Social Networking


PERSONAL, EDUCATIONAL, AND ALL MIXED UP By Gregory Marks, Michigan Virtual University®


Social networking has been a pervasive part of the human condition forever; what has changed in recent years is how technology has transformed what is possible. That transformation is radical. Historians may look back at this era and see it as profound a period of change, for example, as the introduction of the printing press.


For almost everyone, this radical change is happening more in our personal lives outside education than as a part of how formal education takes place. This is even truer for our students. In addition, there are risks emerging with all this activity, risks that most of us are not even close to fully appreciating, risks that are an impediment to providing valuable learning experiences.


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What are the opportunities and the benefits of doing more? This article will first sketch out some of the core elements of social networking and their history, discuss issues and barriers, note a few examples of its use in education, and close with additional ideas.


CORE ELEMENTS


You have probably heard someone assert we’ve lost the art of conversation, the art of writing a fine letter, or reference scholarly work such as Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (Putnam, R.D, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2000), arguing that people are less and less engaged with social organizations. Perhaps, but as the amount and quality of


Winter 2013 | MACULJOURNAL


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