Social Networking

Everywhere we look, people are communicating using technology. You see people constantly on their phones, or texting, or emailing, or checking one of their many social networking sites such as myspace, facebook or twitter. The world is on an instant connection to someone, somewhere all the time. In my opinion, all of this social networking is making us lose the ability to connect socially face to face, but that is an argument for a different time. For now, I'll look at some social networking sites, specifically facebook and nings, to see how effective they can be in the classroom.

I found an interesting piece by Soren Gordhamer the author of Wisdom 2.0 entitled

"When Do You Use Twitter versus Facebook?"  He points out that a growing number of people use more than one social networking site, but that they use each one for a different purpose. He compares both twitter and facebook, but as I'll be discussing twitter later this week, I'll only report on his findings regarding facebook. According to Gordhammer, facebook is primarily seen as a tool for communicating with those you know well. It provides different options for holding discussions. Facebook enables you to have sustained conversations or you can have an instant chat if the other person is online.Of the 136 people who responded to Gordhamer's piece, an overwhelming amount agreed that facebook was for communicating with friends. These findings were reiterated through a panel discussion held at the University of British Columbia.

In February of this year, the University of British Columbia held the first Teaching and Learning with Technology Speaker Series. It's topic was the use of facebook for educational purposes. Michael Wong, the  Marketing and Communications Coordinator at the U.B.C. Office of Learning Technology reported on the session in his estrategy update. Although both weblogs and wikis are used in classes, the forum was to discuss the value of using facebook. What he learned from the panel and the student discussion was that facebook is used by students to talk to, and stay connected with, other students and of course, their friends. They use it to raise awareness of issues, mentor and/or advise other students, hold on-line discussion groups and receive information updates. As the discussion progressed, the issue of requiring students to join facebook for a class arose. There was concern around privacy and the disclosure of personal information as the server is in the United States.  It was felt that expecting students to subscribe meant asking them to join something that they might, or might not, fully understand, and if they weren't careful with privacy settings, could disclose their personal information to strangers. Students need to be able to preserve anonimity and, according to Wong, this is not possible on facebook. The Humanities and Social Sciences Librarian, Sheryl Adams, said she attempted to use it with students but found it did not work for a student/professional relationship. Facebook was more suited to a peer/peer relationships.

Facebook can of course be used by interest groups focussed on specific subjects. I read some very interesting discussion on the facebook page of the International Society for Technology In Education (Iste) which dealt with students, classrooms and the use of technology. This link was on their Ning site. I explored numerous Nings and found all of them to have interesting items to read. Nings seem to focus on specific interests, whether it be sports, social issues, entertainment,education, or....

The teacher librarian ning started by Joyce Valenza opens with a great map showing where everyone on the ning can be found. It allows you to ask questions, post comments, and post blogs. It provides links to other associated nings. The education ning I found, had a teacher who used nings in the classroom, asking a question about reusing it with new students without having to start a whole new ning.  It had only just been posted, but I'm going to return to it to read what response he gets. The education ning also had information about how to get a ning for students that would not have any ads. As I went through the various sites, I  found a wealth of useful information and found myself wanting to respond to numerous posts. Of course, in order to respond, you have to belong to the ning and I am hesitant to join too many, so rather that jumping in all at once, I've joined the teacher librarian one, but I'm going to follow a few more to see which ones best suit me and my needs before joining too many. I was pleasantly surprised by how interesting and informative much of the information was to me.

In exploring both of these social networking sites, facebook and nings, I constantly reflect back to my question of how these tools can help me to create an enriching, safe learning environment for students. I have come to realize that ignoring sites is not an answer. We have to model to students how to use all of the internet safely and responsibly. I know some coaches use facebook to inform students about practices etc. I know others use facebook to create profiles of potential guest speakers. I could see myself using specific facebook discussion pages such as those on the Iste site as readings to start of a socratic seminar or to provide information to help a student with specific research. This would help to show them that facebook can be for more than just 'chatting and sharing' with friends. I cannot see using a classroom facebook site as I agree with both  Gordhamer and Wong that it is more suitable for friends or colleagues and not for student-teacher relationships. 

The nings I explored all got me very excited about the potential for my professional development and the ability for increased interstaff communication. I can see starting a ning within the school for teachers to share lessons, discuss best practice, assessment, and many other topics. As teachers  are so busy during the work week, we rarely get into the staff room to have these chats and a ning would be a great way for anyone wishing to take part to belong and have ongoing conversations when it suits them rather than when they see someone. It would aslo be a great place to put links to similar conversations happening elsewhere. The ability of the developer of the ning to have control over levels of viewability and membership would help to make others more comfortable sharing their views.

Alexandra Levit, a Wall Street Journal columnist, wrote about "How To Deal with Social Networking Overload." She talks about being clear in your purpose for using any specific site, creating boundaries, differentiating your presence on each and making it clear to others why you use it. I think it is really important that we start to do this. There are so many tools out there, and more seem to be available every day. We need to pick and choose what we use and how we use it, so that we create a balanced curriculum with different and exciting options for students, but we have to be careful not to spread ourselves to thinly and to ensure everything we do works to improve student learning.