The Social Web: Learning Together

One of these days I'm just going to have to suck it up and join Facebook. Too many of my friends are after me to get an account, and I'll admit, I do feel a little out of the loop without one. Just a little.

The other day a friend of mine said to me, "The only people I know who don't have Facebook accounts are teachers!" Of course, this could be a sad comment on how out-of-touch teachers are when it comes to social networking technology, but that's not what she was driving at. Another teacher friend of hers had commented, "Why would I want a fake social life when I don't even have time for a real social life?" Though I initially hesitated to join Facebook for privacy/security issues, my real excuse now is time, or, the lack thereof.

That being said, the ability for social networking sites like Diigo and del.icio.us to save time is incredible. Though a newbie to both, I am looking forward to finding ways to use them with colleagues and students. I love the idea of being able to help students (and staff) organize their work throughout the year, and I think the idea of having students collect information using something like Diigo helps create a real atmosphere of academia that perhaps is difficult to simulate in other ways (like a high school locker, for example).

Something I definitely need more help in comprehending is tagging. I get the basic concept, but I think I need more concrete examples and practice.

I appreciated Richardson's discussion of Twitter. I think the situation in Iran has really brought to light its importance (and sort of turned the Big Brother fear on its head; though, unfortunately, the technology is still being used against the people after the fact). Does Twitter have a "serious news" versus "fluff" option? I know that would be hard to control, but social networking sites do have a history of working to control the environment to a high level, a la Wikipedia. It seems to be where that technology needs to go.