Chapter 9: Social Networks

Chapter 9 in Richardson's book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms is all about social networks. As I began reading this chapter, I thought I knew a lot about social networks. Why wouldn't I? I have accounts with most social networks already and have had them for quite some time. I even remember using "The Facebook" where you had to have a college email to even sign up for it!

However, after reading just a few pages of this chapter, I feel that I had an "Aha" moment. I never had thought of social networks as being either friendship-based or interest-based. Although I was using my social networks for both friendships and interests, I never really separated the two as being different from one another. After coming to this conclusion, I realize that I use both my personal and professional social networks accounts with both interests in mind. With that said, I plan on making my professional account more interest-based rather than friendship-based. It might be a hard move, as I do use my professional social networks to communicate with students (as it seems to be the best way to get communication with my students). However, I do agree with Richardson that being Facebook friends with students is not a great idea.

I thought this chapter really opened my eyes to social networks being interest-based tools. As he stated perfectly in Chapter 9 in regards to students using social networks, "they are connecting to peers and adults outside of their physical spaces, people who they don't know but with whom they share a passion. They become at once teachers and learners in these spaces, and, in the process, they learn about the things that school can't or won't teach them" (Richardson 131). This could not be more true. Students, when interested in a topic, can use social networks to dive into the topic and learn endlessly about it. In a way, social networks are a way for a person to branch off an learn about whatever it is they may want to, even if what they are learning about is completely foreign to their location.

References:
- Richardson, W. Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. 2010.