My social spaces and tools (You need more than one!)

One of my revelations in 2009 was the importance of social learning and how I need more than one social learning space. I am a teacher but I am also a computer hobbyist (a.k.a. computer geek). I use Facebook for my personal social networks, my blogs and wiki’s are always open to all but my twitter tweats are both. Huh?

For the classes I teach, Facebook (FB) probably has a limited benefit. Computer programming tends to be a personal activity where interaction with a computer is probably more likely to be in the form of a search or a reference manual lookup. I keep my Facebook pretty much student free. Facebook for me is private and filled with family and friend feeds with information that is not relevant or necessary for my student’s consumption. Maybe someday this will change but FB is strictly a social network with an emphasis on social and less so on learning.

I have always used blogs (WordPress and Blogger) and wiki’s (PBWiki) as part of my classes since the social learning it presents can be relevant and informational. Most software problems do benefit from multiple perspectives and the ability to comment and inquire. I have used a wiki to develop classroom resources and student participation. My last Introduction to Java class started work on updating my class notes with more code examples in the hope that someday the wiki can become a free textbook for future Java classes.

I have used blogs (like this one) for articles and educational pieces. I will also be using WordPress as a presentation tool (in lieu of presentation graphics options) so that I might have more follow on comments to promote additional social learning after the presentation. I have spam filtering set up on my blogs so I catch the spammers posts before they hit my blog and I do get some comments (more would be better). My blogs have also been set up so that students can read them on mobile devices if they have a mobile browser.

I have two Twitter accounts. One I use from myself (for my political and sports rants) and one for students. For my students, I give course status (grading updates, testing reminders, etc.) via Twitter and encourage students to set up my account for device echoing so they can receive the tweat update as an SMS message. The content in Twitter is primarily class info that I use for student retention (a huge problem at most community colleges). I make sure that both of my Twitter accounts are set up where I control who follows me (students can follow the student account, others can follow my other account). I use TweetDeck as my tool for monitoring and sending tweats. TweetDeck also allows my to monitor Facebook and LinkedIn. I almost forgot LinkedIn but I do use that for professional networks (great tool).

So why so many social networks? Because it is not one social network that you belong to but many. How many may depend on your interests, the technology it provides (Twitter versus FB) and your relationship with the group you are a member of. Remember this as you post and as you set up accounts. Just like we remind our students to be careful on what they post on Facebook but also where you post and to who your audience will be and if the social network chosen is appropriate.

I am thinking of putting together a little Blackberry Java program for GCC Mapz (a mobile device program I developed for .Net, Java ME and Google Android during my Sabbatical and documented in an earlier blog post). Would anyone be interested in seeing it? Comment if so…

I am also getting ready for a Web 2.0 presentation next month. I will be creating the presentation in this blog so that it is viewable on a mobile device.