MySpace and Facebook as Social Networks MySpace and Facebook are two structured social networks. People can create and customize personal profiles and add friends to their network. Users are provided a space to blog and share pictures, videos, and music. Dialogue happens through comments and chat functions. In spite of criticisms and privacy concerns, learning can happen and can even be encouraged through social networks.
Consider this passage from Jason Johnson:
Teen blogs are not about the technology – they are about feelings of belonging and being loved. They are about trying on different personalities. They are about someone who feels isolated connecting with others who share their interests or insecurities. They are about all the same things that have existed for hundreds of years, hidden in notebooks and scribbled on bathroom walls and whispered over telephones. The content of MySpace.com bears discussion, not obstruction. It is where some schools and parents are looking to better understand and aid their children and students. Our dialogue should teach them to use the site effectively and about what they can hope to accomplish with it. As the National Research Council report on protecting children from internet pornography analogized: “Swimming pools can be dangerous for children. To protect them, one can install locks, put up fences, and deploy pool alarms. All of these measures are helpful, but by far the most important thing that one can do for one's children is to teach them to swim.” We all need to be training more swimmers.
As you read the Key Information for this topic, consider what we can do to train more swimmers.
Source:
Johnson, J. (2006, January 24). The case for social networks. Message posted to Independent School Educators’ List, archived at http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0601D&L=ISED-L&P=R464&I=-3
Key Information
List of Activities
- Activity 6-B-1: Structured Social Networks