Journal 8 YC NETS-T IV & V Tapping the Wealth of Social Networks for Professional Development

I read and reflected on this article from the ITSE (International Society for Technology in Education) website and also used Citation Machine to cite the journal in APA format.


Greenhow, C. (2009). Tapping the wealth of social networks for professional development. Learning and Leading with Technology, 36(8), Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20090607/#pg12

Christine Greenhow is an educational researcher from Harvard. Her research focuses on how people learn, teach and collaborate with emerging technologies. In this article she addresses the issue of using social networks not just for students, but for professionals as well.

Social networking is the most popular technology offered on the Internet today and attracts millions of users worldwide! Greenhow cautions us to not get lost in time when using social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. It is very easy to get caught up in the discussions at hand and lose focus of our intent. Most people use it for getting caught up on the latest news, following famous people and keeping real time status with their friends.

So how can we use this technology in our professional environment? Greenhow mentions two ways. First, she favors the idea of social bookmarking. Websites such as Delicious, Diigo, and CiteULike allows us to collectively share resources with colleagues around the world almost instantly.

Secondly, she uses social networking tools for emotional support and recognition. This can help us reflect, troubleshoot and improve on the current project or issue at hand. These uses of technology provide the opportunity for social scholarship which allows us to collaboratively access and hold open discussions with our colleagues. In return, we get meaningful insight to our own attitudes and teaching practices. So in summary, we should all be tapping into the wealth of today's technologies, especially if they are free and can be used to further our educational experiences!

How can we introduce social networking into our curriculum?
We can introduce this type of technology by classifying it as New Literacy practices. When a student can place their creative work on MySpace for example, they can receive instant feedback from their peers. Most of the time it will encourage the student to further tap into their creativity for the next project. It can be a great source for positive reinforcement.

What are some other ways in which students can benefit from social networking tools? Just as professional colleagues use social networking to acquire social scholarship, so can the teens of our society. They too can benefit from emotional support when working on a tough project or going through a tough time in their lives. The whole idea is that the real time feedback can be very positive and uplifting for the soul, and we can all use a little more of that in our lives! :)