BUILDING COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE THROUGH SOCIAL NETWORKING

Greetings Educators,

With the advent of popular social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and others we have instant access to online tools that can expand our connectivity with our friends, our peers, and those working in the same fields. Learning communities and communities of practice allow us to collaborate and share ideas and information with others without regard to boundaries or borders. Social networking is a tool that facilitates this activity.

As you may recall from a column I wrote a few months ago, I have become somewhat obsessed with, okay, *really* obsessed with Facebook.

In my last article I was struggling to get 100 friends and I am now pushing 200.

I started looking at who these “friends” are and I realized that many, if not most, are either family or people I know through my work at MSU.  As I travel and work in a number of foreign countries, many of my Facebook friends are colleagues and acquaintances from those countries.  We know that Facebook can keep us in touch, but what are some of the educational values that Facebook and other social networking sites provide?

In education we know that teachers often learn best when they learn with their peers and when they build “communities of practice” or “personal learning networks.” The potential impact of learning communities and communities of practice has grown exponentially over the past few years through online social networking tools. They have begun to define how we connect and interact with people; not just within our local “community” but also with people across the globe and in diverse cultures and environments. A community of practice can be defined as a group of people with a common interest and who have ways in which they can share best practices, ask questions, and share ideas. Living in a complex global environment, the idea of global communities of practice opens access to many who would have never before been able to communicate with others about educational issues relevant to them.

The MSU Educational Technology program has developed several ways for our students to connect to others in the field of educational technology, and remain connected long after they have completed our program.  Examples of some communities that we have established include the MSU EduTech group on MACUL Space and the MAET fan page on Facebook.

MACUL Space is a social network created on Ning for educators interested in educational technology to connect and share ideas related to the field.  Partnering with MACUL Space we have created the MSU EduTech group as a place for current, past and future students to share, collaborate and learn great ideas from each other in regards to educational technology.   Members use the discussion board area to share tips and tricks of using technology in the classroom.  In addition the 10 most recent articles from EduTech Today newsletter are displayed to keep members up to date with the program happenings as well as valuable research and information in the field.

We have also created the Michigan State University – Master of Arts in Educational Technology fan page on Facebook.  This fan page is another avenue for past, present and future MAET students to connect both socially and professionally.  The discussion board includes job postings as well as questions about technology updates.  The fan page also has links to recent articles, grants, and other valuable information related to the field of educational technology.

Some of our students have even created communities of practice to help continue their development of technology skills in the area of education.  Sergio Martinez (https://www.msu.edu/~mart1075/), a recent graduate of our MAET program, created a community of practice called the MAET Challenge on the social networking site Ning.  He states, “The motivation for starting this site was that I, as a first grade teacher, did not have the outlet necessary to maintain and/or challenge my tech skills. Hence the genesis is derived from a need to connect with other techies out there to constructively and safely display work for others to comment or simply to admire.”  You can learn more and get involved by accepting the challenge by going to http://maetchallenge.ning.com/.

Many social networking sites, such as Facebook, also provide you with the opportunity to join or create groups focused on common interests.

In doing the research for this column I joined an online community, “Teach for Lebanon” and found contact available with individual members, discussion forums, email, groups, and educators with common interests. We can share our ideas and share our needs and questions.

I would now like to challenge you the reader. Go on Facebook or Ning and find a group focused on your field or interest, sign up, and then report back to us what you found. What benefits does the group offer and how did you become a part of a “community of practice” or “personal learning network?” Think in terms of connecting with global communities and what both you and they can learn from participating.

And, if you participate in other communities of practice, share them with us and let’s learn as members of this newsletter’s community of practice as well.  We are interested in selecting a few examples of comments on this blog to highlight in future columns of our newsletter.  So we look forward to hearing from YOU!

Best Regards,

Joe Codde
Professor and Director
Educational Technology Certificate Program

CURRENT STUDENT NEWS
MAET Student Dana Dziedzic who as awarded a $2500 grant for classroom clickers based upon her Dream IT assignment she created for her East Lansing summer cohort class last summer!  Dana says “I was turned down the first time, but resubmitted it in January.  So, if students complain about the assignment, tell them that I will have $2,500 in new teaching tools come next fall.”

MAET REQUIRED SOFTWARE LIST
We have provided a list of commercial software along with free/open source alternatives.  In order to support your individual needs and to make the summer most beneficial to your school/work environment you must have the software in each category, though you are are not required to buy the commercial versions.  All projects can be completed successfully with either commercial or open source alternatives.

An updated list of required software and hardware can be found by visiting:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ah93×5pp2qng_5t4dxbzg3

NP ENDORSEMENT
Upon completion of the 21 Educational Technology endorsement credits (CEP 810, 811, 812, 800, 815 (formerly 801), 820, 822) you will need to apply for the NP endorsement using the following form:

http://www.educ.msu.edu/programs/forms/endform.pdf

FALL 2009 APPLICATION DEADLINE
The fall MAET application deadline of July 1st is quickly approaching!

Thanks to all who have recommended family, friends and colleagues to our program! Application materials can be found by visiting – http://edutech.msu.edu/apply_masters.html

JOIN OUR SOCIAL NETWORKS!
Our Facebook fan page is at 115 fans and growing! Make sure to join us

at: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=49440874208

In addition to our Facebook group, check our our presence on

MACUL Space:
http://maculspace.ning.com/group/msuedutech

or

LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=1865810&trk=anet_ug_hm

Greetings Educators,

You may recall that in the last edition of our newsletter I wrote about Facebook and the role of social networking in the classroom.  I have this small obsession with keeping my Facebook paged updated regularly (daily at least) but I’m now finding that it’s important to know a bit more about the Facebook phenomenon and what we might be inviting into our classrooms.

First, don’t get me wrong; I firmly believe that Facebook and other social networking tools have a role in the classroom and in education. How can we ignore Facebook when it has more than 175 million users and, due in large part to advertising revenue, is valued at over $15 billion after only 5 years?  How many of your students do you think have Facebook accounts? Try asking and see.

A poll of our readers in the last issue on whether or not social networking has a role in the classroom said that it clearly does (14 yes, 4 no) although statistically I’m not sure we can make that claim with only 22 responses.

However, over the past few weeks I’ve read a number of news reports about Facebook that’s given me pause (but it won’t stop my daily updates). The stories relate to how Facebook uses and stores information about its members. A bit worrisome for sure but let’s first go over some stats about Facebook taken from their web site (http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics):

They report:

General Growth

More than 175 million active users

More than half of Facebook users are outside of college

The fastest growing demographic is those 30 years old and older

User Engagement

Average user has 120 friends on the site

More than 3 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide)

More than 18 million users update their statuses at least once each day

Applications

More than 850 million photos uploaded to the site each month

More than 7 million videos uploaded each month

More than 28 million pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each month

More than 25 million active user groups exist on the site

International Growth

More than 35 translations available on the site, with more than 60 in development

More than 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States

From an education standpoint, what do you know about Facebook and, more importantly, what do the kids in your classrooms know when they sign up? Have you ever read the “terms of service” (TOS) for Facebook or for any web service for that matter? Or, do you do as I do and just click “Agree” whenever an agreement pops up?

The big hoopla recently with Facebook happened when they changed their TOS and the result would have been that when you opt out of Facebook your “stuff” stays – forever. My assumption has always been that, when I decide to stop using a Web service such as Facebook, MySpace, or other services, my information is deleted. I am always aware that online services make their money from advertising and that I’m bombarded with advertising from almost every commercial website. I’m also aware that while I’m a subscriber to a service my information is being shared. I just have to check my spam box to know someone’s snagged my name and email address.

But Facebook clearly went too far when they changed their TOS to read that we, as subscribers, are agreeing to grant them “irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license” to use our material and “use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising.” And that’s FOREVER! With this update in their terms they deleted the terminology that said users could remove their content at any time, at which time the license would expire. Therefore with this change in the TOS Facebook would retain users’ content and licenses AFTER the user terminated their account.

So Facebook subscribers revolted and they changed their TOS back or at least temporarily suspended their efforts to make the change.

Now the lesson here is to be better informed about what you agree to and, with the case of Facebook and other similar services, be aware of what your students may be agreeing to particularly if you’re using this in your classroom in some way.   I encourage you to read the article “10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know” and maybe even share them with your students. I’m beginning to better understand why school districts have policies about accessing web sites from school computers and why lawyers make a lot of money dealing with issues like this.

For more information and to see a humorous take on this issue I would recommend viewing the YouTube video below. I searched for formal news videos on the subject but this one kept popping up. Of course, I subscribe to YouTube and have never read the Terms of Service. I’m now rethinking how I approach “free” online services and will attempt myself to be a better-informed user.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxF0z8nrNtY

Best Regards,

Joe Codde
Professor and Director
Educational Technology Certificate Program

Is there a place for Social Networking in the classroom?

Although there is so much happening in the world of technology and education I sometimes find myself challenged on what to write about. Recently I’ve become somewhat addicted to Facebook and, as I was thinking about what to write for this edition of the newsletter, I was also clicking back and forth between my Facebook page, viewing Facebook emails, and then handling a Facebook chat with a student in Algeria. I was also noting that I had “98″ friends and had not yet reached “100.” So I obsessed about how to get two more friends. As this was happening, Leigh Wolf, our MAET program coordinator, came by my office and we chatted about Facebook, my writer’s block, and the idea that this article could focus on the educational applications of Facebook.

I did a quick online search through ISTE for articles on the educational uses of social networks and found resources on Web 2.0 technologies including blogs, wikis, etc. But I found little on the uses of Facebook, MySpace, or the other mainstream social networking programs. Then the thought crossed my mind, “hey, aren’t we using a blog for this newsletter??” Can’t we then ask our readers for their input on the use of programs such as Facebook and MySpace? The answer is “of course we can!”

As my conversation continued here in the College of Education on this topic I learned that Punya Mishra, associate professor and director of the Master’s in Educational Technology program, used Facebook during the summer MAET program. His graduate assistant, Michael Deschryver, said the following about the experience,

This was a hybrid sequence of courses, with two weeks of face-to-face classes, and then a month online. Students started using Facebook on their own during the face-to-face classes for social purposes, and we then decided to use it for all of the course interactions during the month online. This was very successful, and the students provided us with positive feedback about using Facebook for the course purposes. In addition, since we were “friended” by all of these students, we continue to see social, academic, and professional interactions among them after the completion of the summer courses, evidencing the potential for Facebook not only to extend learning beyond the classroom, but the semester constraints, as well.

In addition, Leigh pointed out that MAET students in the recent Plymouth, England graduating cohort did a video on the “Ten Educational Applications on Facebook.” The students, Fatina Al-Ahmad, Scott Christian and Suhasini Iyengar talk about using applications in Facebook for language, math, the environment, vocabulary, etc. You can see the great job they did by watching the video below.

Lastly, I use Facebook to talk with colleagues and connect with past students globally. This provides me with opportunities for conversations and perspectives I might not otherwise have. But can this be used effectively in the K-12 classroom? My Facebook probably looks quite different than a 14 or 15 year olds Facebook. How do we know they’ve accessed appropriate and approved content? What effect does the advertising have?

Many, many questions with very few answers. Your task is now to educate, inform, and enlighten our readers with your comments, your points and counterpoints, and examples of how you may be using social networks in your classrooms or in an educational environment.

Please take a few minutes to participate in the following poll on whether you agree with the use of social networking applications in the K-12 classroom. Then be sure to add your comments to this article by clicking on the Comment link at the bottom of this posting. Please feel free to speak your mind and/or share your examples. In the next issue I’ll provide you with the results of this survey and we can continue our conversation on this important topic.

PS: Feel free to add me to your Facebook ;-)

Best Regards,

Joe Codde
Professor and Director
Educational Technology Certificate Program