The newest question...

In my last research question, I ran up against a roadblock of not having time to get IRB approval so I've redirected my thinking. My overall interest is still EdTech use in elementary public schools, but for now (ie, for the first scholarly activity), instead of focusing on safety factors of EdTech integration, I'm narrowing my interest to an examination of social networking sites' possible educational value. I'll be attempting to create a rubric outlining pedagogical elements necessary to learning and using that rubric to evaluate the extent to which current SNSs possess them.

I. Lit. Review of current work in the area

Terms: SNS "social networking" web2.0 facebook education "positive outcomes" "formal learning environment"

People:

• Christine Greenhow
• danah boyd
• Clay Shirky
• Henry Jenkins
• Nicole B. Ellison
• Neil Selwyn (skeptic re: social web in formal learning)
• Christian Dalsgaard
  
  

Journals:

• Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
• Journal of Educational Computing Research
• interactions
  

II. Lit. Review of factors of educational efficacy
- the ones that make sense for online tools, like these, and for elementary students (audience matters)


III. Develop rubric based on factors
- x-axis=tool; y-axis the degree to which or 1/0
- the structure of the rubric will emerge as I learn about the factors through reading. (or so I thought... ugh) They may come from what kids want/like, teachers, etc. I need to document where each factor came from.
- It will probably be under 10-12 of them both for practicality and completeness.
- Some will be binary, others will be scaled.

IV. Survey top 2 most popular SNSs from both "school safe" and "general use" categories according to Alexa
- be able to articulate why I chose the tools I chose (might be popularity, might be something else)

V. Report Findings

VI. Develop recommendations for future SNSs
Make sure to include conclusions for all potential audiences. Each will have a different perspective. Some will care about the method & the rubric and others will care about the outcome.
- for tools developers
- customers of these tools (school districts, ed leaders)
- EdTech researchers


* I'd like to thank Dr. Cathy Cavanaugh and Dr. Chris Sessums for contributing to these ideas.