I chose to explore Facebook. I have to admit -- I have refused to be a part of Facebook. Call me crazy, but I just do not want to network in that way. I do not desire to have anyone find me and I do not want people to know what I do every minute. =) Then everyone would know that I work almost 100% of the time, because I would update the question, "What are you doing right now?" to "I am working on ____." Then the whole world would know that I am a workaholic. People just think that right now -- having a Facebook page would solidify that. So I did an alias page. Feel free to check out my profile.
1. I think it is important for educators to know about social networking because all the kids have a social network. That is how students communicate with each other. I also think it is important for teachers and students to not be friends on these social networking sites. When they graduate - sure. But not just to chat ...
2. I learned by updating my profile that you can tell a lot about a person on these social networking sites. Students need to be careful about what they put on there. I know that many employers check out these pages to see what a future employee does in their spare time. It could also be a way to search for people that share similar interests.
3. I do not like the idea of having 'friends' on these sites. People have to be invited and you have to ask to be a friend and then approve a friend -- it just seems so impersonal. I can see how people get wrapped up in it by trying to accumulate as many friends as possible. And then what happens when you delete a friend -- talk about traumatic!
4. I think Facebook had the most useful features. It was user friendly.
5. I think that these social networking sites could have some educational benefit in keeping in touch with colleagues and for networking. Sometimes it is difficult to build relationships with your fellow teachers because of the lack of time and the business of the day. So this could be a way to keep up with your colleagues to see what is going on in their lives.
I agree that Facebook is the most user friendly. I do have a facebook account, but there are many days when I don't want one anymore. My only reason for keeping/checking my is to see what my friends (especially my besties from my old school) are up too. I rarely get to see them or their kids and I like hearing what they are doing.
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