get into school, they’re suddenly asked to forget all about that and go back 10 years in terms of the types of media they’re consuming. How do we expect kids to really engage with learning if we’re talking to them in a way that has no relevance to their ordinary modes of communication?

“Some of these restrictions are in place because of outdated concerns over security. However there’s now a swathe of tools and services can bring the power of social media into the classroom in a safe and constructive way. Simply blocking these services is a blunt tool that’s killing off the massive potential of social media in an educational environment.”

The research was based on a poll of teachers on the schoolzone.co.uk website in April 2009.

FULL RESULTS

What level do you teach at?

Primary – 52.7%
Secondary – 47.3%

Do you or do you want to use online, user generated content tools (YouTube, Flickr etc.) as part of your teaching?

I want to – 38.2%
I already do – 38.2%
No – 23.6%

Do you or do you want to use online social networking tools (e.g. twitter, facebook etc.) as part of your teaching?

I want to – 30%
I already do – 11.8%
No – 58.2%

If yes, what tools specifically do you/would you like to use?

You Tube – 50%
Flickr – 16%
Bebo – 10%
MySpace – 6%
Twitter – 10%
Facebook – 17%

Are you prevented from using some or all of these tools in your teaching (e.g. by Local Authority IT policy etc.)?

User generated content – 57%
Social networking – 68%

What impact do you think the introduction of these familiar online tools would have on pupils?

Better concentration – 14%
More engagement with learning – 63%
Less unruly behaviour – 2.2%
More distractions – 30.1%
Misuse of services – 33.3%

If no, why don’t you want to use them?

Don’t understand them – 4.3%
Can’t see how they’d work in lessons – 24.7%
Concerned about security/safety – 35.5%
Don’t have the technical resources – 5.4%

The operation of a peer-matching network would be simple. The user would identify himself by name and address and describe the activity for which he sought a peer. A computer would send him back the names and addresses of all those who had inserted the same description. It is amazing that such a simple utility has never been used on a broad scale for publicly valued activity.

It doesn’t sound all that radical in today’s age of social networking, but bearing in mind it was written in 1970 it’s remarkably prescient.

Almost 40 years on, Becta has commissioned a project called Young People and Social Networking Services to

to investigate how social networking services can and are being used to support personalised formal and informal learning by young people in schools and colleges.

Not surprisingly, the project finds that social networks provide lots of benefits and opportunities for formal and informal learning. These include debating, discussion, content creation, exploring and of course, collaboration and peer learning.

So, why aren’t they more widely adpoted? Well, interestingly the report also looks at some of the barriers to adoption and finds that the education system itself is just not geared to the provision of such services – from the lack of training to support teachers in the use of these technologies through to the blocking and filtering procedures in school ICT infrastructure.

Of course, Illich’s primary thesis with Deschooling Society was that a universal education system based on schools was not feasible and ran contrary to his central arguments for disestablishing schools. On the face of it, the findings of this new project indicates that not much has changed in 40 years and that the very ’system’ of schools is still preventing the use of “Learning Webs”.

But the fact that Becta is supporting this project indicates otherwise and that things are changing. Social networking is a reality in the lives of many of us (not just ‘young people’!). Understanding the risks (and there is an excellent section on this also provided by the project) is a key element but today’s students are savvy web users.

Ivan Illich was right: learning webs (=social networks) are a tremendously rewarding and beneficial educational experience. However, they can co-exist alongside ‘traditional schools’. He just didn’t anticipate how pervasive and powerful these technolgies would become.