Allison Miller posts on Facebook and Social Networking (To Unblock Facebook or To Not Unblock Facebook? and Should Facebook be banned from Educational Institutes) and Michael Coghlan’s podcast on Should TAFE be Using Facebook has evoked really strong emotions. Photo by Bunch of Pants.
Lets Separate The Debate
My strongest belief is we must separate the debate on the educational use of social networking totally from whether Facebook should be used in an educational context. These are two totally separate issues.
Facebook is just one form of social networking; the educational benefits of social networking shouldn’t be devalued because managers and educators base their views on social networking solely on their own personal limited knowledge and/or experience of sites like Facebook and MySpace.
It’s about Educational Networking NOT Social Networking
I totally agree with Vicki Davis — It is about Educational Networking NOT Social Networking. There is huge difference between social networking and how we use these social platforms in an educational context; educational networking is a far more appropriate term for educators to use than social networking. Read Vicki’s excellent post for a better understanding of the difference!
The Personal Nature of Social Networks
We each have varying levels of personal connection to different social networking sites, and spaces that we want to keep private and personal, and this needs to be taken into account when considering the use of sites for educational networking. I’ve no personal connection to my own Facebook account; and happily connect to anyone, including my students, within Facebook. Yet my twitter network is extremely personal to me; it’s my personal space, I don’t want to interact with family or students in twitter.
My personal belief is that Facebook should be used only as a personal network; where educators and students can choose if they do/don’t connect with one another, and if learning occurs it is a result of informal networking and support. If we want to encourage educational networking then we should be using social platforms such as Ning community; where we can make the distinction between personal and education networks.
Banning of Web Sites
I believe it is far better to educate appropriate use than ban or block web sites. As educators, we should be treated as professional, and not have to justify reasons why we want to use a web application.
The shame of the Facebook debate in the TAFE sector actually has more to concerns that adminstration staff will waste time inappropriately; then concerns of how we might use it with students.
FINAL THOUGHT
Allison Miller has asked the following questions to ponder from this discussion which I’m unable to respond back to in this post; however we would love it if you added your thoughts to the conversation.
- What are the POSITIVES of Social Networking? and what are the NEGATIVES of Social Networking?
- Why do Educational Institutes ’shy away’ from embracing ‘Social Networking Sites’ - and ‘block’ them?
- How do we entice Educational Institutes to ‘value’ Social Networking?
- Do Educational Institutes have an ethical responsibility to be ‘guiding’ their students through ‘how to operate’ in SNS?
- How do we ‘measure’ and ‘demonstrate’ the educational value of SNSs?
- How can we gather the data to show the ‘ROI in terms of relationships’ and ‘ROI in terms of information and learning’?
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11 responses so far ↓
Hi Sue, great post.
BTW, Just a quick note to thank you very much for supporting me on my blog - I really appreciate it.
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[...] Sue Waters wrote an interesting post today on Educational Networking and Staying Out of My FaceHere’s a quick excerptAllison Miller posts on Facebook and Social Networking (To Unblock Facebook or To Not Unblock Facebook? and Should Facebook be banned from Educational Institutes) and Michael Coghlan’s podcast on Should TAFE be Using Facebook has evoked … [...]
[...] Mobile Technology in TAFE wrote an interesting post today on Educational Networking and Staying Out of My FaceHere’s a quick excerpt Allison Miller posts on Facebook and Social Networking (To Unblock Facebook or To Not Unblock Facebook? and Should Facebook be banned from Educational Institutes) and Michael Coghlan’s podcast on Should TAFE be Using Facebook has evoked really strong emotions. Photo by Bunch of Pants. Lets Separate The Debate My strongest belief is we must separate the debate on the educational use of social networking totally from whether Facebook should be used in an educational context. These are two total [...]
[...] been calling it a “social network,” but Sue Waters reminded me about a post by Vicki Davis , who more accurately calls it “educational [...]
Hi Sue
I strongly agree with what you’re saying here - and I will be using the term ‘educational networking’ from now on in the halls of our TAFE.
Michael C, our Manager & I continued this very interesting discussion this morning - f2f - which I’ve written about at:
http://urltea.com/2m30
Thanks for your continuously generous support.
Allison Miller
Adelaide, South Australia
http://twitter.com/theother66
How about that? You posted about Facebook as I’m finally giving in and creating an account, mostly for the sake of research and so I can actually teach about social networking intelligently! So, i buzzed over here from facebook (after adding you as a friend!) after seeing your tweet about it
How’s THAT for networking!
It seems to me that kids/teens would be able to and understand how to represent themselves on a site if it’s for a social purpose and differently if it’s for an educational purpose. I work at a public library and the library, even the young adult library services association uses MySpace and twitter, to name a few to connect with people educationally. I know some platforms lend themselves to more of what you might be looking for than others, but what might be personal to some, might not be to others. I think it just depends on how you use it. YALSA has a great toolkit on the positives of social networking: http://www.ila.org/netsafe/SocialNetworkingToolkit.pdf
Hey Sarah and Allison always happy to support you on your blog - I really enjoy reading your posts. Totally different styles but you both make me laugh.
Kate definitely a classic example of the power of social networking - and those connections.
True Kelly it all gets back to the purpose and why you want to use the network. Some lend themselves better to use in an educational context than others.
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