If you had told someone 50 years ago that in the year 2011 the most widely used way of communicating would not be letters, actual face-to-face interaction, or even talking on the telephone, they would have looked at you like you were crazy. Even 20 years ago, when I was born, no one could have predicted the way the Internet has changed every aspect of human society. I remember when MySpace first came out. It was the rage in middle school. I would check mine every day to see if anyone had left me a comment. It was so exciting! Then MySpace was slowly pushed out by Facebook and Twitter. Does anyone even have a MySpace anymore? :] Now, I practically live on Facebook. Otherwise, how would I know what all my friends were up to or when anyone's birthday was? Ha! This activity was pretty easy because I have had a Facebook page since junior year of high school. I am not as big a fan of Twitter, but I did create an account in this class for another assignment. I like Facebook because it is really easy to use (but that might just be because I am so used to it). I don't like how easy it is for others to view your pictures and profile. You can set privacy settings, but if you aren't really careful, things can leak out. I like Twitter because there is more diversity in the postings. You can have access to celebrities, intellectuals, anyone you want. Facebook is more personal because users have to actually accept you as their friend. I don't like Twitter because I don't really understand how to use it. A lot of the tweets I have access to don't interest me. I'm sure with more use and me playing around with it, I will start to enjoy Twitter more.
It is important that educators know about social networking because it isn't going to go away. It is only going to become more prevalent in our students' lives. Pretty soon, if not already, young elementary school children will have access to these sites. I never thought about Facebook or Twitter being educational sites before now, but there are ways they could be used in the classroom. It could be fun for a teacher to set a class "fan page" on Facebook. It could be a closed group, and the teacher could invite only students and parents. Then she could post important dates, students' best work, any number of things. In this day and age, Facebook is becoming the easiest way to get ahold of parents. People usually only check their email once or twice a day, but everyone I know who has Facebook is on it throughout the day. Twitter is a good site because you can follow educators who provide links to educational websites and trends.
I'm glad that educators are finally starting to jump on the social networking trend, because I love Facebook! :]
KBearden:]
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