Aloha and Welcome to our blog! This blog entry was created by the TA's of ETEC 649 Development of Online Courseware class spring semester 2009. We are interested in social networking websites and their place in educational environments. Please feel free to comment on this blog entry!
Background Information
There are hundreds of social networks on the internet today. Many of them being used in education for collaboration in classroom assignments both online and in face to face environments. Each social network has it's own list of tools and each one of them has pros and cons. While security and privacy can be an issue in these sites, if managed well they can be useful and effective in many kinds of classrooms.
What is Social Networking?
Social networks are structures that facilitate communication between individuals or groups of individuals connected by a special interest or belonging to the same class. Online social networks provide pages and tools for the members to share pictures, data, files, and many other types of information. Online social networks can facilitate discussion and be used in addition to or instead of face to face communication.
Examples
Facebook - Facebook is a free-access social network where users can join networks organized by city, workplace, and region to connect and interact with other people.
Myspace - Another social network that allows users to connect with other people. Users can personalize their profile by adding HTML code, music, blog, and pictures.
Ning – Ning can allow members to create their own brand and visual design, discussion forum, photo slide show and many other feathers. The discussion forum is widely used in educational purpose such as ETEC department.
Moodle - Moodle is a Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It is a Free web application that educators can use to create effective online learning sites.
Laulima - Laulima – A CMS that currently uses by the University of Hawaii. It is an open-source application that allows instructors and students to collaborate projects and develop courses.
Classroom 2.0 - It is a social network for those interested in Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies in education. It’s created by Steve Hargadon on Ning. A social network builds by another social network tool. How interesting is that?
Trends
Trends in the educational community concerning social networking are many and divergent and depend on the environmental setting. For example, language-learning networks are concerned with connectivity to classrooms in other countries and all are concerned with privacy. Below are two of several "type-based" social networks. Each of the following has a specific niche it reaches out to and yet they both aim for collaboration as social networks.
Diigo – is an abbreviation for "Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other stuff”. Diigo is a social bookmarking website which allows signed users to bookmark and tag web-pages. Bottom line is this website allows the user to find like-minded users by the content they search and save. For a quick, less than 4 minutes, look at some of the Diigo features please view this link.
Elgg – an open source social networking software application you can download and install on a server. Elgg was built specifically to support learning and is designed especially for education. It is touted on its website as “helping to make e-learning far more personal, social, and flexible” and described by its founder as a “learning landscape.”
Ning has established a splinter site devoted to educational activities, Ning in Education. I recently visited Ning in education and found there were 112 groups registered on Ning in Education. Additionally, there were more than 3800 registered members. As you might expect there were groups devoted to mathematics and languages and a variety of science groups as well.
As social networks continue used in educational settings continue to expand the debate over their usefulness and validity will undoubtedly continue. The National Shools Board Association funded a study of social networks and classroom uses. Please read the article, a 12 pager in pdf format, from the National School Boards Association research report Creating and Connecting.
Social Networks: Five Consumer Trend for 2009
Social Networking Watch
Educational Site Examples
There are literally hundreds of eduacational social networks and almost as many different methods used to categorize the existing sites. Below are just a few sites in no particular order to give examples of educators establishig and using social networks.
MuseumPods the Social Media Network
Music Teachers that are Techies
Teachers in the Digital Age
Middle School Science Teacher
Intermediate Spanish Teachers
Online Social Network Policy Issues
"Facebook plans to make money by selling your data! "
Does it sound scary or is it just another piece of irrelevant news to you? Every time you sign up to a new online social network account, you will have to agree on some certain terms and conditions in order to become a member of the site. How often do you really read through the prolonged and seemingly endless pages of service terms on the screen? The recent change of Facebook's service terms brought a lot of attention from its users because it allowed third party companies to pay Facebook to use some selected users' data. The backlash was so big that Facebook had to reverse the change.
People rely heavily on online social networks for various purposes. While enjoying the creativity that online social networks bring to users, there is also a responsibility to protect their rights.
Here are some suggestions when using online social networks:
1. Read the Service Terms.
2. Pay attention to any updates or changes to the service terms.
3. Contact the web site administrator when you have any doubts or questions about the service terms.
4. Be mindful of the information you put on the web.
More information about the recent issue regarding Facebook:
Facebook reverses terms of service changes after member revolt
Facebook backtracks on user policy change after content-rights firestorm
Face to Facebook
Security and Privacy Issues
Some social networking sites, such as ning, allow you to only allow access to the classroom or group to students and teachers in the same class or other invited guests. If you are lucky enough to be using one of these sites you still have to be careful about what information you want to be posted on the internet. If you are using a more open site like Facebook or MySpace, you will want to be extremely careful about what information you post for others to see.
There are some basic things you should remember in social networking:
-If using a closed social networking site, you should still be aware that even if you only meant for the students in the class or one particular teacher to see the information posted, by you posting pictures or information you are essentially giving a copy of this information to each person the site is shared with. They can easily reproduce or distribute anything that you add to the site.
-If you use a userid that is the same as your school or work user ID, never use the same password. If a hacker got your social networking password, you don't want them to also be able to go in and take over your email account.
-On an open site, never post information that you would not be willing to post on a billboard. Also assume that once you post, even if you delete the information it is on a server somewhere backed up forever.
-Be aware that employers can and have in the past used information on social working sites to fire or to not offer employment to people. Never put anything in writing that you would not be willing to scream into a megaphone.
-Educators should also be aware of FERPA guidelines regarding directory information when asking students to post information about themselves on open social networks. Even posting pictures could be a violation of FERPA guidlines. (This would only apply to publicly accessible sites.) For more information visit the FERPA website.
More information on FERPA and social networking:
Edumorphology Blog
Moodle information of FERPA compliance
UNC Student Blog entry on FERPA and Facebook
Conclusion
Used properly social networking sites can aid in education and allow students and educators to collaborate and organize their information in both online and face to face learning environments. While privacy and security are issues that need to be addressed, proper security measures can ensure that student information is shared safely and only with people you want it to be shared with.
How do you see social networking being a part of your classroom? Do you see any privacy or privacy issues that social networking could bring into your situation? What benefits do you think implementing a social networking could have to your learners or yourself?