Here it is. My Facebook profile is here for your pleasure. It's set mostly to private, so, if you want to see more send me a friend request. I'm not big on sending out requests myself. The way I see it, if someone wants to be my friend bad enough, they'll send me one. There are certain times I will send one, but, it's rare.
Anyway, to the blogging!
It's important for educators to know how to use social networking sites for what I would think are pretty obvious reasons. In the last thing we discussed tagging and using tagging as a means of sharing information. Well, on Facebook for example, you can create friend lists within your normal friend list.By making someone a "close friend" you will receive a notification every time they post something. So, if you are a science teacher and are friends with, oh, I don't know, Stephen Hawking, it might be a good idea to make him a "close friend" so that you can get a constant stream of awesome theoretical physics as soon as it becomes available. Likewise, on the more realistic side, you can stay in contact with other teachers in your specific field to gain insight into new ways of teaching a specific topic or handling a particular problem. You know all these reflections we keep having to do? What do you think good status updates are? I'm not talking about the "OMG! My bf jst tuk me2 da mol an bott me lyk a zillon pars ov shus!" That's not a reflection. That's what I like to call an ocular aneurysm waiting to happen.
One thing I really don't like about Facebook is that it keeps changing. I mean, change is great, but, if it's changing every couple months, that's just confusing. But, as with any change, it just takes a little getting used to. However, by the time you get used to the the last change, there is another one just around the corner. A really good feature of Facebook, though, is what I mentioned earlier about the "close friend" setting. Along with that setting, you can also make groups and get notifications from that group. As far as using this in the classroom, a group would be a great way for teachers to get up to date information from students in a "group classroom", and, that would be a good place to post assignments for students that maybe missed class. Think about D2L but more public and free. Plus, if students want to stay in the Facebook group even after they have left the class, they would be able to help those students that need a little more one on one time. There would of course be drawbacks (as with anything), but, how could this be a bad idea? I mean, who do you know that DOESN'T have a Facebook? Practically no one, I bet. So, why not use this free tool to our advantage?
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