I didn't join any. I still don't see the advantage for me. My personal family and friends know I don't like spending hours in front of a computer for social purpose, so they won't use the computer to keep me current. I have always had a strong paranoia with posting personal information on the web. My mantra to my own offspring was that they should never give out their name, telephone or address on the internet. Yes, I know that 'privacy controls' can be implemented but one of the sites this course sent me to said "The problem in implementing these privacy options is that they're just too confusing for most non-tech savvy people to handle." This is true. Plus really motivated tech savvy people can often find work arounds to get to your digital information.
If you read my Thing 13, you will see I was not happy about being added to Yahoo Pulse- apparently a social networking site, without realizing it. I was also watching CNN for morning news today. One of their stories was how banks and lenders are following social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to find out more about people before they approve a loan.
My opinion about social networking has not changed since working on this Thing, it has always been negative. I am going to wait until I am shown huge educational gain before I would support the use of social networking at school.
One of the benefits of using a social networking site that we have seen demonstrated is that you are meeting students where they are "hanging out" -- We have a facebook page for the NHS Library Media Center where we post information and links for books and summer reading. We are establishing a presence in a place where our students spend time. We'll have to wait to see if this is something that is useful based on the data that we get back.
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