Although I have registered with a few social networking sites, really I guess to get my head around the concepts of the many new and varied Web based applications, I'm not an active participant or indeed much of a convert certainly for my own personal use.
There's plenty to choose from FaceBook, Bebo, Ning, MySpace, Linkedin to name just a few but I do struggle to see how to exploit this to add value to learning & teaching when there is such a range and the choice of which one to use is a personal one. My own feeling is that mustering up your reflective capacity is hard enough do once a week and if you had a number of platforms to feed - well ......
There are however a number of specialist social networking sites emerging that offer some potential I think.
www.geni.com is a social networking tool in which you can build up your family tree and invite members of your family to contribute detail, upload photos and add more family members. Great for collaboration, History, Social Science, Anthropology ......
www.shelfari.com is a social networking tool which is based around reading books. You can create your own book shelf, rate books you've read, provide summaries and discuss literature with others. Useful for English, Communications, Working with others, Creative Writing .....
I've come across Hairdressing, Art, and drama too.
P.S. You might want to check out LearningTown and, in particular, "The Scottish Connection" if you involved in post 16 education in Scotland.
1 comment:
Nice to see a summary of social networking that doesn't just talk about bebo and facebook - there are some great professional sites out there too like LinkedIn.
As a big fan of Geni I'd wholeheartedly agree this is a terrific tool for an interesting research project building up a family history, displays information well complete with photo and video albums, and has helpful memory joggers for those who can't remember family birthdays and anniversaries. Only note of warning is that users should be cautious and limit access to their information given the potential for identity theft.
Great to see LearningTown get a mention too - the Scottish Connections group welcomes anyone who wants to contribute an idea or ask for support (or even just quietly sit in the background and absorb what others have to offer).
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