Why Schools Should Embrace Social Networking

Back in early 2011, I posted details and resources for creating a fictional Facebook wall for characters in S.E. Hinton's classic adolescent novel, The Outsiders. The post has become one of the most visited on my blog - statics as of this post indicate more than 43,000 views!

Tonight, the Outsiders/Facebook post received an interesting comment. My first impulse was to assume it was someone looking for a flame war and simply delete it, but on second thought, it was just too passionately written to dismiss. Instead, I choose to reply to it. I hope it encourages you to think about the value of social media in education and what fundamental skills we should be teaching students.  Mr. Wildern's comment and my reply are below. 

Dante Wildern,

I appreciate your vehement opposition to my post. Anytime someone shows that much passion, it deserves to be commended.

With that said, I must disagree with you. First, this project was only one assignment in a long series of activities, all of which required face-to-face interaction that included peer groupings, large-group discussions, and Socratic seminars, to name a few. By no means was a classic work of fiction demoralized by what you refer to as "psuedo-social interactions." Pedagogically speaking, the Facebook assignment was an excellent way for students to demonstrate an understanding of complex concepts such as characterization and analysis of plot elements.

Secondly, I disagree that this assignment "goes against everything I should be teaching." Look at any mission statement from any school district in America and you will find something regarding the importance of creating lifelong learners who leave school equipped with skills needed to be successful. Whether you like it or not, online social networking is how the world interacts. If schools don't embrace this, then they risk becoming irrelevant in an ever-increasing digital world.

Again, I appreciate your comment. Conversations like these are what make me proud to be a teacher. Regardless of whether I agree with your opinion or not, you are an articulate and intelligent person. Clearly, your teachers did a good job preparing you for the world of social interactions (which is exactly what this blog is).

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Thank You, Dunkin' Donuts

After just two weeks, my personal crusade against the grammatical inconsistencies of Dunkin' Donuts has come to a peaceful resolution.

On Monday, November 16th, I saw this sign hanging at a nearby Dunkin' Donuts. I wrote them a complaint letter via their website feedback form, and wrote more about the situation, here.

Within a few short hours, I was contacted via Twitter and this blog by Dunkin' Donuts. Within less than 12 hours of my original complaint, the sign had been removed. My blog post, here, explains more.

Two days ago, I received a package postmarked November 19th from Dunkin' Donuts headquarters. Not only did they send me a written apology, but they also included 2 pounds of delicious Dunkin' Donuts coffee grounds.

So this post is simply to say, thank you. You made good, Dunkin' Donuts.

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The Power of Twitter

Last night I wrote this blog post about a grammar error I spotted on a sign at a local Dunkin' Donuts restaurant. It included a picture of the offending advertisement and a copy of the feedback note I sent using the form on the Dunkin' Donuts website. I tweeted the post to my 900 or so followers.


I noticed this morning more than a dozen visitors to my blog from Canton, Massachusetts. I had a hunch about this, and after a quick visit back to dunkindonuts.com, my suspicions were confirmed - this very blog was being visited by folks working in the corporate offices of Dunkin' Donuts.

How's that for the power of Twitter?

Soon after, I was contacted by Dunkin' Donuts. Out of their 38,000 followers and millions of other Twitter users, my voice had been heard and addressed directly. How cool is that?


It's nice to see a company that is willing to speak directly to their consumers; a quick look at @dunkindonuts reveals most posts to be replies to other users. They are not using Twitter to market, but to connect - and that's what it's really about.

It's also nice to see a company take responsibility for their actions. The sign issue is on the smallest of scales, but it renews my faith in consumerism just a little bit. Even moreso, it reminds me how powerful one voice can be when heard by the right people.

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Grammar Enthusiasts VS. Dunkin' Donuts

When did society decide to stop following even the most basic rules of grammar and punctuation? Take this sign, for example. I passed two Dunkin' Donuts restaurants on the way home from work today and both had these taped to the windows. Presumably they were professionally made and distributed to the franchises by the corporation. How did the glaring grammatical error go unnoticed?

Maybe I'm being extreme, but this isn't the first time I've caught a problem with a sign at Dunkin' Donuts.

So I wrote a letter. You can read it in its entirely down below. Wouldn't it be cool if you wrote a similar letter to Dunkin' Donuts (or copied and pasted mine) stressing the importance of grammar in promotional documents? The corporation can be contacted here. If you do, leave me a note in the comments. You never know - maybe Dunkin' Donuts will be compelled to send monetary compensation!

I am writing to alert you of a serious problem that I noticed while visiting one of your Dunkin' Donuts locations. Taped to the front window of your restaurant was an advertisement for an upcoming promotional offer. It stated “Were opening at 3am on Black Friday.” From a marketing standpoint, this seems like a great idea, however it was not the strategy that alarmed me – it was the blatant grammatical error. The spelling difference between “were” and “we're” are subtle, but the meanings of these words are quite different. It is alarming to me that such a well-known restaurant chain would make such a silly error on a sign that is undoubtedly hanging in every franchise window. I am skeptical of ingesting food and drink from a restaurant that cannot catch simple mistakes that are easily detectable by the average 4^th grade student.

UPDATE: (11/17/09) - Dunkin' Donuts contacted me about 12 hours after this was posted. Read about it here.

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An Open Letter to PBworks.com

From the PBworks.com site:
"PBworks is the world's largest provider of hosted business and educational workspaces. We host over 800,000 workspaces, serve millions of users per month, and 96% of PBworks business users would recommend PBworks to a friend."

Dear PBworks,

I recently created an account for myself, and a workspace for my group of 110 8th grade students. I have some personal experience using wikis and I was excited to integrate one into my classroom. After polling other educators on the subject, your service was recommended as a front runner in educational wiki products.

Only after I took the time to establish the wiki and create accounts for all of my students did I begin to run into problems. Confident that it was due only to my own learning curve, I set out to find the answers to my questions. Unfortunately, these problems seem to be on your end and not due to my inexperience with PBworks.

Problem #1 - No Password Reset
Your help section clearly states that passwords cannot be changed or recovered once an workspace account has been created. Why is this option unavailable? I wonder if members of the PBworks team have a background in middle school education. If so, they would know that the average middle level student practically forgets his/her own name after a long weekend. A password pre-selected by a teacher has no chance of enjoying a long-term stay in their developing brains.

Problem #2 - No Folder Hierarchy
In regard to organization, my plan had been to create a folder for each class section, and then nest other folders within it for different assignments or projects. This is as common organization framework for anyone using a Windows operating system, or any online user responsible for maintaining a website. It appears to be missing from Pbworks. While it is quite easy to create new folders to be displayed in the navigation bar, it is impossible to move them into other folders. Without this hierarchy system, it will be impossible to maintain a school year’s worth of student work.

A steering wheel is not considered an extra when purchasing a new car because it is something that simply needs to exist in order to make the product perform in the manner that is expected of it. I am not asking for advanced features. These are basic utilities that should come with a service such as yours.

In the end, I’ll probably suck it up and continue to use your service. After all, I am using a basic, free account. But I will certainly never pay for a service that has gaps in its back end that hinders deployment to my students. For a product that has adopted a freemium business model, you are not doing a very good job of enticing users to pay for membership.

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