It wasn’t exactly easy to chose my topic for the semester, so I figured what not make it all about being online. I am going to be focusing my blog on the use and issues of social networking in high schools and middle schools. This as we all know refers to Myspace, blogging, and Facebook, three dominant “hangouts” for the modern world. These three sites are changing the school world that we all once knew. Kids are gossiping on people’s “walls” now instead of doing it by their locker. They are information about themselves instead of telling that boy or girl about it face-to-face, and they are posting pictures of themselves and their friends. Through this blog I will tackle the heated debate that has become “social networking in schools.”

I can honestly say that Facebook , blog sites, and Myspace don’t necessarily spark any personal interest. In fact I don’t even have a Myspace account, a void that seems rather rare these days. What does interest me however is the issues that surround the sites in school. Issues such as teacher and student bashing are taking place on the social domain, gossip is everywhere, and what seems to be most prevalent is the evidence that gets kids in trouble. These issues aren’t the main focus of this blog though. What I/we need to focus on is the way in which teachers can use these social networking as tools for their classrooms. In order to do this I have subscribed to multiple web pages via reader.google.com and my RSS Reader. Two “main stream” sites that I will be using will be: cnn.com, and nytimes.com. Also I will be searching topics such as “social networking in schools,” and “facebook in schools” with news.google.com. I have subscribed to a few blogs as well: prawfsblawg.com, and social-creature.com. All of these sites will hopefully provide good information regarding schools and social networking sites.

I personally feel that educators are better off trying to adapt their classroom to the world that is online networking. These sites are only going to bet bigger and more popular, and students are only going to be spending more time on them. Harnessing the popularity of these sites to use for school work would be an amazing way to get students involved in subjects such as writing, a subject that seems to be tough to get students fired up about. Myspace and Facebook would definitely require some imagination to make this work, but blogging, like I am doing right now, would be a great way to combine the modern student’s interest with a subject that desperately needs to be revived. Through the combined use of new sites, google, and feeds I plan on generating a solid discussion regarding social networking, schools, and writing.