Chapter 6: The Social Web: Learning Together (Richardson)
Please take a moment to view this short video clip on social networking sites.
A wiki is a type of social network. It is a place you can share information. There are many other networking sites like Facebook, Linkedin, and "microblogging" sites like Twitter. Let's look at a few. The first is from Google Sites, which is part of the Google suite. This was created for this course and is also considered a wiki.
Grou.ps is another networking site with some great potential in education. Go ahead and sign up. Once you have signed up, you can modify your own page and add comments to the forums. You can find that page here: http://grou.ps/edu255
ASSIGNMENTS
In the article, Steve Hargadon, who developed the Classroom 2.0 Ning site gives us six points to consider. For this assignment, pick one or two of his points to reflect and comment on. You might address how his points may meet the needs of a specific type of content or class and how they may not work so well in others.
Please type this as a blog entry and post it.
Please go to the following web site at:http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html.
This site is called, Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship by Danah M. Boyd, School of Information at the University of California-Berkeley and Nicole B. Ellison, Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media at Michigan State University. They began this wiki project as a way to find out what social networking is all about.
You are not required to understand every social networking site that has been created since the start of the Internet, but rather a broad overview of how it has evolved. Your assignment this week is to research a social network that you are not familiar with in the diagram titled, Launch Dates of Major Social Network Sites on this website. Please discuss the following:
- What was the target audience for this social networking site?
- How long was the site in existence?
- Why was it popular? What was its demise?
- Is/was there another competitor in the same market that was more popular?
- Would you ever consider creating an account and using it? Explain your reason using a personal experience as an example.
Please type this as a blog entry and post it.
This week, you are reviewing Social Networking sites. Please answer the following questions in the discussion forum below: How could you utilize some social networking tools, such as Twitter, Facebook, Ning, etc.? What are the benefits and challenges of bringing your students into this environment? Please post your thoughts to your blog.
