Everyone is very familiar with the online social spaces of Facebook and MySpace…they are like second nature, especially to students of younger and younger generations. So, how can social networking become a benefit to the field of education? Simple. Social networking presents an opportunity where students can interactive with each other and express their interests. Through social networking, students can take control of their learning through the interactions they make and they can strengthen their connections to other students who share similar interests. Social networking allows for students all over to exchange vital academic information, and they can build online communities at an academic level. When integrating social networking in the classroom, the instructor takes on the responsibility of aiding students in building their networks, showing them things like how to communicate effectively and incorporate their learning and research in their networking pages.
Second Life (SL), to sum it up, is pretty much an online virtual world. Though some might associate it with leisure and entertainment, this online world can be used in education in a number of ways. For educators, SL can act as a network, connecting educators with each other and exchanging information, whether it is about the classrooms in which they teach or how to use SL effectively in their curricula. SL acts in the same manner for students, where students can interact with each other, and together both teachers and students can learn to build active educational communities. However, teachers using SL should thoroughly consider how virtual reality is going to be integrated in their pedagogy and realize that building truly effective learning environments virtually will take some time to build.
Backing up to social networking again, here are some sites that are worthy of exploring:
ResearchGATE: a social networking site for those in scientific fields to collaborate with others and share various reseach-based knowledge
Ryze Business Networking: for those in business; a great place to network and make business contacts
ISTE Community: this network is ideal for those interested in educational technology, like myself
Ning: this is a social networking site where one can create his or her network for just about anything; it is ideal for educators wanting to look into integrating social networking in the classroom—very simple to use and effective in communicating with others
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