Will you be my friend?

I'm not sure quite when someone shared with me the YouTube video "Facebook in Reality". It's a humourous look at how what occurs online in Facebook would look like in our physical reality. It's become one of my favourite videos to share with people. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. "Facebook in Reality"

I've been a Facebook user for a couple of years now. I thought it was sooo much fun when I first signed up. It was in October so all my friends were playing at vampires and zombies and 'biting' each other. I jumped right in. And then we could 'poke' each other (or hug or high-five) or send sheep (or other animals and goofy things) to each other. Imagine that in reality! Someone started an aquarium and needed fish. Someone sent me flowers for my garden. And the list went on.... It got a little addictive and a little out of hand. Too many nights I'd look at the clock and realise just how much time I'd spent on Facebook alone! Time for bed!

I still get requests to play games, or join such-and-such a group, or take a quiz on you-name-the-topic. I pass. Like anyone admitting to an addiction, I know my limits!

Don't get me wrong. I still like Facebook. It's great for keeping up with my friends around the world in short snippets, and we can email each other if we want to share more information. Recently, one of my high school friends 'found' me on Facebook and we started to reconnect. On a recent visit to Canada our whole small high school group got together in person. We hadn't seen each other in about 30 years (!), and after summaries of our lives, it was like we were just picking up where we left off all those years ago. So I am grateful to social networking for that reconnection, both online and off.

When I signed up for Facebook, I also signed up for MySpace. Yes, I really jumped on the social networking bandwagon. But I never used MySpace and after revisiting it this past week, I can see why. Personally, I find it too busy and cluttered, but maybe that's what our multi-tasking adolescents like about it. There's a lot going on there that they can keep tabs on. I prefer a bit more simplicity.

In Facebook, I have a network of friends that I have met in international teaching, a network of friends from my home city, a network of my dance friends, and now a network of my high school friends.

Of course sometimes someone we don't know, or don't want to know, wants to be our friend and become part of our network, like the fellow in the "Facebook in Reality" video. I tend to ignore such requests. Do I really want to be friends with the guy who sat across from me in maths that I can barely remember? Probably not. Next thing I know, he'll be writing rude things on my wall!

Social networking sites can also be great for finding like-minded individuals that share the same interests and passions as us, and before we know it, we have become part of another online community with something important in common. I belong to several personal interest groups and I get updates on their events from time to time. Like wicked witch wikis, there is an interest group for just about everything!

Yes, the Facebook and MySpace phenomenon is quite fascinating. More and more people keep in touch with friends on social networking sites. And despite my personal hesitation at expanding my friend networks and posting my pictures there, we are all generally much more open to meeting people and 'socialising' with them online than we ever would be in person.

It used to be that friends got together in each other's living rooms to share their vacation photos, listen to the latest music album, and discuss their lives and the problems of the world. Teenagers got together in the family room, or their bedrooms for the same sharing. We still DO get together like this, but the Internet and Web 2.0 technologies have added a new dimension to our visits.

Today, our 'living rooms' encompass the world.
We don't need to be in physical proximity or with each other to share our vacation photos or videos from that big Caribbean cruise, or to let a friend know that the latest album from a favourite musician is fabulous, or that we found some great information on a topic and give the link to the site, play games, or simply find out what we're up to. We can do it all on social networking sites.

Recent information showed that adolescents tend to use MySpace, while adults tend to use Facebook (Abram, 2006). There are estimates that over 80% of U.S. college students have Facebook accounts (Educause, 2007) and more than 60% of adolescents have Facebook or MySpace accounts (Richardson, 2009). Younger children and tweens tend to use the safer forums of Webkinz, Whyville or ClubPenguin to connect with others through games, activities or community issues. I managed to take the video tours of these last three sites to get a feel for them. Webkinz and ClubPenguin were certainly more fun and games. Whyville was more advanced in that users needed to think about topics or issues, and needed to complete the Chat Licence Test before they could chat in Whyville. A bit of 'netiquette' early on goes a long way.

Social networking sites allow adolescents to have a space and place to express themselves and to learn more about interacting with different groups (Mitchell, 2008). Mitchell (2008) feels that the online (and offline) interaction with friends is important for kids' well-being and self-expression. For these reasons, the computer should not be in the living room with parents hovering nearby. True, adolescents need to know about online safety, but they need their privacy too, and don't have to be monitored constantly. "Overprotective parents...can sabotage teens' opportunities to receive the educational and psycho-social benefits of social networking sites" (Mitchell, 2008).

In bedrooms all over the world, teenagers are connecting to the world through social networking. They are likely chatting to real and virtual friends on a variety of topics from celebrities to the latest action movie...... but it's possible that they could also be discussing Hamlet, or geometry (O'Hanlon, 2007).

O'Hanlon (2007) points out that U.S. school districts are setting up their own social networking sites to better reach today's students who are living so much in the digital world. Many schools have secure sites that are password protected that look very much like public social networking sites, but without the dangers of online predators. Libraries, too, are setting up MySpace accounts where students can be 'friends' of the library.

Couros (2008) suggests Ning.com as a viable 'private' social networking option since users can create their own network and thus create a safer atmosphere in which to pariticipate. Hayes (2007) believes that Ning.com is well suited for middle school classrooms, with site creators being able to monitor and remove content and allow only invited members to participate. The somewhat more structured Whyville communities are also good for starting out in the social networking world.

So what are the benefits of social networking?
- Students can improve their critical thinking and communication skills. If someone wants to respond to a posted message, they're going to have to think about how and what they want to say (Mitchell, 2008)
- Students become more comfortable and proficient at writing because they are writing more and writing better. "Kids are taking their time because they know their work is going to be published" (O'Hanlon, 2007, p.40)
- Students learn responsibility as they create, monitor and peer review entries as they take on the roles of authors and editors (O'Hanlon, 2007).
- Teachers who incorporate social networking into their classrooms feel that they have improved relationships with their students because they are more of a community, where instructors are not just teachers, they are also friends (O'Hanlon, 2007).
- Students love to interact with each other online, whatever the topic (O'Hanlon, 2007). I know I see this a lot at my school where students use every opportunity to chat, email or catch up on Facebook with their friends. Our students truly do live in the digital world.

That's all fine and dandy, but how do we incorporate social networking into our schools?
- We consider following the example of the Flat Classroom Project where middle school and high school students from Australia, Austria, China, Qatar and the U.S. work on projects together (Couros, 2008). We establish intra-school AND inter-school communities with classes and students from around the world.
- Use the site for everything from discussions in science or literature, to daily newscasts, to oral reports on the latest research topic, to writing persuasive essays from a teacher's prompt (O'Hanlon, 2007).
- using a site such as TiGed.org, students can become involved in environmental issues or other contemporary topics (O'Hanlon, 2007)
- at Think.com students can publish their own web sites, collaborate with students worldwide, and compete to create an innovative web site on any topic (O'Hanlon, 2007)

Concerns
As always, safety is an issue, but as long as teachers and parents guide students in staying safe online by not giving out personal or identifying information, learn an "exit strategy to avoid unwanted attention" and "knowing how to block people who may be harassing them" (Mitchell, 2008), we can give them the tools to maintaining their privacy and protecting themselves.

In his article about his concerns for his daughter's safe internet use, Abram (2006) was surprised to learn that she had convinced her friends to switch from MySpace to Facebook. Her reasons were that "you can avoid the nuts more easily. It's cooler...and MySpace is just...not private enough for us" (p.22). Perhaps students are more safety savvy than we think.

My recent readings on this topic have certainly opened my eyes to some of the ways in which social networking can be a great tool for teaching and learning. I can't say that I have a handle on it all quite yet, but it's coming. I think once I start to work with a teacher and class that want to try something new, we'll figure it out as we go along.

In the meantime....
Poke!
Want to be my friend??

References
Abram, S. (2006). What Can MySpace Teach Us in School Libraries? MultiMedia & Internet@Schools 13(4), pp.22-24. Retrieved July 30, 2009 from ProQuest Education Journals database.

Couros, A. (2008). Safety and Social Networking. Technology & Learning 28(7), p.20. Retrieved July 31, 2009 from ProQuest Education Journals database.

Educause Learning Initiative. (2007). 7 things you should know about..facebook II. Retrieved July 29, 2009 from ProQuest Education Journals database.

Hayes, S. (2007). The MySpace Culture. Voices from the Middle 15(2), pp.59-60. Retrieved July 31, 2009 from ProQuest Education Journals database.

Mitchell, P. (2008). A Space of Their Own. Children's Voice 17(3), p.25. Retrieved July 30, 2009 from ProQuest Education Journals database.

O'Hanlon, C. (2007). If you can't beat 'em, Join 'em. T.H.E. Journal 34(8), pp.39-40, 42,44. Retrieved July 31, 2009 from ProQuest Education Journals database.

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web 2.0 tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.