Social Networking

Making Connections Online

As usual the "Plain English" guys do a great job introducing the concept of Social Networks:





When I began investigating the topic of social networking, I suddenly realized that my understanding of social networking has completely been turned on it's head by my experiences with this course.

According to Boyd & Ellison, social networks are defined, "...as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site" (2007).

The explanation and descriptions from the "Plain English" video are very much in line with  how I would expect my own expectations of how the concept of social networking and networking sites operate. But when I think about the key characteristics of social networking I can see that these characteristics are not exclusive to networking sites.

Here is my epiphany:
I thought I had a good grasp of what defines a social network and the impact these networks have on our lives, but all the research and exploration that we've been doing over the past few months suddenly had me asking, "What specifically defines a Social Networking site"?

This may seem like a silly question, but what I was starting to realize is that social networking has grown beyond the exclusive association to sites like Nextopia, MySpace or Facebook and has literally "infiltrated" multiple applications of Web 2.0 technology and tools.

Media Sharing sites like Flickr, Vimeo, Glogster, YouTube, Audioboo and even Blogger are just some of the sites that provide options to create a private or public profile to represent who you are to other users of these tools. Through these profiles you are able to connect and communicate with other registered users, and some of these tools even provide the option to connect their services and your profiles to other accounts you may have with sites like Twitter and Facebook. As these "complementary" tools and others like them continue to gain in popularity and connectivity to larger, more established networks, it really won't be long before "followers" and "friends" become one in the same...or maybe they already are?

Facebook:
Facebook is my major social network experience. I have used it for sharing pictures videos, planning events, updating my friends on what happening in my world, checking in with them to find out what's happening in their lives, and for keeping in touch with my friends and family abroad in places as exotic as New Zealand, Afghanistan and Lethbridge Alberta...and maybe the occasional game of "Bejewelled" or "Tetris". (I did have a virtual pet at one point, but it was getting ridiculously complicated trying to ensure I would have Web access to be able to "feed" my online puppy on time to avoid having him run away...that and I believe my real dog did not appreciate the competition).

All of my experience with Facebook has been for communication with people who are already known to me. I have "become a fan" of a few organizations that promote themselves on Facebook, but I have not found many educational sites on the network. I wondered if part of the reason for minimal Education sites had something to do with many school policies that limit access to these sites (both for students and staff), or if it is just a reluctance from the educational community to utilize a very public network like Facebook since there are many school boards and educators themselves who are not comfortable with the possibility of teachers and students "friending" each other in the process of communicating with the public in this kind of forum.

Classroom 2.0
To find other teachers and resources I turned to Classroom 2.0. What appeals to me the most is that this a network of educators (membership is reviewed by an administration level), who have come together specifically to explore and discuss the use of Web tools in education. As a site that provides access to so may interesting ideas and experts, (not to mention levels of expertise from complete newbies to developers and researchers), it has been a great place to get ideas and see what other people are doing in their schools and classrooms.

I have only recently signed up and have mostly been checking out the discussions and groups that are pertinent to my work in my own school, or to continue with the research I am doing in Educational technology, but as I become more connected to the groups and have more time to follow, I hope to become more of a contributor than "lurker". I feel much more comfortable using a networking site like this rather than a more informal site like Facebook to connect with a educational community in a professional context.


Personally:
Another question that came up in my exploration of social networks is related to how these sites are funded. Some operate on donations, others use freemiums or pay per click advertisements, but what is often the case it is the selling of the "statistical" information gathered when you create your profiles and following your use of applications on these sites.



As a follow up to this video, I was directed to the an interview with Jennifer Stoddart, the Federal the Privacy Commissioner, who spoke to George Stoumboulopoulos in early 2010 to discussed the issue of Facebook violating Canadian privacy laws through the site's process of obtaining users' consent to gather and distribute this information to application developers (if you want to check out the video for the specific discussion about Internet policies and Facebook scroll the playback to approximately 3:55).

The reason I am mentioning this point about companies taking advantage of user's personal information is that I personally find this to be my greatest dilemma when considering the use of social networking sites, or how many I am willing to subscribe to.

As a teacher, I am very guarded about my online personal persona and use an alias on my Facebook profile. Although I am still very cautious about the information I post or upload in a professional context, I am much more comfortable with being "public" in my professional life than in my personal one.

I understand that I can control how much information I submit to these sites and I could invent an alias or hide behind some other form of "avatar", but doing this compromises the authentic representation of yourself to the rest of the community you are connecting with, (it's like trying to introduce yourself to a new group of people, but you are wearing a "mask"...how can you be trusted as a legitimate or credible source of information, or how do people get to know who you are as a person if you aren't willing to literally be recognized?). I am definitely struggling with this and still trying to figure out how much I a willing to compromise of my personal persona in order to be authentic (or at  least more so) in revealing my public persona to the online world.

I do have to admit, however, that on a personal level, I do LOVE Facebook for allowing me to stay in contact with my friends and family. Especially these busy days, when I am up at 11:30 pm and working on this course or on my "real job". As phone calls are not really appropriate at this time of day, communicating via Facebook with the people who know me already, is what keeps my relationships relevant and keeps me in touch with all the important connections in my life.

This is not what I would consider the best scenario for maintaining relationships as I am still very rooted in the belief that there is not real replacement for human to human contact - at least until  James Cameron figures out the technology to make THAT happen too -  but I do think there is something to at least letting people know you are thinking about them and do want to know what kinds of things are happening in their lives. Social networking and Facebook in particular, are an excellent means to this end.


Professionally:

For my students:
Our school just recently allowed student access to Facebook and Flickr. So far, no issues have resulted from this change in policy and it has actually been very helpful to my COM tech students who sometimes "forget" to bring in their digital photos for projects. Now, they can easily select an appropriate photo from their online accounts. We discussed the proper use of the site and my expectations for how and why they will access these accounts, but I did talk to them about the privacy issues that I had been researching. Although I use Facebook myself for personal use, I am not sure how I would use Facebook as part of my pedagogy for teaching my courses. I think there are better and more appropriate tools (blogs, wikis, or other media sharing sites) that would be more effective for our needs. That being said, Facebook did provide the opportunity to discuss the issues of privacy, Internet safety and intellectual ownership.

There are studies that suggest today's students have a very different concept of privacy than their parents and do not make the distinction between what they should keep private and what is "free game" to access or publish about themselves. It did get some reassurance that they understand safety concerns and that posting information about other people without their consent or with the intention of hurting someone's feelings was inappropriate, but some were still quite willing to "put themselves out there" without a lot of consideration about the consequences.

This is a major concern for Clay Shirky in this video clip feature on Privacy and Social Networking.



Given the opportunity, I would like to use this video clip in a presentation to all my classes. I think it would he a great discussion starter and hopefully get the students to think a bit more about the consequences, both positive and negative when using social networking sites.

I think it is important for students to know that networking sites can be used for more than just relating with friends. Some of the major 21st C skills we want our students to have is to be critical thinkers and effective collaborators. If we can help them to be responsible and to use these networks effectively then there is an excellent rationale for having access to these tools and addressing their use in the classroom.

For my own professional development:
As I mentioned earlier in this blog, I was very pleased to come across the Classroom 2.0 network and immediately registered with them to be able to communicate with other educators and begin accessing (and hopefully contributing to)  the timely discussions on incorporating Web 2.0 tools into teaching and learning!  It is such an amazing resource and having access to the thoughts, opinions and expertise of so many people (50,364 members) who share an interest in technology and education is invaluable to my both for my studies and for my professional growth.

Currently, I only belong to a few groups, one of which is a "beginners" group, to help get oriented to the site and start building connections with other members. I consider Classroom 2.0 is a much more professional social network and appreciate the security measure they have in place. I am much more comfortable sharing my personal information on a site like this even if they subscribed to the same privacy policies as Facebook, (though I really hope not...should probably check that out again...).

If the information was being provided to application developers, in this case I might find myself more forgiving of the Classroom 2.0 administrators if it meant that creative and effective applications were being made available to educators and their students.


Social Networking is valuable tool:
The more I learn about all the Web 2.0 tools we've been exploring and start to add up all the accounts and profiles I have created, it's made me realize that social networking is not just about using accounts to communicate with people you already know (like one would use email or Skype to connect with friends and family), but it has the added feature of creating opportunities to establish relationships with individuals you would never meet otherwise.

I understand that for those or you who are way more open to "putting yourselves out there", this is not a big revelation. Again, as a very private person, the idea of sharing my thoughts or ideas with people I will never meet face to face is still a bit disconcerting and I still have my own personal "Big Brother is watching" hang ups to contend with, but at the same time, my exploration has left me with the impression and understanding that despite some of the negative aspects of networking, there is still much value in being able to connect to others through these ever expanding social networks.