Week 4: Social Networking

Rise of Participation Culture
http://www.alicechristie.org/classes/530/p_culture%20.pdf

Socail Networking the "talk" of the internet. There are many aspects to social networking that it's almost overwhelming. According to this article, there are 5 applications to social networking; social software, media creation and sharing, aggregation and social promotion, collaboration and gaming and virtual worlds. The one aspect I would probably use in my classroom if I could would be social software.

Social software enables people to "intereact" with other communities online. Some of the most popular interaction sites are MySpace and Facebook. After reading the article, I realized that social networking is "unbelievable." There are so many sites for networking it's phenomenal.

Some other social networking available that could be fun for students are Imeen, Last.fm and Gaia Online. All of these sites are what students are interested in so why not try and incorporate them into the classroom. I think social networking is very valuable in education if used the right way.

Since MySpace is one of the most popular sites, why not make a classroom newletter with MySpace. Blogs can be homework assignments and comments can be shared between teacher and student for any clarification or question they may have. Web 2.0 and social networking is the way of the future, so let's embrace it.