The+Social+Web+SP2012

**The Social Web**

__What is it?__
Regarding the social web, Richardson states that "the biggest, most sweeping change in our relationship with the Internet may not be as much the ability to publish as it is the ability to share, connect, and create with many, many others of like minds and interests" (85). The social web is marked by social connections that we voluntarily forge and develop with others through various online sites and tools. We interact with specific individuals within larger online communities; we become members of various digital cultures with controls, rules, etiquette and hierarchy. Through participation and membership to sites, blogs, etc., we become citizens of the social web, individuals equipped with voices and opinions.

__ **Social Bookmarking Sites** __

**What is it?** Social Bookmarking sites are a great example of how internet users can share, organize, search and manage bookmarks of web resources by saving links to webpages they would like to share in an organized list. Through this, users create a //folksonomy//, or, way to classify things while collaborating, creating and managing tags.

**Social Bookmarking Tutorial** [|Tutorial and information] Tutorial/Introduction video using del.icio.us. as example

**Suggestions for classroom application** **Diigo** []
 * Students can use this site for research projects, save and archive webpages, organize information from saved sites, and then put them into private folders for personal use.
 * Similarly, teachers can use Diigo to research professional and personal resources, for example:[| Classroom management], [|Digital Literacy]
 * Further, it is also a useful tool for more specific content related information: [|Social Studies,][|Special Education]

**Delicious** []
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Focuses on sharing links in the easiest way possible
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Tagging information is key
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Search for links by tag
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">RSS feeds of all information under a certain tag can be added to webpages
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Use Delicious with students by creating a unique tag for each student
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Students (or anybody) can use site on a computer at school and still have access to "bookmarks" at another place (home, library, different computer the next day at school, etc.)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In general, the site is very student-friendly

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__** Twitter **__

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**What is it?** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Twitter is an online "micro-blogging" tool that allows users to send 140 character texts known as "Tweets". <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Users can use Twitter to follow other users, respond to other users Tweets, and include other users in Tweets using hashtags (#)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Tutorials & Informational Videos:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Twitter Experiment: This is a video about how twitter can be used in a classroom. This video highlights the use of twitter in a college class setting. It provides examples of how twitter can be used to generate classroom discussion, as well as the pros and cons to using twitter in the classroom.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Twitter for Educators: This is video argues why twitter is a tool that should be used in the classroom. It argues the benefits and disadvantages of Twitter. The video also provides a tutorial for how to use Twitter. The video explains how to follow and unfollow others, characters uses, and explains what is a hashtag. The video also provides sites teachers can visit to learn more how to use Twitter in the classroom.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Suggestions for classroom application** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">60 Inspiring examples of Twitter in the classroom <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This site provides 60 different suggestions for Twitter classroom applications including suggestions for communication, organization, and writing skills.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Trends & Resources** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|#EDUchat & other topical hashtags] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This hashtag links conversations on Twitter surrounding education policy and classroom resources. For more specific conversations, educators should look into hashtags like #sschat for social studies, #engchat for English, and #mathchat for math.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__** Facebook **__

Only created within the last 10 years, Facebook has become the ultimate social networking site. Beginning originally has a service only available to college students, it has now become a networking, contact, photo-sharing, and socializing tool for anyone 13 years old and up. While there are a certain number of privacy risks involved when using it to connect with students, if done correctly, it's a useful tool to reach out directly to students in a way they are generally very comfortable with using.
 * What is it?**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Suggestion for Classroom Application** <span style="background-position: 100% 50%; color: #000000; cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 10px 0px 0px;">[|Facebook in the Classroom] <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Informative article with links to numerous websites that advise and give examples of using Facebook, Twitter, and other social media in the classroom. This site gave me a great list for teachers as they set up a teacher Facebook account. They also posted some [|fabulous videos] for setting up a teacher Facebook profile.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">** Setting Up a Facebook Group for Your Class ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.571em; padding: 0px;"> If you wish to learn more about how best to configure things in Facebook for use in a course based application, here are a few resources that provide guidance.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.571em 1.571em; padding: 0px;">Create a teacher profile separate from your personal profile
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.571em 1.571em; padding: 0px;">Ask students to create a limited profile with controlled settings, and to friend your new teacher profile
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.571em 1.571em; padding: 0px;">Create Lists & Groups for your classes
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1.571em 1.571em; padding: 0px;">The document then goes on to discuss how to use various Facebook tools as part of the instructional process

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Facebook Privacy Settings** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">While Facebook is a great way to network with friends, peers, and also teachers, there are very important factors of privacy settings that teachers as well as students should be aware of. To ensure that our students are staying safe on the internet, we must influence them that limited visibility is a must. Let them know that if you want to keep certain things private the best way to do that is to not post those certain things online at all. Another thing is to stay up to date on the privacy settings and changes that happen often take place on Facebook daily. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|This] is a website of the article discussing the importance of privacy settings on Facebook.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Alternatives to Facebook** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Ning** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|Ning]: an alternative to Facebook geared towards "growing communities" online, and allowing communication surrounding a specific topic, similar to message boards of the past, but with a modern twist incorporating elements of Facebook and other popular aspects of social networking. [|Here] is an example of Ning in action, exploring the use of iPads in education.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Toonti** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|Toonti] is also another option for classroom-based social networks. One of the biggest "pros" of Toonti is that it allows the teacher to set up/control the exact social network. See a [|Review of Toonti for Teachers] in the classroom as an alternative to facebook.

[|webNetwork]is a software that allows users to build their own communities online controlling everything from the members to the interface. The look is similar to that of Facebook, but the work is more flexible, allowing you to own your own content even if you host through the company, as well as creating it as an independent networking site, or an addition to an already existing website.
 * webNetwork**

[|MySpace] is often considered outdated since the advent of Facebook, but it still provides a different, albeit less popular purpose to than the social networking giant. Still remaining a popular spot for music and some celebrities to host profiles, MySpace can be used similarly to Facebook for educators. Furthermore, there are multiple suggestions available online (like [|this] one) encouraging teachers to use MySpace as a tool for students to engage creatively with historical figures and fictional characters, setting up their own accounts attempting to embody the course content.
 * MySpace**