Preliminary results from the Survey of K-12 Educators on Social Networking and Content-Sharing Tools, co-sponsored by AEP members edWeb.net, MCH, and MMS Education, show that 62% of respondents have joined a social network and see a high value for this technology in education. Sent to 70,000 K-12 principals, teachers, and school librarians, the purpose of the study is to benchmark educators’ use and attitudes about Web 2.0 collaborative technologies like social networking, blogging, wikis, video-sharing, and more. According to the survey, Facebook is currently the leading social network that educators have joined—86% of educators who have joined a social network have joined Facebook.
There are also a number of social networks that are dedicated specifically to education. Although these sites currently have low penetration, educators expressed a strong preference to join a social network dedicated to education, which bodes well for these niche sites.
Another key finding is that educators who have already joined a social network are far more positive about the technology and its value in education than educators who have not joined a social network. As the younger generation that has grown up on social networks enters the education workforce, there will be increasing desire and pressure to use this technology for professional and classroom collaboration.
Finally, educators realize that they are behind the times as their students use these tools for communication. However, in addition to expressing a need for more training on using this technology, the respondents also expressed concerns about keeping their professional and personal lives separate.
For more information and to receive a copy of the preliminary results of the Survey of K-12 Educators on Social Networking and Content-Sharing Tools, contact survey@edweb.net.
The survey team has created a community on the edWeb to discuss the results of the Survey of K-12 Educators on Social Networking and Content-Sharing Tools.
You can join the group at www.edweb.net/survey.
UPDATE: Read about the Final Report on K-12 Educators’ Social Media Habits.
Educators interested in an educator-specific social network may want to check out http://www.thechalktalk.ning.com
This does not surprise me since the social media movement is quickly becoming as mainstream as any other medium. Challenge here is how it will help educate kids. Exciting times.
We launched edWeb.net to provide educators with a professional social network to support the creation of learning communities. The research supports our fundamental mission.
However, we also want to encourage more collaboration between member of the education industry and educators. We believe that kind of collaboration is needed to improve the educational materials that are needed to increase student motivation and achievement.