WARNING! This website is no longer actively maintained. It is an archive of 2 years work by Doug Belshaw who now blogs at dougbelshaw.com...
Social networking is big business. MySpace was bought in 2005 for $580m, whilst Facebook is supposed to be in the process of being acquired by Microsoft for $6 billion. Naturally, educators have begun to use social networking sites as well. But herein lies a problem…
The reason that there are such bitter rivalries over somewhat similar new technologies is because even a small advantage can reap huge rewards. Take the classic case of VHS vs. Betamax for example. It doesn’t actually matter that the latter was the superior technology; VHS somehow gained a narrow advantage, which became a gulf. A similar thing is set to happen with the standards war between Blu-ray and HD-DVD.
Why do I say this? Well, a majority platform means standardization, but then innovation upon that platform. Take the iPod. There are lots of different types of MP3 players, but anyone who’s anyone owns an iPod. This means that there a wealth of after-market goodies available, from the kitsch to the rather pratical and useful. The huge user base is massive plus point for all involved.
This all presents somewhat of a problem for education-related social networks, as far as I can see. Ning.com allows anyone to easily create a social network based around a key idea or theme. Take, for example, the NextGen Teachers social network. The problem is that because anyone can make one for free, there’s lots. The most recent one I’ve come across is EduBloggerWorld. Whilst it’s great that teachers are connecting, these are far from being the only two education-related social networks on Ning.
What we need is a platform to build upon, a solid structure in the river of the Internet. To keep building temporary structures which keep getting washed away is fruitless. I quite like the approach that Nick Dennis has taken with the Schoolhistory.co.uk Forum. As anybody who’s anybody is on Facebook, he’s created a Schoolhistory group on there, which is growing quickly. Perhaps that’s the answer: Facebook for social networks inside a social network? 
Popularity: 4% [?]
> Perhaps that’s the answer: Facebook for social networks inside a social network?
But you gte the same problem as Ning - a gazillion social networks, as each person who thinks he/she has enough of a 'name' tries to be the creator of (The) one.
Well, yes, but at least they're all in one place!
The answer isn't a better place, the answer is portability — of content, users, and friends.
Tying networks, users, and/or data to a closed system –whether it be facebook, ning, or second life — is simply the same recipe with mildly different spice.
Cheers,
Bill
Although flattered to be mentioned in the blog(!) I think of the facebook group as a supplement to an already issue/education focused (web 1.0?) forum. The facebook group is more of a social thing not really related to the issues of education we discuss on the forum. Maybe that is why it works. Teachers are a suspicious lot and it is only through discussion on the forum that people want to 'engage' you as a friend on facebook. You almost have to 'prove' yourself before the social aspect of facebook can take off.
Surely though the fact any group exists is excellent. What each group needs to appreciate is that hopefully everyone is after the same goal - to improve the way we educate. If an indiviudal wants to setup another group and gather together fellow colleagues then more power to their web elbow.
The fact social networking groups exist is brilliant in itself. Where work now needs to happen is where groups are happy to merge, agree to cooperate and work together with each other.
I do also take Nick's point that different technologies and sites do serve different purposes. The History Teachers' Discussion Forum is largely a formal place (with some funny extra bits and pieces that become available when you join up). The Facebook group is an excellent social addition to the forum. I think I could do a bit more to promote it too - perhaps an additional link / section to push people towards it could be added.
Widening the issue slightly, I do have serious concerns about social networking sites for education. Isn't there an inherent contradiction in their usage? In some ways truly social networking sites will always only ever be 'bolt ons' to education. This in itself is great, but no school can ever really open up the likes of MySpace and Bebo for students within school.
For the past two weeks we've largely done that in school as proxy servers have taken over and not been sufficiently (or indeed efficiently) blocked. What the students aren't aware is that we're also running some brilliant Securius hardware that tracks and screengrabs any inappropriate material. From just Facebook and Bebo we've tracked over 1000 problems in the last seven days - think of every swear word, inappropriate material and some quite disgusting additional things too. Is this because my students are paticularly depraved? No - not at all. Instead the software reads the screens that they are looking at. As the profile pages they look at contain all sorts of insults to each other, open comments made outside of school and all sorts beyond - they are posting all sorts of fifth. Yet this is them actively using social networking for exactly that - their own social networking.
If I jump into that world and start bringing them into posting about homeworks and other learning concepts it simply doesn't work. Now, I can adapt and setup my own controlled environments - internal, monitored versions of Bebo and similar things - but it will never be truly making use of social networking sites.
So, back to Doug's original question - Facebook for social networks inside of social networks. Perhaps. Although again, Facebook can never really be used seriously rather than socially. What has to work most effectively is what worked before the Web 'concept' of social netwokring really took off - teachers being willing to share good practice and collaborate with others. If each teacher can do this as much as possible, each group, network, hub or whatever can plug in, adapt, develop, comment and improve for the common good.
Thus I don't think there can be one solution - just a continuing enthusiasm to share good practice by those within the profession. That's what I reckon anyway!
What's happened to my paragraphs?
Yes, that annoys me
Thanks for that detailed response, Andrew. As for the paragraphs, I'm aware of the problem. I've got the Editormonkey plugin installed to make posting comments user-friendly. The trouble is that it tends to much up one's paragraphs rather…
Anyone who knows their MP3 technology will tell you that the iPod is to MP3 players what AOL is to web browsers, and the less said about iTunes the better! Serious MP3 (and Ogg Vorbis) users choose iRiver.