Facebook is as ubiquitous as the telephone. Actually corded phones are starting to dissappear. Facebook and texting are the venues where plans are made, rsvp and so on. Most students today have facebook accounts. According to an article in the Boston Globe 51% of teens log on to a social network site at least once a day. My guess is that is more. This is a tech savvy, wired generation. Still, I'm not ready to use Facebook in the classroom. The reasons are endless. I agree that some great discussions could take place, but today that are too many cons to take a chance with the pros.
The more I read about Ning it seems as though there are a lot of down sides. It seems that a wiki can allow for discussion as well as posting visual and oral presentations.
Janette, That number cited by the Globe seems a bit smaller that I would have thought as well. When I scan my own kids' Facebook pages to see what everyone is up to, I am astounded by the number of their "friends" who are on Facebook at the same time. All the little green dots are lit up! And if I do only random checks and consistently see so many students "on", the amount of time and/or the number of times they visit the social network must be that much greater!
ReplyDeleteI too thought he number in the Globe wuld be higher. I go on facebook an check my own kids's page and like to see who is on and like Susan said that "green light" is always on- I am not crazy about always hearing about everyone's day hr by hr or minute by minute..We wone why students have difficulty communicating- texts and facebooking has taken over!
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