An overview of social networking and some examples of popular social networking sites for educators

2.  Social networking sites
 Twitter
 Social bookmarking sites
 Wikis
 Blogs
These are distinct categories that each operate in a
different way, but all provide the opportunity for
people to connect, comment, and share around a
topic.
This session, we’ll focus on social networking sites
In a later session, we’ll focus on social bookmarking sites

3.  Professional Learning Network or
Personal Learning Network
 This term is being used in the literature as
an important way that professionals
connect with the wider community
 Developing your own PLN involves
connecting with one or more social
networking tools

4.  Ability to comment publicly on a
person’s “wall”
 Ability to create and participate in
discussion forums
 Ablility to create your own subset of
“friends” or “connections”
 Ability to create or participate in
“groups” which are subgroups of the
wider network

5.  NING
 LearnCentral.org
 LinkedIN

6. Classroom 2.0 – extremely
popular NING with 50,000
members for people
interested in Web 2.0 and
social media in education
ISTE Community NING –
sponsored by the
International Society for
Technology in Education
– a well-respected
professional organization
for technology integration
professionals.
assistivetech – started by
our own Jeremy Brown –
many of the nationally
known names in assistive
technology are found
here
English Companion NING-
Where English Teachers
Help Each Other –
Actually quite relevant to
all teachers. Very active
network that hosts book
talks and spirited
discussions
 Unlike other social networks,
each NING stands alone and is
not part of the wider
NING.com network
 Most popular tool for
educators
 Many “facebook-like” features
make it familiar and easy to
use

7. http://www.learncentral.
org/
Join a public webinar
event for free
 A newer community for
educators started as an
offshoot of Classroom 2.0
 Unique feature: members can
use Elluminate Live – a
webcasting tool - for free
 Public events from Classroom
2.0 are hosted within Elluminate
and feature nationally known
speakers

8. Groups of Interest:
Teacher’s Lounge
Technology Integration in
Education
 Professional networking site
often used by people looking
for new jobs
 Unique feature – people can
get introduced to others in
their field when looking for a
job by utilizing their network
connections
 You can join group discussions
around topics of interest to
your profession

9.  Explore the three social networks
described in this presentation
 Choose 1 to join that you are not already
a member of
 Read a minimum of 3 forum posts in the
network that you join
 Report back in the discussion forum