Youth, Journalism and Facebook

I'm still exploring possibilities of working on a research where my nine-year-olds could use facebook, probably assuming as young journalists, giving updates of school events. Would appreciate some comments and views from you, with regards to constructing the research qn. Im looking into the areas of writing or digital literacy via fb.Thanks and hope to hear fr u

With regards to your inquiry: I’m not sure that Facebook is a website that’s intended for younger preteen kids. You might consider adopting a tool more specifically design for those age audiences, like Webkinz, Club Penguin, Imbee, Whyville, Panwapa, Beanie Babies, BuildABear, WoogiWorld, or Cybersmartz.

That said, I think the idea of engaging children as potential young-journalists is both progressive and a great way to help them foster some of the core skills and competencies that are essential to digital literacy. One way you might do this would be to establish a class or school blog and invite students to collaborate with one another to create articles for it. They might take pictures of class projects or write a paragraph about their experience on a field trip. You could help them think about key issues in journalism, like their audience and the best way they can convey information. This might also present an opportunity for students to review one another’s work and talk about what they like and dislike about it, effectively helping them to develop critical thinking skills as well as socializing them into proper ways to present feedback while maintaining concern for each other’s feelings.