Blog
Post #5: My Diigo Group
Social networking sites provide the opportunity for
people young and old to communicate, collaborate, and keep up on what is going
on. Sites like MySpace, Facebook, and
LinkedIn provide networking opportunities for people to actively participate in
communities built for this purpose. They
have become an extension of one’s persona.
It’s appealing to have such open lines of communications with friends,
interests, and connections. For youth
it’s an expansion of who they are, the friends they have, and a way of life in
today’s modern culture. For adults it’s
becoming an essential component in a cutthroat working environment as well as a
means of keeping in contact with chosen connections in a fast paced world. For young and old it’s yet another extension
of keeping in touch with the world they live in.
In the classroom social networking can be a benefit and
distraction. Benefits include access to your friends, friends-of-your-friends,
and openness of people in our culture to grant you access to being one of their
friends. This leads to opportunities
unforeseen prior to social networking solutions. Reaching out through social network branches
of the tree brings experts and collaborative efforts into the classroom that
would not have been available before.
Due to the social aspects of social networking distraction is of great
concern. Why would you want friends
communicating all over the place when they are supposed to be focused on
lessons at hand. And what are they
talking about while they should be listening?
Is the information being retrieved correct or hear-say? Temptations to stray from the path are great
and not everyone will flourish in such an environment.
I tend to use LinkedIn and Facebook exclusively. For my purposes these two sites have the
market share and dominate the workflow of me, my friends, and the professionals
I deal with. I do run the issue of friend’s
crossing over into other groups on my Facebook account. I have some very powerful contacts in the
film industry, college athletics field, computer animation professionals, and other
professional contacts onboard. I also
have a number of classmates from my class reunion that have no business talking
to my professional contacts. Senior
pictures (1989) have surfaced when I played in a hair band…. This is not a problem for me in any capacity
but the potential for a conflict does exist.
No beer bong pictures or compromising photos as of yet that I would care
about.
LinkedIn is a different story. It’s purely professional and I keep my
friends tight to the vest. I have a
selective grouping of professionals that I network with. If I decline an invitation please do not take
it personally.
So networking keeps me current, connected, engaged, and
focused. It could be distracting,
distorted, and a nuisance however.
Side note:
[1] I chose a Diigo group that
focuses on Android Apps. I was
disappointed that I did not find any groups I really wanted to join and don’t
freely jump into groups taking my resources (thinking) from other things.
Hi John,
ReplyDeleteI like your focus on community and collaboration as well as an effective mechanism for competing more effectively in the business world. The world has grown faster, smaller, and with the amount of information and opportunities to connect also much larger than ever before. Managing all of that is definitely a challenge especially in deciding who to include in what personal network as well as what networks to join. I am concerned about free speech issues and I remember reading a news story recently where the FBI and other government agencies are going to put more personnel on the job of monitoring social sites like Facebook. It seems to me that a discussion of possible First Amendment rights violations will be necessary.
Your comment about keeping your business contact friends close to the vest is an interesting one. Because of connections of others, it is quite possible that one's information could end up in the wrong hands or at least the information could be somewhat of a hindering aspect in professional networking.
I agree with you concerning the distraction issues with social networking and I think that monitoring students' time during the lesson would be extremely difficult. If I were to use technologies to connect students, I don't think that Facebook for instance would be at the top of my list.
Best,
Joe
I just lost my entire response to this because of the sign in routine. So I will try to remember what I wrote. I really like social networking, I think it's a blast. It is good for me b/c I can stay in touch with people I can't visit. I am sure I could have chosen a better social network for educational purposes. YouTube!! jk. I think the internet in general is a great device for communication. I love it for research. I like learning about it and the technology you need for it. (Well, not today, but usually.) I know the younger users love it. My son's iPod is too cool! Educational delivery by this means is a good thing if you create it well.
ReplyDeleteAs a teacher on Facebook, I have a different view of Social Networking. I like SN for learning, I don't like it because I don't want my students reading up on me. I have seen students pages that if their parents knew... Not good. But, I have seen that for adults also. No wonder bosses are checking them now. I have had bosses and students looking at my personal information too, so I had to delete most of it. I turn down friends/invites because I don't know who will share my info with whom. I would not like my fun buddies to friend my perofessional colleagues. In my field, there might be a grey area of friends that are both, who might be inclined to grab some of my graphics work. Designers are all looking for more work these days.
I really like the idea of Personal Learning Environments (PLEs). I think that can be a safe way to deliver high quality educational technology to learners and a means to build in parameters that would keep everyone happy, focused and on task. I would bet that the PLE can be programmed for high security, one app at a time usage, perhaps other means to constrain the users. I used a program called synchroneyes at a school I worked at. We could call up any student's monitor and broadcast in on the wall for everyone to see. It kept students from surfing and using facebook, for fear of being found out or the class reading their conversations. I've caught students sitting next to each other complaining about my way-too-long lecture. Were they ever embarrassed! Once the privacy is gone, things go back to normal. I think more schools should lock down the technology so we can depend on its safety and have fun with it instead of being concerned about it.
Your observation on having friends share information amongst themselves or somehow have a conflict of interest type interaction arise is one of my greatest fears with Social Networking. I run with big and small dogs alike and I have both of them in my friends list. Soon my children will be friends on my Facebook account(End of the world scenario - Daughter is 9!). I feel anxious one of my lesser career enchanted friends will click and make contact with one of my more enchanted friends to say hello. In a perfect world I would not frown on this but I do see it as a huge violation of privacy.
DeleteA few of my personal friends have dropped me from Facebook because of this infraction. More than anything I am embarassed. It's like someone jumped into my rolodex (yes, my card rolodex) and grabbed some of my contacts without permission. As a graphic professional I know you can relate.
I do not let any students become part of MY social network. I am an open book but I do not like when people start profiling me and seeing what makes me tick. Especially at the expense of past roommates, colleagues, classmates, clients and personal connections I have with people that do not like to be bothered by outside contacts. I feel accountable.