Thinng # 22 Social Networking

I am already on Facebook. However, I do not get on there very much. It is very time consuming. I do like to see what everyone is doing. But, I rarely ever post anything. I did play a lot of Bejeweled last summer while checking out Facebook. I never could get into Farmville. I think the most useful feature for me would be to just see what everyone is doing. In the past, you would have to call on the phone to catch up with everyone, one at a time. With Facebook, it is like having everyone you would want to catch up with in the same room at one time. You decide what time that will be, you decide when to send them all home. That is a definite advantage as far as managing time goes. Facebook does have a lot of distractions. For me it is the games. Fortunately, I don't like them all or I might never get off of Facebook. Also, there are some annoying things like pokes and hugs and the millions of announcements letting me know what other people's scores are on their games.

Educators need to know about social networking because that seems to be the way of the world today. As I said in an earlier blog, my vocabulary has been expanded through participation in 23 Things. When I told my daughter I had a blog on blogspot.com, she said, "Me too, we need to keep up with each other through blogging." We already talk in person and text, but this will be a new line of communication for us. It has to provide an advantage in the classroom to be able to speak the students language and social networking is very much their language. I would think that you would see the same advantage I have with my kids at home, a connection that wasn't there before. A relationship builder.

Other than that, I am not sure how to use this in or with a class unless it is used for a teacher to communicate with students. Sometimes it is very hectic during class and almost impossible to answer all student questions without taking over instruction time. This might be a way to communicate, but, I am not sure about managing what is put out there and what others are able to see and whose friends are available for who, etc. Seems to me that there are safer and more manageable ways to set up social networking for your class without using Facebook or MySpace. These two seem like a lunchroom or after school social networking time rather than a classroom networking time.