Recently I’ve heard a few comments and queries about the role of social networking in education, as you would expect there are a wide range of opinions from a resounding “yes” to “no, it’s a waste of time”.

It seems to me that there is really not a lot of concrete evidence out there to say one way or another that sites like Facebook and Myspace have a place in education.  I did find some research undertaken by Christine Greenhow from the University of Minnesota which does demonstrate some benefits of social networking.

They have found that social networking fosters communication and creativity and allows students to express their opinions, emotions and thoughts.

They also found that where students may get some training in class on a subject such as video creation or creative writing if the student is interested and inspired by the subject they may go on learning in their own time. Social networks allow students to display their creations and get feedback and reviews from their peers.

Sir Ken Robinson said at a recent TED conference “Creativity is as important as literacy” and that “We are educating people out of their creative capacities”. With that in mind don’t you think Social networking is a great way to encourage creativity as well as literacy?

Blogging and communication tools can be used for reflection as well as interaction, there is evidence that these tools improve literacy and can help develop a social conscience. A lot of organisations are becoming increasingly interested in e-portfolios but there are currently many definitions of what an e-portfolio is. Some e-portfolios encourage reflection and the keeping of a diary, some allow work and evidence to be uploaded and some allow peer review.  As far as I can see the IT and social skills required for interacting with an e-portfolio are already being developed, social networking sites are working as a training ground without anyone realising it!

We do need to be careful though, I recently came across a quote which I’ll have to paraphrase as unfortunately I can’t find the original source: The best way for a social network (such as Facebook) to kill off a rival would be to say that the rival is educational.

Expecting that we can shoehorn education into students’ existing social networks is probably the wrong idea. Trying to create copies of social networks in education and expecting students to use them like Facebook may also be a mistake. Beware of trying to be too cool and creating a Creepy Treehouse*

Obviously Social networks have downsides too, most students realise that they can be a distraction from their studies, one thing that we should perhaps think about rather than banning and blocking sites is how to encourage their use as an effective study break.

The other main hazards are breaches of privacy, security and digital identity; however the online world isn’t going to go away and can be hazardous to everyone no matter what age they are or what experience they have. Learning to be safe online is an essential life skill these days, effective teaching about these dangers should form a core part of education.

Interestingly whilst I’ve been writing this article I’ve had several related tweets on Twitter pointing to some relevant articles,  I’ll leave you with some links to follow should you want to explore this subject more.

Christine Greenhow from the University of Minnesota:

http://www1.umn.edu/urelate/newsservice/Multimedia_Videos/social_network.htm

Very entertaining talk by Sir Ken Robinson on education and creativity

Schoolchildren should be encouraged to write blogs and use social networking sites like Facebook to improve literacy levels

Children who use technology are ‘better writers’

* A creepy treehouse is a place built by scheming adults to lure in kids. Kids tend to sense there’s something creepy about that treehouse and avoid it. Hence, a new definition: “Any institutionally-created, operated, or controlled environment in which participants are lured in either by mimicking pre-existing open or naturally formed environments, or by force, through a system of punishments or rewards.”

At the FOTE09 conference we heard a lot of common sense advice about our digital identities from Professor Shirley Williams from the University of Reading.  She talked about many of the ways our digital identity can represent us.

Our digital identity can work in our favour, allowing people to search for all the cool things that we’ve done such as conferences we’ve addressed, photographs we’ve taken, even allow people to find our online CV.

However a poorly managed digital identity could have repercussions for a very long time.

It seems that not everybody is worried about the kind of impression that things such as an email address can give, imagine if you were an employer receiving a job application from bob@Icantbebothered.com or pinkfluffybunnyknickers@hotmail.com, what would you think? OK so they’re made up e-mail addresses but they’re not far from real ones!

If you type your name into a search engine such as Google what do you find?  The chances are you’ll find a whole bunch of people with the same name as you, but you will almost certainly find references to yourself.  What do those references contain?  Is it all stuff that you don’t mind everybody reading?  Facebook and other social networking sites are in the news constantly for many reasons, people posting pictures of themselves doing silly things in their work uniforms, making comments about their colleagues or their boss and losing their jobs, in fact only this week a man wanted by the Authorities in the United States gave away his location on Facebook.

Sometimes you can appear “guilty” just by association, many things true or not can be gleaned from  other people’s social networking sites and by the pictures they post in their galleries.  I’m sure there are a lot of people who really wish their friends hadn’t posted pictures of the party last weekend.  Or perhaps they don’t even think of the consequences, once information is out in the cloud we call the Internet it’s more or less impossible to get rid of it.

I know the tone of this post is a bit gloomy for a Friday afternoon but it’s important that the good and bad sides of the digital world are presented fairly. I guess the conclusion to this entry is to go out into the digital world and have fun but think twice before posting anything online that could show you in a bad light now, or in the future.  Check the security of your accounts to limit the number of people who have open access to your private information and be careful who you make friends with… because in the social networking world your friends might not actually be your friends.

E-safety is a word that has cropped up in recent conversations I have had with various people. In fact Paul, one of our ACL Advisors, blogged recently about Staying Safe Online. Coincidentally we now also have an E-safety information and resources area in our Moodle (no need to login to look at it) courtesy of RSC East Midlands (who swapped it for our  ‘Getting to know Moodle‘ online area).

For those who ask why we need to be concerned about E-safety and being ‘safe’ online I like the simple comparison that I have heard a few times, where the Web (information highway) is compared to our road systems and consequently E-Safety to road safety, that is  … would you send your children out to find their way in the big wide world without having first taught them the basics of the green cross code … and would you consider driving on our roads without being aware of the highway code?

Any comments about the online E-safety area or suggestions for resources we could add would be gratefully received.

WISE KIDS and the Wales Internet Safety Partnership (WISP) organised a very successful conference entitled “Young People, Mobile and Internet Technologies 2008 – Maximising Opportunities, Addressing Challenges”. This was a one-day event held at on 20th October at the Richard Ley Development Centre , Swansea, and nearly 200 delegates attended representing all educational sectors. Speakers included Keith Towler (Children’s Commissioner for Wales); Sangeet Bhullar (Wisekids);  Ann Beynon (BT) ; Fiona Lennox(Ofcom ); Kieron Sheeny (OU); and there were also addresses from pupils (approx age14-16), as well as very entertaining workshops and Q&A sessions. Topics covered included internet safety, digital literacy, and ways in which social networking and online and mobile applications can invigorate teaching and learning.  All presentations and web-casts can now be viewed on the Wisekids site.

I found the pupils’ perspectives particularly interesting, and it appeared that the pupils present had not received specific training on the use of internet. A new ‘E-safety’ web-site from NGfL Cymru, with Welsh Assembly Government input (and advice on security and cybercrime from JISC Legal),  notes that internet safety is now a required element of the national curriculum in Wales for learners aged 5 to 14. Hopefully this initiative will also  equip learners with skills to help them judge whether web-sites are produced by reputable organisations and contain accurate content, and will also raise their awareness of related issues such as plagiarism.