Blog Juice for Educational Technology

I’ve read through the debate going on at the Economist web site between Ewan McIntosh and Michael Bugeja, about social networking and education. I have not had time, however, to read the entire conversation that is expanding around it.

I got pulled back into the conversation yesterday afternoon, when I took a few minutes away from my computer to scan my aggregator through my phone — and discovered Will Richardson’s reflections on Danah Boyd’s post about the debate. So many thoughts, ideas, reactions, and confusions filled my head that I could hardly contain myself (not a pretty sight). But, I got distracted by tasks and a virtual consulting appointment and had to cool down.

In the long run, it’s a good thing that I didn’t just spill out immediately, because after having slept on it (well, not really that much sleep), my reaction has congealed into two main items, and they both come from the notion that we are holding this debate in some pretty foggy space. This entire topic is so new that I suspect it has not yet fully formed.

So I’d like to suggest two assumptions that my thinking is based on. They seem obvious to me, but I may be missing something. It’s why I’m putting this out there for you to read — so that I can learn…

1. There is a difference (right now) between social networks (or social network sites), and social networking. In my mind, a social network is a single site with features that facilitate social experiences. Social networking, on the other hand, is what is done in social networks, but can also be done with smaller and personally combined tools, such as blogs, wikis, podcasting, aggregators, twitter, etc. Neither (at this time) fully encompasses the other.
2. Facebook is an example of a social network site. They are not synonymous. What frustrates me about Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn, is that their feature sets are way to limiting. I think that a social network has enormous potential, especially to education. But not in its current form. I’m afraid that if we are limiting our notions of social networks to what’s already been developed in FB, MS, and even Ning, and dismiss them as a result, then we may just miss a wonderful opportunity.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an unrelated blog post (Is Pedagogy Getting in the Way of Learning?), which included some ideas about social networks. In it I suggested that there may be some sort of merger between the functionality of social networks, course management systems (virtual learning environments), and eportfolio products. I could envision a social network site (SNS) where a portfolio can be casually built by users and mined for artifacts of learning, and where a teacher (learning leader) can maintain the site, to some degree, so that curriculum can be applied, where standards (what ever they evolve into) can be learned through appropriate pedagogy (what ever that evolves into).

In review:
1. Social networks and social networking are two topics.
2. Social networks are still evolving.

2¢ Worth