Social networking is a way to, once again, connect and learn
with others about things we really care about.
These relationships can be friendship-based or interest-based. For educational purposes, teachers should explore
interest-based connections. It is
extremely important to teach about digital citizenship, safety, and information
literacy. Sharing or modeling our own
experiences will let kids know what the expectations are and what roles they
can assume.
Facebook use by teachers is usually in the form of private
groups. Classes exchange information,
write on each other's walls, answer questions and create a shared space of
material for courses. The teacher sets
the transparency level. A couple of
examples were mentioned such as the Unquiet Library - a public facebook site. This site combines a number of integrated
components on the web.
Ning is a free social networking site around specific
topics. It is self-contained so teachers
have administrative control over who can access the site. Students can test their writing skills for a
dedicated audience and members can comment.
Class portfolios are a typical outgrowth. Navigation can be confusing because of the
wide array of elements available (the author emphasizes not to click add
Apps!). Google ads appear until you can
prove this is for educational use. An
interesting comment was provided on the St. Joe H2o site (http://tinyurl/ldgwkb). There is "no longer a one-way
relationship with the text, or a two-way relationship with a teacher; now it is
a hub of communication that connects the best parts of the past with the
growing future of our program." I
think this is true for the entire read/write web.
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