What did you join? Why?
I was already a beginner level member of Facebook (less than 30 friends) mostly to stay in touch with relatives and friends that I do not see often. It's a fun way to see what is going on with various people, but again has the potential to use a lot of time. I had one of the best experiences of my life this summer, thanks to FaceBook. My best friend from childhood contacted me and we arranged to meet when I was in Florida this summer. We had not seen in each in close to 40 years and had a 4 hour lunch catching up with each other. It was simply magical.
Has your opinion about social networking changed since working on this Thing?
Not really. I am by nature a private person and so I had already turned off most of the settings that allowed anyone to see my info. The news story about the new superintendent in East or South Windsor was shocking to me; that an adult could be so careless and not realize that FB is not as private as one might think was unbelievable. So that reinforced my caution.
What do you see as the educational possibilities (if any) for social networking?
Social networking could be another way to share information, but I might want to use it for purely personal reasons and use other platforms (like Delicious) for professional purposes. Though I am thinking that younger generations won't make such a distinction, I think it will work for me.
Most of us need to go beyond Facebook for social networking and look at the educational sites within our areas of specialty that are presented in a social network setting.
ReplyDeleteI don't know just how much time most educators have to social network with a class - you do see them everyday....but, it would be more useful to share ideas with peers and colleagues
Joan