Investigating the 21st century k 16 social media use focusing on whether or not there is a need for standardized social media curriculum.

Investigating the 21st Century K-16 Social Media Use and Whether or Not The Time Has

Come for Formal Social Media Education.

Adalheidur Reed Focusing On Whether or Not There is A Need For Standardized Social Media Curriculum.

What Age’s Are K-16 Students Actively Using Social Media?

Abstract• This Study is aimed at examining social media use in

K – 16 students, gauging at what age they initially start using social media, how and from whom they learn to use social media, what types of interactions they engage in (Good, Bad or UGLY!), investigating whether or not it is time that the government step in with Formal Social Media Education (FSME) and Standardized Social Media Curriculum (SSMC).

Introduction• Today 6 years after opening to the general public there

are 901 million active Facebook users (Wikipedia, 2012). Who is educating the general public in OSMP use?

• How many of the 901 Million active users are children under 18?

• May 2012 CEO of Facebook Mark Zeckerburg thinks that it is time that the current 13 year old age limit be lifted because children are able to learn from using Facebook (MSNNow, 2012).

Research QuestionsThe Main object of this research will be to gauge whether there is a currently a

social media Wild Wild West settler setting for K – 16 students and if so what can be done to foster a better or “Best Practice” social media environment for K – 16 students; which warranted asking the following questions:

• At What Age do K – 16 students start using social media? • Who/What is monitoring K – 16 minors that are already actively engaged in the

use of social media?• Who, what and how are K – 16 students learning how to use social media from?• What are the possible long/short term damage can be caused to K – 16 students

from using social media?• How can long/short term social media damage for K – 16 students be avoided?

Social Media Background History

• Social Media has been around for the last 44 years! (Wikipedia, 2012)– ARPANET 1968 / Taylor– USENET 1980 / Tom Triscot and Tom Ellis – Friendster 2002 / Jonathan Abrams– Linkedin 2002 / Hoffman, Blue, Ly, Vaillant, Hower, Guericke,

Beitzel,Eves,McNish, Pujante, and Saccheri– MySpace 2003 / Tom Anderson– Facebook 2004 / Zuckerberg, Moskovitz and Huges– Twitter 2006 / Dorsey, Glass, Williams, Stone– Google+ 2011 / Google Inc.

Background on Standardized Social Media Curriculum.

• As Of today’s date August 2012 there is no Standard Social Media Curriculum (SSMC). Does the current use by students K – 16 call for SSMC?

• Many High Schools and Junior High Schools ban social media such as Facebook within School Walls, claiming that it is distraction. (Wikipedia, 2012) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking_service#Social_networks_and_education

Social Media Background Today• There are many forms of social media today ranging from

social networking to professional networking:– Linkedin is a professional network.– Facebook is most known as a social network but can also be used

to network professionally.– Twitter is know as sort of a news media network where you can

find business’s, newspapers, celebrities and friends Tweeting about current events.

– Google+ is the newest of these social medias and is starting to earn a reputation as a the network with the best tools for education and business network sharing.

Largest Social Medium is Facebook• Today 6 years after opening to the general public there are

over 901 million active Facebook users (Wikipedia, 2012). Where did all these users learn how to use Facebook?

• How many of the 901 Million active users are children under 18?

• May 2012 CEO of Facebook Mark Zeckerburg thinks that it is time that the current 13 year old age limit be lifted because children are able to learn from using Facebook (MSNNow, 2012). Now what?

Is There A “Best Practice”?• Schools are trying to implement their own social

networks with sites like Edmundo.• Is there buy in from students outside of the school

walls, where they are being forced to use Edmundo. • If large numbers of students are already engaged in

the use of social media sites, tomorrow is not the time to implement SSMC into K-16 Education the time is Yesterday!

What type of online media profile does your child have?

• 92% parent participants reported their children used Facebook or 103 out of 112 responding to this item, only 15 out of the103 respondents reported they used something other then the mainstream social media listed indicating that not very many students are using the Edmundo as a

social networking site outside of school walls.# Answer

Response %

1 Facebook

103 92%

2 MySpace

7 6%

3 Twitter

12 11%

4 Yahoo Messenger

12 11%

5 Windows Live

19 17%

6 Skype

33 29%

7 Other

15 13%

Methods• Three Pilot studies where conducted to find what type of social media

interaction K – 16 students are already engaged in without out formal training.

• Participants 18 years and older where recruited from two universities in North Texas and one university in Iceland.

• Participants for K – 12 student parents where recruited using social media and an online survey. – Facebook– Twitter– Linkedin

• The total number of participants where 206 From Iceland and the US (N = 206).

How old was your Child when their first social media profile was created?

• A total of 82% parent participants out of 116 that responded had children under the age of 14 when their ONSP was created.

# Answer

Response %

1 1-5

9 8%

2 6-10

28 24%

3 11-14

68 59%

4 15-18

21 18%

What Do K – 16 Students Know About Privacy

• What type of interaction are K – 16 students participating in while engaging in using social media and is it safe?

• Who is navigating their social media journey?• Who is protecting K- 16 students while they

travel the social media highway?• What if at all are their privacy levels set to?

Parents Monitoring?

• When asked “Do you monitor your child-children while they engage in using online social media?” Only 13% answered “Yes Every Step”.

# Answer

Response %

1 Yes Every Step

15 13%

2 Most Of the time

37 33%

3 Pretty Much

34 30%

4 Not Much

25 22%

5 Not At All

1 1%

Total 112 100%

Discussion April, 2012 the active users of Facebook grew from 845 million in February

to over 901 million (Wikipedia, 2012), this growth seems to indicate the need for an updated larger version of this study.– Are students buying into school issued social media sites like Edmodo

that the schools are attempting to use to safely teach social media interaction, are students using Edmondo?

– Is there buy in for school issued social media such as Edmundo outside of the school walls or will students to a large degree continue actively using social medias like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ with no formal training?

– If only 13% of the participating 142 parents surveyed were monitoring everything their children under the age of 18 where doing who is monitoring the rest of the 87% of children and who should be monitoring this?

Conclusion• In K-16 schools students are shown the proper social behaviors on the school premises things like

respect, please, thank you, taking your place in line, do not disrupt the class, do not bully others, what to do if you are bullied, raise your hand before speaking, do not wear inappropriate clothing and do not use inappropriate language. These rules and regulations from the school carryover into all forms of life and these are the rules students are expected to follow when they become adult professionals; However the rules of engagement for social media websites have yet to be created and from the findings in this paper it is clear that the need to introduce social media in to K-16 classrooms is here and it cannot be ignored any longer by school administrators or by parents. Children are already using social media in high numbers and they are learning from a California gold rush Wild Wild West settler setting; there are no best practices clear standard or official rules and regulations for children to follow in this uncharted playground they are already fully engaged in using! It is clear from this study that parents are not actively engaged in creating or monitoring their children’s online social activities; therefore it is clear that the school needs to step in and create some sort of rules of engagement that students are able to follow to protect them from the many dangers and pitfalls they will needlessly endure and that they could avoid such as social-media-stranger danger, social-media-bullying and or social media inappropriate exposure/behavior. Exploring and explaining these dangers needs to become a high priority NOW before we allow our children to get hurt due to schools dropping the ball on this issue, the need is here NOW!

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Questions