Social Networks

Ever since the Facebook craze first started when I was an undergrad student, I was a fan. I loved the up to the minute updates from friends and found that it made it so much easier to make plans with multiple people. I also enjoyed being able to collaborate with others about school work when needed. Since that time Facebook has grown and adapted at a rapid pace. Although I use it less now, I still find that it helps me to keep in contact with so many people since I moved out of my home state. I sometimes wonder how many friends I would have lost touch with if not for Facebook. On a personal level, I know that this social networking program has been beneficial to me.

As an 8th grade teacher, I am also very aware of the huge role that Facebook plays in the lives of teenagers. I have centered a class seminar around the topic and seen students respond quite passionately, whether for or against Facebook. My students also created what we called "low-tech" Facebook pages for the characters from the novel The Outsiders. Since Facebook is not yet an acceptable program in some schools, my students made Facebook pages of the characters on paper to analyze what a character like Ponyboy would have on his Facebook wall and how other characters would have communicated with him. While the kids loved the project, a few complained that it wasn't the real Facebook. However, at the middle school level we are cautioned against using it in schools because of the problems it leads to. Although many students would respond well to using Facebook in school, there are too many others who've been bullied, had fake accounts made, had accounts hacked, or just aren't allowed to access it. So, although I see many positives to using Facebook in the classroom, it is not something that I can manage well enough to ensure that students all use it correctly. Or at least, not just yet.

However, from the recent social networking lab, I learned that my view of what social networking is was in fact quite limited. It turns out there are so many more ways to use social networking than being dependent on Facebook. One of the programs that I really liked and can really see myself using is Ning. It seems like a great way to learn what other teachers are doing and connect with so many other educators. I noticed that there were teachers looking to Skype with other classes and I think such a thing would be a great experience. I also read about Edmodo. I had heard about it before, but it basically is the school-friendly version of Facebook from my understanding. I definitely plan to look into that further to see if it could be useful to my students. Finally I learned about LinkedIn. This seems like a great resource when job hunting or just for networking. The amount of social networks that exist are almost overwhelming at first. I hope that with time and experience I am able to utilize them to my professional and personal benefit!