I quickly downed my glass of wine and hit the network…it was time to find out more about these cute, furry, little Webkinz and what they were really capable of. (OK…I’m exaggerating a bit for the sake of effective blogging) but I found a short, informative video for those of you who are not as informed on the Webkinz craze http://cnettv.cnet.com/9742-1_53-27417.html . The safety measures that make up this site are so tight that it’s really not a social networking site in the sense that there really is no one-on-one peer interaction but as the journalist in the video stated, “This could be the start of web addiction at an early age if not used in moderation.” Just to set the record straight, my daughter is not on the Webkinz site very often as she has to fight her mom and dad’s time for computer use (that’s a whole other topic!)
My personal experience in social networking began with my sister-in-law’s insistence that I become a member of Facebook because she had found this forum the best way to connect with her friends. (She and my brother have moved several times over the past 10 years). I was never convinced and refused to join! Soon my husband had also joined the ranks of Facebook along with his 15 year old daughter (she had joined 2 years prior) and were trying to convince me it was “safe, private and secure”. Sorry…still unconvinced! Along came this great course at university that asked us to join a social networking site to be able to comment on the experience…OK…I give up…let’s give it a shot! Now I realize I had options in my choice of social networking sites (WOW! Did I ever!) but I guess I found the excuse that I needed to give this Facebook thing a try!
I’m not going to speak to long about Facebook as I found so many other topics regarding Social Networking that are far more interesting to discuss here. Let’s suffice it to say that at first I was mesmerized by Facebook! I found old friends (and acquaintances) that I haven’t spoken to or seen in YEARS!!!! I started to begin conversations with them through e-mail but found I couldn’t keep up…I didn’t have the time for this “socializing” right now! I had university posts to write, articles to read, kids to raise, classes to prepare (and the list goes on!). With all the excitement that came with finding old friends, came the realization that I don’t have time for that. I don’t have the energy or the “free time” to jump on this Facebook band wagon right now. It just didn’t fit into my lifestyle. I have a hard enough time keeping up with the friends that live right across the street from me, never mind thousands of kilometers away! I also hated the use of the term “friends”. People were inviting me to be their “friend” but I was never really their “friend” in high school, why would I be their “friend” now? I guess you can tell I’m not the biggest fan of Facebook and I really couldn’t see its place in education at all. So where do SNS fit in the world of education? Time for more investigation…
I’ve come to rely on the experts in the field of education and technology as I research many of our Web 2.0 topics and not surprisingly, most of them seemed to feel the same way on the topic of Social Networking. Social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace don’t really have a place in the classroom setting BUT that being said we can’t ignore the fact that students have made this a priority in their lives and how the communicate with their peers.
I loved Vicki Davies post entitled “It is about Educational Networking and NOT Social Networking” . Throughout her entire post she draws a line through the word social to make her point about referring to this tool as an “educational” network and not a social one. “We should stop calling it "social" networking unless it is for Social. Social is just one spoke of the wheel of life. Here we're talking education.The students don't want us in their private lives any more than we want them in ours. We've got great platforms, let’s make them practical now.”
In reading posts by both Vicki and Will Richardson, they referred to an article written by Danah Boyd in response to a well-blogged about debate by The Economist focusing on the topic of social networking in education. I too found Danah’s words inspiring! I think this is when I came to a realization about social networking and just Web 2.0 tools and technology in general. It's not about the tools themselves but how we use them and apply them in education. Ok... that doesn't sound very deep so I'm going to have to refer to Danah Boyd's words instead as she puts it much far more eloquently than me!
"It's (technology) a tool. Just like a pencil. Figure out what it's good for and leverage that to your advantage. Realize that there are interface problems and figure out how to work around them to meet your goals. Tools do not define pedagogy, but pedagogy can leverage tools. The first step is understanding what the technology is about, when and where it is useful, and how it can and will be manipulated by users for their own desires."
I think this speaks particularly to social networking as it is so feared and frowned upon by adults and educators alike, they've ignored it and "blocked it" hoping it will never make its way into our schools.
So how can we take this "tool" and make it work for us in the classroom? CAN we make it work?
Remember my rude awakening on Friday night about my daughter's social networking with Webkinz? I decided as the responsible parent I claim to be I better check out this idea of "safe social networking" on my search engine and came across an article in eSchool news entitled "Safe Social Networking Sites emerge". Mind you, this article does date back to June 2006 but it was more than I knew on the topic so it had to produce new information (at least for me!). The article lead in two directions; one, that there ARE safe social networking opportunities out there for young students (my main focus as a K-8 educator)Whyville and Imbee to name a few and two, there is a scope of learning that comes with using SNS that is integral to their use and that is internet safety! A quote from the article as stated by the executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance,
"... it's extremely important that we teach children how to stay safe and secure on the internet when they're young and going through school, so they know how to be proper cyber citizens in the future. We see schools as a great opportunity for [teaching] kids to stay safe online".
I couldn't agree more! There is a plethora of sites on this topic and definitely an area that must be addressed as we look at using social networking in our schools or more importantly even if we are NOT using them directly in our schools because we KNOW they are using them at home! (Just for your musings, I found a great post by Vicki Davies for parents on the topic "11 Steps to Online Parental Supervision of your Children".)
As for using Whyville or Imbee in the schools, I did check out both sites which contain lots of resources for teachers to use this tool in the classroom in a very safe and secure environment. It would be a great place to begin teaching what it means to be an ethical and safe digital citizen and have some fun learning at the same time!
As you can tell from my ramblings this week, this topic sent me off in many directions!
My own list of social networks appears short but seems to be growing:
- I'm still a member of Facebook (but rarely checking my page),
- I've become a member of the Teacher Librarian Network Ning (I had to check out this Ning thing and had fun creating a funky pink page and saying "hi" to my U of A classmates who'd joined),
- I didn't realize that Shelfari was a social network (and as you can see from my blog...I am a member!),
- I am an online learner with the U of A using their Blackboard as my "educational" network (and possibly created some lifelong friends and colleagues),
- I'm not a member of Classroom 2.0 (as of yet) but I subscribe to its RSS feed,
- I share my delicious bookmarks in a network environment
- ...and as Will Richardson stated (and I strongly agree) "the hardest and best work is building a network node by node through blogging and reading and creating and developing those relationships with all the messiness that the Web allows for." So I guess you can count this blog (and my classroom blog) as yet another social network!
For me, right now, social networking is working at its best in a professional learning capacity, in universities, high schools, adult learning centers, etc. where they are capable of differentiating between 'social' and 'educational' use of the networking tools.
As you can see from my list above (and I'm sure I'm signed up in more that I'm not even aware of as of yet), I have become a "social" learner (in this course and on the net). That being said, I guess I can't knock it too much and I have to allow for its educational possibilities for my own students K-8 (and eventually my children...just not yet!).
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