Social networking has opened up many opportunities, friendships, and learning experiences for me. Before I joined, I was clueless about what it was, or why people were so enamored of it. At my school, we were concerned about students that had not used good judgement about pictures that they posted. Then my friend, Shelby, sent me an invite to join Facebook myself.
My conclusion is that Facebook, blogging, and social networking is a positive force. The potential good outweighs any negatives that I have seen. It has allowed me to get to know some teachers at school better also. We occasionally talk about the games we mutually play, like Yoville, and enjoy sending each other messages there. In the article Blogging Boosts Your Social Life by Claudine Ryan for ABC Science Online, blogging allows a person to feel more connected...and more satisfied with your friendships, both online and face-to-face. This has been true in my experience, as I'm sure is true for many others.
As an educator, social networks provide opportunities to read, research and discuss the best practices worldwide. Groups like the Global Education Collaborative and Classroom 2.0 provide educators a forum to learn the latest technology, how to use it effectively, and get advice as well as support from a wide variety of educators outside of the circle at one's own school. The knowledge base is staggering! Isolation is abolished by the open doors of internet collaboration.
This past weekend, I was researching blogs because I want to give my students an opportunity to fall in love with writing through blogging. Literacy today should involve the computer in some way. Some of the blogging sites I found are Edublog, Classblogmeister, and many more that I have put on my Netvibes page.
Then, I was taken aback when a friend told me he discourages kids from blogging due to predators online. He works with groups that catch such people and knows their tricks. Originally I wanted to do the free blogs through Blogspot, like this one. However, I must open e-mails for each of my students. Edublog allows control and the ability to add students, but it also has a fee, as does ClassPress. The cost is not high, but usually this comes out of my pocket and not the school budget, especially in today's economy.
One alternative is a wiki. Wikispaces has both free and pay plans. The free plan allows for an unlimited number of users. I'm still researching and plan to start by the end of this week. Any suggestions or feedback are appreciated.
Some references worth reading:
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Facebook and blogging is positive sides by using this you can connect with your friends. By using facebook you can make your standard high by making the friends of your collage and even your teachers. There are some negative side of this social networking side but i don't want to discuss it.
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