Social Networking in Education

On my last post, I made a statement about how I feel that social networking has no educational value. I guess I just needed to change my way of thinking around just a little bit. Although I still feel that social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, are not appropriate for use with students in the classroom, they can be beneficial for teachers to network with one another. Just as blogging and wikis can be useful in helping teachers to share ideas with one another, social networking can provide teachers with a method to communicate and share ideas with one another as well. On Facebook, users can create "groups," which are usually related to a particular topic or interest. Users can create and join a group for the sole purpose of discussing curriculum related ideas. I created an HCPSS Third Grade Teachers - Technology Ideas group in Facebook to be used by third grade teachers next year. To see it, you can add me as a friend in Facebook and view my "groups."