Social Media - To Be (Real) or Not to To Be (Real)

Well, this year, I toyed with the idea of having a classroom Facebook page.  I set it up.  I joined Twitter.  I figured it was time to get "with it."  Now I have followers and occasionally I tweet.  I pretty much fell off the wagon because I have to be on the computer 24/7 between work and school (school and class? - What the heck do you guys call it?... I usually just call it school and school and let people fend for themselves with context clues).

I'm glad I decided not to use the Facebook page.  It was probably too real.  I'm encouraged to use Blackboard at my school.  We use discussion board and I've set up threads so the kids can respond on those and as the year progressed, I let them set up their own threads and let them respond to their own (and comment on each others), so I could monitor more and work a little less...That was nice. :)

[warning - ranting paragraph]
I've also been encouraged to use Google Docs.  Double edged sword.  Google Docs opens up into their county firewalled email accounts (which my class has rampantly hacked into each other's accounts and I officially received my very first HATE mail... not "from" my student, but from his sister's account.... so they were both in trouble, since it came from his fingers after he hacked her account).  <--Hence why I am glad I opted not to open up the Facebook can of worms with this group.  They're too Internet savvy for me to be trying it out on a group.  WELL, I've completely digressed here.... Back to Google Docs - my students have set up Journals in technology class (my group is the only 5th grade class that has 1/2 of a special time (I repeat, HALF of a special... which definitely is barely enough time to log into the silly computers before they log back out and head to PE)) that they share with me.  These journals are a way for them to receive feedback - they can share their documents with whomever they choose (actually, anyone in the district, if they like, but we try to keep it to students in the class, or at least in the grade, for class purposes).  They can comment on each other's work and it shows time stamps, it shows edits/revisions, and if someone makes a mistake, we can go back to retrieve the work before the mistake was made.  Everything works in "real tune," so it's the closest thing that we have to Social Media.  They receive feedback from their peers, but they can also communicate privately if they like through messaging with peers and teachers, but the district Google Docs is a firewalled program, so they cannot send or receive messages outside of the cloud... I've tried :)  It bounces back. 

So - while the district pushes the Blackboard site - the Google Docs will probably win out, if they continue to partner.  Hopefully Google will continue to improve so it becomes even more user friendly in the future.