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Social Networking and Learning

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There is no doubt that social networking creates incredible connections and communication.  One of the concerns for educational institutions is the safeguarding of their learners and I think that has certainly had an influence on the use of social networking up until relevantly recently.

 Social networking was not encouraged and the IT dept of my college was wanting to maintain control (as they see it) by keeping communication 'in-house' on the VLE moodle chat rooms and forums.

However, there has been a big shift the last 12 months or so.  The FELTAG recommendations of increasing online delivery I'm sure has had some impact so has the natural progression of technology.  Social networking is now an established element of what constitutes day to day life and those individual that we serve, to support their learning, are engaged and enthused to use these tools.  Therefore we need to evolve and integrate these tools into teaching. 

The best social networking sites are intuitive and quoting Weller they are 'quick, cheap and out of control'.  They are intuitive with the user and offer broad communication and networking opportunities.  Many courses use facebook as their VLE for a course with a private group that can share resources and build debate in a set community. 

Learners use these social networking tools all the time so are far more comfortable  with the integrated features than the often more clunky features in the VLE so again it makes sense to use them where possible. 

On a counter point, I do think that many people like to establish some categories in their lives.  For instance I tend to use Twitter for my creative work and social aspects that form my life.  I am connecting for academic purposes for H800 and I will see how that goes but I have always appreciated some division.  For example, I may defrag my mind at the end of the day by reading some tweets on surfing but if I see a message that is about the 'digital divide' that is not going to chill the mind in quite the same way. 

 

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