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Paige Shaw Dr. Christopher Miles March 28, 2012 Kitsis, S.M. (2008). The Facebook generation: Homework as social networking. The English Journal. 92(2), 30-36. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40503379 In any typical classroom setting, students are expected to combine instruction and assessment in order to exhibit knowledge of the course content. This almost always involves homework on the students part. According to the instructors, homework is a necessary and valuable part of the students learning process. However, many homework assignments are resented and considered burdens by the students. The reason for this negative attitude towards homework is due in large part to its detail-driven and many times ineffective characteristics. As time constraints pressure teachers to complete their instruction and course content, it becomes more and more difficult to cover necessary material in class. This decreasing class time and/or increasing course content seems to inadvertently cause expected time out of class to go up, but with so many other activities and obligations, students are hardly going to reap substantial benefits from these isolated, self-motivated assignments in which they often receive unmeaningful grades and little or no feedback. This is counterproductive since the point of homework is to give the students a chance to practice what they are learning in the classroom and to receive meaningful feedback so that they have a grasp on just how much they know and how much more they need to study. Students are also much more motivated and find tasks much more pleasant when other people are involved. Not only are they more motivated but, according to De Lisi, who was cited by Kitsis, Peer learning has advantages for students inside and outside

classrooms, improving academic skills and subject matter mastery through the free exchange of ideas, while simultaneously teaching critical social and communication skills (De Lisi 5). The solution therefore is to take an activity that students would do in their free time, and turn it into a learning experience. Since the internet and Facebook are so popular today, it makes sense to use them instead of fighting for students attention from them. Therefore Kitsis proposes that as homework, students interact through blogs commenting on class material, answering questions assigned by the teacher, and receiving feedback from their peers. This is a very good idea in my opinion because, as stated earlier, so many people use the internet daily anyway. Of course there is always the concern that everyone might not have access to a computer, but in todays time there are so many public places that offer free access to computers (public library, school computer lab, etc.) that there is almost no excuse anymore. Another benefit to this kind of homework is that it will help students adjust to more technology based schooling. There are more and more classes being offered solely online and this internet based homework allows students to sort of ease into using a computer to learn and disciplining themselves to keep up with online assignments. This article is not particularly oriented to English as a second language, but nonetheless I feel that its message can apply to any teaching situation. I even feel that it is particularly beneficial to language learning students because it forces them to communicate in the target language in a meaningful way. This type of interaction is exactly what second language learners need for improvement in understanding as well as speaking proficiency. It will also raise students self-esteem by effectively communicating ideas and interacting in a social environment. Teachers can also carry the assignments over into speaking practice by having

students discuss the posts and ideas from the night before, allowing practice in reading, writing and speaking all in a meaningful and interactive way. De Lisi, R. (2002). From marbles to instant messenger: Implications of Piagets ideas about peer learning. Theory into Practice. 41(1), 5-12.