The article goes on to discuss one major problem that online networking brings when introduced to the classroom: advertising and marketing. Students who had the opportunity to use Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, and any blog would also be exposed to endless advertisements that flaunt themselves on these sites. So the question is how do you access and introduce the muscle of these sites into the classroom without adding all of the fat that comes with them. I don’t have the answer to that because, quite frankly, I don’t know how to separate the two. I do know that there are multiple sites that the schools can subscribe to or find for free that have limited to no advertising, so teachers can start there. Whatever the answer may be, I do know that teachers can change the future of the classroom and start to excite students about education, and that possibility cannot be ignored because of a few minor problems such as advertising.

Source: Google News

Author: Michael Brindley

Title: Could networking sites be future for homework?

Link: http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/

Students can go on linkgrade.com and “publish or receive notes from class, get to know others in their specific classes, or even rate their professors.” There is an application called whiteboard which is “an interactive chat room that allows students to talk with each other and draw diagrams if needed.” This is a whole new type of networking available to students, it is going to allow for new viewpoints to be opened up to each other when in the past some might have been too shy to give their, or too shy to ask. It will prove to be an entirely new form of a study guide, and the best part about it is it can be done while students are networking and getting to know one another like they do on Facebook and Myspace.

So what issues does this new site bring to education? Well, how much help is too much help? Right now the site is only available to college kids as Facebook was in its early stages, (likgrade.com was first launched on September 10, 2007. ) but as we have learned from the past, it is only a matter of time until high schools will have access as well. As for college kids, it might make it too easy to sleep through the 8:00 a.m. class if there are ten different sets of notes that they can get off the web. But what kind of problems would it pose to high schools if/when it is available to these students? Right away the teacher rating application stands out to me. How many problems haven’t there been where a student rants on about a teacher on their blog, calls him or her a name, and the student gets suspended or in some other kind of trouble. Sure rating teachers is fine in college, but if a student were to talk bad about a teacher in high school there might be some consequences, or at least some bitterness between the teacher and student. Also the sites layout almost seems to make it easy for a student to do minimal work, and come test time, could go to the notes posted online, and study. This is taking away from the classroom work, and would change the entire idea of notes and teacher-student relationship because instead of going to a teacher for help, the student will just jump online to linkgrade.com and go to the notes or talk with another student. Another problem I see with the note sharing and whiteboard is the fact of the possibility of a student being wrong. What happens when a student posts incorrect notes, another student copies then, studies for the test, and does poorly on the test. Whose fault is it; will there be issues between the two students?

Source: Brock Press (blog)

Author: Katie Siklosi

Title: Home-grown Internet network a powerful new tool for school

After reading this I asked myself what this meant for a teen’s experience at school. Immediately I though back to the day when you walk down the hallway to your locker and along the way are the group of jocks standing in their jerseys, the good looking girls looking, well, good, the burnouts sitting in the corner, or the smart kids studying away. This vast range of clicks can be hard on a student who does not fit in, a new student or someone who wants to be a part of two groups. Wow I thought, now students can’t leave this at the door when they leave school, it follows then home to their computer where they join groups, tag photos, write posts and messages, and list their favorite music and movies. This means that students will feel the pressure to define themselves in every way possible. The movies they like, the music they have playing, the pictures they have, the number of online friends they have all will contribute to define their social status and group. I will be blunt when I say this is not only terrible for the generations to come, but it is purely pathetic.

So what does this all mean? Is it really all that big of a deal or is it just going to be another aspect of the teenager’s society that is sometimes hard to understand when looking back. Well I believe that this social labeling that the two sites have created is a big deal and it will only separate students even more in the hallways. “Oh don’t talk to him, he is a Myspace creep,” or “there goes the Facebook jock, what a prep!” Teenagers have it hard enough trying to fit in and deal with criticism at school no matter how popular they are. Their lives and popularity should not be defined by their Myspace or Facebook page that is too superficial for even middle schools and high schools.

Source: Social Creature (blog)

Author: Jenks

Title: Facebook: Cyber-suburbia

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.