Thing #12 - Explore Social Networking

I created a Myspace account a few months ago because it was a requirement to see the video I was trying to view. I'm really leary of putting information out there, considering the #1 crime in America is identity theft. I didn't put much information, and I haven't shared anything with anyone. Of course, when you use it that way, it takes all of the fun out of it. When used with strict measures in place, it is difficult to locate people with whom you might like to reconnect. You have to already know they have an account, find it, and invite them to be your friend. BTW, I'm not too crazy about all this "friends" bit. Kind of reminds me of elementary and middle school "school-yard picks!" Obviously, the more time you spend on these sites, the more "friends" you can have.

Librarians need to know about social networking sites because that's where the students are. Whether or not we are personally interested in the concept, we need to know where our students and children are spending so much time and be able to navigate and understand it so that we can teach them about safety issues, cyber-bullying, etc. Since the students are already communicating this way, what a great way to reach them!

I didn't spend as much time with Facebook because I've already created two social networking accounts, but I first heard about it when a new teacher used it in our conversation and I had to ask what she was talking about. Oh, that's another good reason to be familiar with these sites - college students and young teachers use them. We don't want to continue the way-too-familiar "dinosaur librarian" stigma by our ignorance of tools so many are using.

Ning, which I had not heard of before, is my favorite. I found some great Elvis pictures, and a lot of Elvis groups. The Mesquite Librarian site is a lot of fun! We may talk more there than we ever will any other way. I'm still nervous about privacy though, because it looks like anyone can view it unless it is totally restricted to "friends."

I'm not sure which site had the most useful features. They all appeared to have about the same thing. Uploading pictures and content is fairly easy on all three sites. I'd need to spend a considerable amount of time on each to adequately compare. I think Ning might be the most useful for a school, since you can easily create a network for specific purposes. It could be used for journaling, asking homework questions, posting assignments - any number of things. Of course all of this depends on filter restrictions, time to monitor content regularly, student computer access, student keyboarding abilities, and many other factors.

I like it, though. I think this is where we're all headed, whether we learn it or get left in the dust.

BTW, I haven't been able to successfully link to Myspace yet. I'll have to trouble shoot later. It's past my bedtime (real time is about 10:30 p.m. - don't know why my post times aren't accurate).

Here's my MySpace link, but I haven't posted anything there.