Facebook in the classroom?!?!

Social Networking and Social Bookmarking

It was interesting that each of the readings for this weeks class featured different types of Web. 2.0 technologies, all based on social bookmarking and social networking. Christine Greenhow's article "Social Scholarship: Applying Social Networking Technologies to Research Practices" focused alot on a social bookmarking or "social bibliography" (as she called them) site called Diigo. I have never heard about Diigo before and so it was interesting to learn about the features of Diigo and how to apply them in the classroom. Diigo allows readers to highlight important text and even leave "Post-it" notes for private or public viewing. Teachers could use Diigo in their classrooms in a whole group or individual setting to research specific topics of interest.

From reading Will Richardson's book, "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms", I learned alot about a social "microblogging" webiste called Twitter. Twitter allows people to follow people and read their "updates" as to where they are, what their doing, their interests, and anything else people like to write about. Richardson's chapter 9 went into more details about a social networking site called Facebook. In his book, Richardson writes, "Learning has traditionally assumed a winner-take-all competitive form rather than a cooperative form. One cooperates in a classroom only if it maximizes narrow self-interest. Networked learning, in contrast, is commiteted to a vision of the social that stresses cooperation, interactivity, mutual benefit, and social engagement" (p. 133). Networks like Myspace and Facebook are becoming more and more popular with students outside of school, which is why teachers should try to incorporate aspects of them within their own classrooms. If teachers do choose to use Facebook, for example, they can create a private group that only their class could view.

Using technology in the classroom allows students to have access to information that was once limited by books, magazines, and printed texts. It allows students to be creative and it may even motivate students by allowing them to complete assignments which showcase their strengths and skills. Web 2.0 technologies also promote literacy practice in every aspect of their use. Students have to use their literacies to navigate the web, to follow sites, to research topics, to share thoughts and "tweets", to leave "Post-its" on important text, and to simply communicate and colaborate on the Web.

This week I used Facebook and tried to find educational uses of Facebook. I used Facebook to form groups with my classmates to discuss assignments and also to communicate with people who I do not get to see everyday. I am interested in knowing other educational uses of Facebook because as of now, I mainly use it as a way to stay in touch with friends and family and not for educational purposes.