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3/4/09
Scenario

Intro

What Is Social Networking?

Wikipedia states that social networking “focuses on building online communities of

people who share interests and/or activities or who are interested in exploring the

interests and activities of others.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/social_network_service)

There are over 200 social network services, worldwide, and all have strong followings in

different parts of the world. There are specialized social networks surrounding the topics

of art, classrooms, conferences, libraries, technology, etc. There are general social

networks like MySpace, Facebook, Hi5 and Bebo. Some social network sites are open to

anyone and others are closed, or private. Social networks are used for business

(LinkedIn), dating (Match.com), medical reasons, books (Good Reads), movies

(Flixster), knitting and crocheting (Ravelry), for social good-you name it and you can

probably find one that addresses the topic. Some social networks are deployed in-house,

while others, in fact the ones we hear about the most, are external. Statistically, the

number of people using social networks breaks down like this.

(((Figure 7.?-Age/Social Network User statistics (Pew/Internet Generations Online, 2009,

p.5)))

12-17 yrs. = 65% 45-54 yrs = 20%.

18-32 yrs. = 67% 55-63 yrs. = 9%

33-44 yrs. = 36% 64-73+ yrs. = 15%
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Although some have higher age requirements, the terms of service for most social

networks require a minimum age of 13 years. This requirement can be problematic for

the teachers of younger students as well as for younger students themselves.

HOW DO SOCIAL NETWORKS SUPPORT TEACHING AND LEARNING?

AASL Standards Supported

2.1.5 Collaborate with others to exchange ideas, develop new understandings, make

decisions, and solve problems

2.3.2 Consider diverse and global perspectives in drawing conclusions

3.1.2 Participate and collaborate as members of a social and intellectual network of

learners

4.1.7 Use social networks and information tools to gather and share information

4.3.4 Practice safe and ethical behaviors in personal electronic communication and

interaction

12 Reasons To Use Social Networks

1. Create real-life friendships through similar interests or groups

2. Enhances technology and communication skills

3. Promotes creativity

4. Presents new or diverse views

5. Provides practice editing/customizing content

6. Share creative work

7. Supports user’s need to affiliate
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8. Offers opportunity to practice safe, ethical, and responsible use

9. Create or participate in online communities

10. Easy way to make friends

11. Encourages user generated content-videos, photos

12. Allows educators to reach students through medium they use everyday

How are Educators Using Social Networks?

Steve Hargadon compiled an ever-growing list of social networking sites being used in

education. (http://www.infinitethinking.org/2008/01/social-networking-in-

education.html) He breaks his list by purpose, such as general, classroom, art,

conferences, leadership, libraries, professional development, regional, technology, etc.

Looking closely at the descriptions, you can see how educators are currently using social

networking for educational purposes. You can’t necessarily look inside each site, because

some are closed/private. Keeping a site private makes sense for student safety. Others are

open to anyone to join. Below is a selective list in the areas of classroom, libraries and

professional development with descriptions of their intent.

Professional, including Professional Development –for teachers

Projects by Jen-for teachers of Pre-K through 6th grades (http://projectsbyjen.ning.com/)

(MSP)2-network for middle school math and science teachers http://msportal2.ning.com

Art Snacks-private site for teaching art (http://essdackartsnacks.ning.com/)

Teachers 2.0-about teaching in the digital age (http://teachers20.ning.com/)

Pixels Please-using digital images in the classroom (http://pixelsplease.ning.com/)
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Vidsnacks-video training for teachers who want to incorporate video into their teaching

(http://vidsnacks.ning.com/)

Classroom 2.0-created by Steve Hargadon for educators interested in Web 2.0 and

collaborative technologies (http://www.classroom20.com/)

Classroom -for students

Arteda (Art Education in the Digital Age)-exhibits, lectures, artists and a drawing course

(http://www.arteda.net/)

Museums and Students-for students and museums to connect

(http://mesn.museumpods.com/)

Reading Revolution-encourage student interest in reading; students can make and post

videos and podcasts about their favorite books and authors

Xtreme Learning-connects nine 5th grade classes throughout the world focusing on

reading and literature

Kerr Honors-a closed 9th grade English class network for reading reflection

Mr. Bruns 360-network created for his high school social studies classes

(http://mrbruns.ning.com/)

Mr. Hedman’s Math Class-created for his students (http://hedmansmath.ning.com/)

The French Connection-connects two middle school classes in the U.S. and France for

communication and language practice (closed)

Libraries

Teacher Librarian Ning-A network for teacher librarians

(http://teacherlibrarian.ning.com/)

Library 2.0-network for librarians interested in 2.0 topics (http://library20.ning.com/)
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American Library Association –oldest American library organization for librarians

(http://alamembers.ning.com/)

21st Century Teacher Librarians-sponsored by the University of Colorado, Denver

(http://21centurylibrarian.ning.com/)

Savvy Librarian-a place to connect and grow with other librarians

(http://savvylibrarians.ning.com/)

LIS Students –for students in library and information studies, or recent graduates

(http://lisstudents.ning.com/)

Bready School Library-to review books in the Bready School library

(http://breadylibrary.ning.com/)

KSC Librarians-for librarians in Kanawha County, West Virginia

(http://kcslibrarians.ning.com/)

Another way educators can use social network sites is to have their students create a

profile as a means of introducing themselves to their classmates and teacher. Teachers

can guide the profile setting up process and initiate discussion regarding privacy, ethical

use of the site and dangers of posting potentially harmful information about themselves.

The actual act of creating a profile becomes the opportunity for learning responsible

authorship for students. Some teachers teach from their sites, posing essential questions

and resources helpful to the course of study. Usually, students will become immediately

engaged in the course because they are given an opportunity to use a popular medium

that they may already use. In the library environment, social networks can be and are

being used as a way for librarians to interact with their patrons. Librarians become

personalized reference consultants through programs such as Ask a Librarian. Facebook
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has applications such as a photo slide show, a blog, and other 3rd party applications like

World Cat and Flickr that can be imbedded on a library’s social network. Groups can be

created that allow for interaction with more than one person at a time. Adding the RSS

feature to a social network enhances their flexibility even more.

Six Strategies to use Social Networks

1. With your students, create classroom guidelines for your class network that are

reasonable and that comply with district policy.

2. Make sure you and/or your students have pre-identified their audience and

purpose of their network. If it is for class work, content and language should

reflect that and not veer off into the realm of a casual, promotional “all about me”

site.

3. Remind students that if they have additional email addresses, that they can create

other sites for other purposes, at a later date. Knowing that, student may be more

apt to comply with your classroom guidelines and focus one of their course work

subjects on their social network.

4. Discuss the privacy setting with students and apply them as per district policy. If

the class members invite all their classmates and the teacher, the class can interact

without worry of outside scrutiny.

5. Teachers and students should use sound judgement about the information they

choose to share.

6. Use the status updates as assignment reminders to students.

WHICH ARE THE BEST SOCIAL NETWORKING TOOLS FOR EDUCATION?
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In the world of social networking, there are groups of tools available for use. There is the

commercial general network, the self-created network, and the “white label” type of

network. The commercial general networks include those that are very well known,

including the likes of Facebook, MySpace, Hi5 and Bebo. Although they offer the free

online version available to anyone on the Internet, they also often offer private label

services, for a fee. The next group include the likes of Ning and Elgg, which are open

source resources and fairly easy to use for the creation of a social network. Ning appears

to be the tool most favored by eduators. The “white label” group include tools such

as…..

Social networks have been in the news for negative reasons, making adults, particularly

teachers, afraid to use them. Some of the concerns include identity theft, sexual predators,

viruses, bullying, sites used by law enforcement for investigative purposes, and control of

date (who owns the content?) GET SOURCE If improperly used or created by the naive

or ill informed, the concerns are legitimate. However, social networks can play a role in

education. They do function as online meeting places and they do connect people at low

cost. They allow for the posting of ideas, blogs, pictures, slideshows and videos, and

because of this flexibility, become an important communication tool in our global world.

Common features of social networks include profile creation, privacy settings, searching

options, and support. For education purposes, if they are advertisement free, that is a plus.

But since many of the social networking tools are free, they do have ads as a means of
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raising revenue. The general commercial sites share so many features in common, but

they do have a few differences. MySpace is the only on in the list that you can customize

by using HTML. Facebook does not have a blog or journal, which can limit it in some

ways for educational purposes. It also does not have games or music, which can be good

in a classroom setting, as students won’t be as distracted. Non-members cannot browse

Facebook. Hi5 is advertisement free and does not offer instant messaging, big plusses for

educators. It also does not allow for a mobile component, music or videos. See Figure 8.?

For more comparisons

(((Figure 8.? - Comparative Chart of Selected General Social Networks )))

Features Facebook MySpace Hi5

Age Requirement 13 14 13
Skins X X
Personalized URL X X
Photos X X X
Blog X X
Friends X X X
Block Users X X X
Privacy Settings X X X
Customize code-HTML X
Instant Messaging X X
Tags X X X
Groups/Create Groups X X X
Mobile component X X
Mail X X X
Videos( personal) X X
Music X
Photos
Support/FAQs X X X
Search Name X X
Search Email X X X
Search Zip Code X X
Search Keyword X X
Search School X X
Search Interests X X
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As mentioned above, the minimum age for most social networking sites is 13 years.

There are a few social networking sites for the younger student/child, such as Facebook

For Kids (http://facebookforkids.com), Imbee (http://www.imbee.com).

Take a closer look at Facebook For Kids

Facebook For Kids (FBFK) is moderated and monitored. It allows for blogs, groups,
forums, file storage, picture albums, games, chat, videos, puzzles, jokes, widgets ( recent
bookmarks, friends, group membership, activity, friends’ activity, event calendar, cartoon
club, music box, etc.), a wall and a dashboard. The dashboard is the entryway into the
site. It is built on the Elgg platform and does not have advertisements. It does have a
spotlight section on each page providing a link to help pages, how to get started
directions, and starting instructions. FBFK is also available in eight languages other than
English. With an account, a profile can be set up and the user is allowed up to six
dashboard pages.

(((Figure 7.?-FBFK Profile)))

A photo or an avatar can be uploaded to represent the student.

(((Figure 7.?-FBFK Toolbar)))
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(((Figure 7.?-FBFK Tools)))

The tools include some great features for educational purposes, such as the blog, file

storage, group blogs, groups, discussions and photos. When working with younger

students, teachers may suggest which tools they want students experimenting with.

(((Figure 7.?-FBFK Settings)))

In the settings area, the display name, account password or email account can be

changed, as can your language setting.
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Figure 7.?-FBFK Widget Gallery)))

The dashboard pages have three columns, besides the profile box. Multiple widgets can

be placed on a page, or they can be spread over your six available pages.

(((Figure 7.?-FBFK Adding Images)))
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Up to ten images can be added with a maximum space usage of 10240 kb.

(((Figure 7.?-Uploading Files)))

Files can be set to private or made available to anyone logged on. Tags can be added, as
can a description and a title for the file.
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(((Figure 7.?-FBFK Write a Blog Post)))

Notice that you can use a variety of formatting tools such as bold, italic or underline
features. Entries can be centered, left or right aligned, or justified. Various fonts can be
selected, with font color and size adjustability.
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(((Figure 7.?-FBFK Spotlight)))

Help is available from any page. On each page are links to games, videos, jokes, a daily

game and music videos.

A student could practice writing skills and responding to others’ questions and ideas.
Skills could be gained working with images-resizing, cropping, an annotating through the
description dialog box. A student could form his own group or join other groups, perhaps
comprised of classmates working on a group project. Bookmarks could be shared, after
downloading the bookmarklet. Groups could plan work time by using the event calendar.
Social networking skills could be introduced and practiced in a safe, monitored
environment, paving the way for future interaction on more public or commercial sites.

Imbee, another child-oriented social networking site, has a more “pre-fabricated”
appearance than Facebook For Kids. Once an account is created, the user selects a theme
and a layout, so it appears to be more “template” based. It is designed for children ages 7
to 13 years of age.
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Place screenshots and some steps here.

Top features not to miss in Imbee
 Teacher/Parental controls
 No searching
 Blog
 Teacher packs
 Teacher/parent approval of invitations to friends

Action Steps
1. Search for and explore a social network that would help you to learn more about

your discipline area.

2. After signing up for a free account, reply to a posting (add a comment) to move

from a passive “lurking” role to an active, participatory role.

3. Post a comment on a discussion topic of your choice that aligns with the purpose

of the social network that you chose.

4. Continue to offer your opinion in areas of your expertise. You may not know

everything about social networks, but you certainly know much about your

discipline and teaching. Share your expertise and you will begin to make

connections with others who support or challenge your ideas. What a great way to

grow professionally!

5. Sign up for the mobile component, if available, or subscribe by RSS to be notified