Activity 1.4 – Social Networking

Watch: CommonCraft ” Social Networking in Plain English” http://www.commoncraft.com/video-social-networking

Networks get things done. They make things happen. People networks can help us find jobs, meet new friends and find partners. It is a social network. The problem with social networks in the real world is that most of the connections between people are hidden. Our networks are only as valuable as the people and connections we can see. This problem is solved with social networking sites as they make these connections visible. You accumulate a list of friends with whom you can see their friends and then theirs and so on and thus the connections are made visible.

Read: Danah Boyd’s article in the Knowledge Tree journal http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2007/edition-13/social-network-sites-public-private-or-what/

Rather than read the article I decided to listen to the podcast.

The following is the abstract of her article:

“Social network sites (SNSes) like MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo are ubiquitous and today’s youth are spending a great deal of time using these sites to access public life. How is public life shaped by social technology? How are the properties of mediated publics, like social network sites, different from unmediated publics? This article seeks to explore the social dynamics of mediated public life in order to help educators understand their role in socialising today’s youth.”

I was hoping that I would enjoy the podcast however, I think that the reason why I didn’t was because it was simply the author reading the article. I prefer podcasts that are more free flowing and not so word for word. I think because she is reading it straight from the paper, she reads too quickly. However, the article does raise points very relevant to our experience of social networking sites today.

“Mediated publics are here to stay; yet they are complicating many aspects of daily life. The role of an educator is not to condemn or dismiss youth practices, but to help youth understand how their practices fit into a broader societal context. These are exciting times; embracing societal change and influencing the norms can only help everyone involved.”

What is your experience of social networks?

I must say that I am a social network addict as I probably check my profile at least once a day. I use it for the purpose of staying connected with my friends and also as a way to share photos and to stay updated with events. The club with which I am part of conducts most of its updating activities via Facebook as we know that the majority of people have and frequently use Facebook.

How could these be used in learning environments?

As mentioned in the articles these social learning sites foster a lot of informal learning. Knowledge is shared and built across communications with one another and through focussed areas such as ‘groups’. The informality of these sites makes it less intimidating to express opinions and because it is a public domain it invites opinions from a number of different perspectives.