Social Networking Technologies

 

Social Networking Technologies

Social networking is a readily available tool instructors and students can incorporate into learning. Networking tools are generally thought of as social friendship-based tools. They can be used for so much more than sharing media. It helps people stay connected but can also accommodate people with similar interests. Social networking can help form a sense of community and encourage peer-based learning. Networking with others is an important and beneficial learning strategy (Fink, 2013).

Ning & Facebook

Several sites already exist to enable interaction among student, instructors, peers, and individuals with similar interests. Ning is similar to the infamous Facebook. Ning is also a rapidly growing social media platform. Within education, we first have to move past the friendship-based connections. Facebook tends to be more relationship based while Ning has been utilized to accommodate the learning aspect of social networking. Many opportunities are waiting beyond the surface (Richardson, 2010). Allowing students to socialize outside of the classroom may give them the confidence to express themselves in a different manner (Sanwal et al., 2023)

Both platforms allow groups to form and control the content within those groups. Creating groups with guidelines or rules can help control what is posted in the groups. It will keep the content centered around a specific topic or learning objective. If this is done in the classroom, the instructor can be the “admin” of the group. The content within the group can be made so only group members can access it.

While the purpose of these sites is to connect with students, it should be cautioned to “friend” students to your personal accounts (Richardson, 2010). A separate account should be created to accommodate instruction and a separate personal account. While social networking is beneficially in collaborating to learn through other’s perspectives, face-to-face interactions are still essential for communication (Sanwal et al., 2023). Students still need to develop communication skills on a personal level.

 References

Fink, L. D. (2013). Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses, Revised and Updated (2nd ed.). Wiley Professional Development (P&T). https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/books/9781118419014

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Corwin Press

Sanwal, T., Yadav, S., Avasthi, S., Prakash, A., & Tyagi, M. (2023). Social Media and Networking Applications in the Education Sector. 2023 2nd Edition of IEEE Delhi Section Flagship Conference (DELCON), Delhi Section Flagship Conference (DELCON), 2023 2nd Edition of IEEE, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1109/DELCON57910.2023.10127547