Join StoryChasers! StoryChasers - Empowering Responsible Digital Citizenship - Invent the future! Scratch | Home | imagine, program, share - Play Travian online!
15th August 2007

Recognizing the value of social networking

posted in blogs, socialnetworking, web 2.0 |

I am glad to see eSchoolNews has picked up on the Grunwald research report for the National School Boards Association on social networking which I blogged about last Friday, in the post “Clarifying perceptions about digital social networking risks.” The eSchoolNews article today is titled, “96 percent of teens use social-networking tools: Survey reveals schools have a huge opportunity to harness technology for instruction.” Hooray for Anne L. Bryant, NSBA’s executive director, quoted in the article saying:

There is no doubt that these online teen hangouts are having a huge influence on how kids today are creatively thinking and behaving. The challenge for school boards and educators is that they have to keep pace with how students are using these tools in positive ways and consider how they might incorporate this technology into the school setting.”

Absolutely. Providing environments for safe digital social networking is a critical challenge as well as responsibility for all our schools.

Peter Grunwald of Grunwald Associates, the organization which authored the report, agrees. He is quoted in the article saying:

Our study showed that 96 percent of school districts say that at least some of their teachers assign homework requiring internet use. What this means is that schools may be starting to use the internet and other technologies more effectively. In the future, schools that incorporate social-networking tools in education can help engage kids and move them toward the center of the learning process.

Schoopy is the latest in a growing list of free tools available for teachers and students to use as a school-related social networking environment I’ve learned about. Hopefully we’ll see more schools embrace the use of online environments like this including Think.com, Imbee, Moodle, and moderated blogging environments for social networking as a result of this new report.

On this day..

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 at 2:29 pm and is filed under blogs, socialnetworking, web 2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

There are currently 7 responses to “Recognizing the value of social networking”

Join the conversation!

  1. 1 On August 15th, 2007, Miguel Guhlin said:

    Ok, come clean, Wes…did Schoopy’s founder/owner/whatever send you an email and ask you to blog about it?

    ;->

    Miguel

  2. 2 On August 15th, 2007, Wesley Fryer said:

    Miguel: I’m not sure if this amounts to “coming clean,” but yes, the creator did email me about it, and I sent her an email asking for more info. I haven’t taken time to fully check out the tool and environment yet…. it looks interesting, and geared toward this idea of leveraging the power of a social networking environment in school. So I think that looks promising.

    I receive several emails per week now from different people wanting me to read and blog on their research project, product, or website… If someone was paying me to look at their work or I was in some way connected to them or their product, I would think a “come clean” encouragement might be relevant, but I don’t think that is the case here! That’s my full disclosure on what I know and how I know it concerning “Schoopy!”

  3. 3 On August 15th, 2007, Sherry Crofut said:

    I am now a Schoopy member and my school is on the radar, but I have no one in a community. Feels a little lonely.

    My son recently worked as a summer intern with a major company and was amazed that all the drafters and engineers networked using FaceBook. He learned quickly that if you put a picture on your FaceBook holding a beer, it could be shown on the overhead at the next group meeting. He now manages his account in a much more professional manner. He now sees real value in the social networking site.

  4. 4 On August 16th, 2007, Brian said:

    Wes,

    I’m enjoying your blog. We recently launched http://www.Yomod.com — a safe social media site for kids.
    We’re currently hard at work on an online media solution for schools/teachers.

    Brian, Yomod co-founder

  5. 5 On August 16th, 2007, Nico said:

    Wes, Miguel, and readers,
    Thanks for your responses. This is Nico from SCHOOPY.
    I have been contacting bloggers because we recently launched our latest version and I’m looking for an honest opinion from teachers who are tech savvy.
    I’m very encouraged to have received feedback from most of the small list of bloggers I’ve contacted.
    It’s always good to get feedback from pro-active teachers.
    Thanks
    And if you have any questions you can contact me.

    Nico at schoopy dot com

  6. 6 On August 16th, 2007, Jonathan Edson said:

    Good to see sites that are looking to make social networking a purposeful activity for students as well. At Carmun, we are trying to do the same for college and grad students…if you interested, please take a look..all feedback is welcome.

    Thanks,
    Jonathan

  7. 7 On August 16th, 2007, tim said:

    As always Wes,

    We appreciate you including and supporting imbee.com!

    As you know, imbee.com has the great distinction to be the only tween social network to offer a free school blogging program.

    We created this program because we recognize that teachers are face a true dilemma - their students are growing up in a digital world, and yet there is very little emphasis and/or solutions to support New Media education.

    That’s why we are committed to helping teachers by providing a rich, secure and engaging interactive environment that they can then make their own for learning purposes. For those reading Wes’ blog who would like more information please go to http://www.imbee.com/teacher .

    Thanks Wes for keeping the topic of social media and education on everyone’s mind!

    Best,

    Tim D
    Imbee.com, founder