Social+Networking+Tools

There are dozens of social networking sites (or social media sites) online, the most popular of which include [|twitter] and [|facebook].

Facebook is now the most popular site on the web with hundreds of millions of users, even more popular than Google search. Some social networking sites are more specialized and for professional purposes, such as [|linkedin] and [|academia.edu]. A number of K-12 teachers are finding various [|ning.com] sites useful for professional development, too (see some examples below).

But today we'll mainly focus on twitter and its uses for professional development and networking. Twitter has and is being used in some classrooms, however, and there are 'private' alternatives to twitter that are more suitable for use in K-12 schools, including [|twiducate] and [|edmodo]. There are also some social networking sites designed for kids, as well.

Please sign up for an account on twitter (and upload a picture of yourself or avatar), and check out some of the links below to find folks and channels (hashtags) to follow. Post or retweet something you find interesting/useful (if you add "#detools" to the end of your tweet, it will automatically be forwarded to our friendfeed group). You can also connect your twitter account to the friendfeed account you created yesterday. This makes it so that anytime you post to twitter, it is mirrored on your friendfeed page, and vice versa. To do this, click the 'Add/Edit' link below your name on your friendfeed page, and connect the twitter service. You can connect other services, as well, such as any blogs you have, facebook, etc.

//Why are we doing this?// Social networking sites still aren't used very much in classrooms, and there is little research on them in educational contexts. However, I'm hoping you may find one of these sites useful for your own professional development beyond the time period of this class ('teaching how to fish vs. giving fish'). The popular phrase now is '**lifelong learning**'. Right now, blackboard courses for example are deleted/hidden as soon as finals are over. Instead, you can show students (esp. in higher education) how to continue their learning on their own (via **[|personal learning networks]**, PLNs), how to keep up with the latest updates in the field (after all, much of what you'll learn in a class like this one may be out of date in a few years), and also encourage students to develop public and professional digital identities, that often can help with getting employment as well. You can use social networking sites to convey positive, professional identifies/portfolios/etc., rather than the stereotypical 'embarrassing' facebook or myspace photos you hear about all the time.


 * Resources**
 * See the Web 2.0 Tools page for an intro to Web 2.0 and a list of various tools (we've cover this more tomorrow)
 * [|Twitter]
 * About Twitter
 * Twitter is interesting because it can be used synchronously (like a chat room or live discussion board) or more asynchronously (posting or sharing stuff you find interesting). Also, you can access and post to twitter from any cell phone.
 * Video: [|Twitter in Plain English] this video is a bit out of date though, and just focuses on the informal social uses of twitter, not educational uses
 * Presentation: [|Twitter for your PLN]
 * Hashtags ("channels") on twitter, such as #edtech, #highered, #edchat, etc. (and #detools)
 * [|The mystery of twitter hashtags]
 * [|Educational hashtags (channels) on twitter]
 * Here's a live dashboard that shows some educational hashtag discussions going on right now
 * [|Website for the weekly #edchat discussion] that happens every Tuesday
 * When you post something on twitter related to this course, use the [|#detools] hashtag at the end of your post
 * Twitter in the classroom
 * Alternatives to twitter that allow for private discussions (more teacher control)
 * [|Twiducate]
 * [|Edmodo]
 * Guides to using twitter for teaching/learning
 * [|Ultimate twitter guidebook for teachers]
 * [|How to use twitter for social learning]
 * Jane Hart has a number of other resources available, too, including guides on [|facebook] and [|google buzz]
 * She surveys hundreds of learning professionals each year to ask what are their [|top 10 tools for learning], and twitter has been #1 the past 2 years
 * [|Advanced twitter tips] - creating polls, tweeting photos/videos, desktop apps, etc.
 * Teacher reflections on using twitter with students
 * [|Coming to terms with twitter]
 * Video: [|The Twitter Experiment at UT Dallas] and the [|instructor's own reflections]
 * Articles
 * [|Horton hears a tweet] in EDUCAUSE Quarterly - how twitter might be used to increase student engagement in a course. You can use twitter in similar ways that clickers are used. For example ask a question and students tweet their answers/thoughts. Sometimes people use twitter as a 'backchannel' for discussion during a class or during a conference presentation. Here's also a [|summary of that article] on facultyfocus.
 * Embedding a twitter discussion board (wall) on your class website or blog (this would work in blackboard, too, using the HTML editor):
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 * And as you saw, I embedded a friendfeed group on our class page: []
 * Some educational people/organizations on twitter: (you might wish to 'follow' some of these
 * Higher education on twitter:
 * a list of some folks who post items related to this course: []
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 * other educational technology related professors: []
 * K-12 teachers on twitter
 * [|Twitter4Teachers Wiki] - a directory of educators on twitter
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 * People/organizations sharing info about education/technology/games for young children
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 * Get twitter alerts when new educational research articles are published:
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 * This uses a service called [|twitterfeed] to forward a [|Google Reader] RSS feed to twitter.
 * See this page for more information and a list of some edtech and other journals: []
 * Some other sites that are very similar to twitter
 * [|Friendfeed] - now owned by Facebook
 * [|Identi.ca] (StatusNet) - this is open source
 * [|Google Buzz]
 * [|Facebook]
 * Schools are mainly using facebook for marketing purposes at the moment, and of course students are using facebook on their own, usually for normal social networking with friends though, not so much for academic purposes.
 * But see this google search for some things related to using [|facebook in classrooms]:
 * [|Plurk]
 * [|Ning]
 * Ning and other related sites like grou.ps and group.ly are like social networking sites that combine blogs and discussion boards and profiles. Teachers for example often use them for professional networking, to share resources and ask questions.
 * Some educational ning sites:
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 * Example social networking sites for kids, K-12 students
 * [|Togetherville]
 * [|Club Penguin]
 * [|Whyville] - science