socialnetworks

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Social networks are online meeting places where individuals can chat, post messages, share pictures, videos, audio clips and much more. The range of tools that fall in this category are also often referred to as social media tools. Many social network/media tools allow individual members to create personal pages, send messages, subscribe to feeds, post pictures, video and audio files and much more. Most school districts have a very strict policy blocking all social networks and media tools for fear of having students spending vast amounts of time working on their [|Facebook] pages or Tweeting each other. At first glance, it may seem hard to see how allowing students to "hang out" in these online social environments could be educational but don't discount it without further exploration.

**Uses of Tool in Education**
There are a variety of ways to create your own social network for the classroom (see [|TechCrunch blog posting]). The nice thing about these services is that they are free and allow you to manage membership so that you can allow only those people you approve such as your students, parents and students/teachers from other classrooms that you want to collaborate with. Having your students participate in a controlled social network environment will give them the opportunity to add content, ideas, opinions to augment discussions and media type="custom" key="7284913" align="right" explorations on different topics. It also provides them with access to a larger community of learners but still keeps them protected from communicating and interacting with strangers. Social media can be an effective way to communicate with your students and parents as well. It might help to read over this blog posting on Twitter in schools to better understand how social media might play a role in your classroom or building.

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Educational Benefits of Tool
As mentioned above, students get to participate in a community of learners around a variety of topics related to the mandated curriculum. Teachers could invite content area experts, authors, specialists, mentors and more to the class social network to provide insight and allow for interactions. Students would also benefit from being able to learn how to be careful and respectful members of a digital community. This would help prepare them for participating in these types of environments when they are on their own and don't have the guidance of a teacher or other adult.

Specific Ideas for using Tool in a k-12 Setting
Click here to add or view a lesson plan or idea for using this technology in the classroom.

**Relevant Online Tools**
This tools listed below all allow you to create your own social network free of charge. They are ad supported and many of them offer a subscription service so that you can turn off the ads for a monthly fee. The tools have many similarities in their functionality but also differ in their ease of use, cost structure and available tools. You can read a review of these tools at the [|TechCrunch blog].

Social Network Tools
These tools help you build your own social network.
 * Facebook Groups for Schools
 * Twiducate
 * [|Ning]
 * [|GoingOn]
 * [|CollectiveX]
 * [|PeopleAggregator]
 * [|ONEsite]
 * Toonti
 * Wall.fm
 * Piazza.com

Academic Focused Existing Social Networks
These are existing networks that are designed for K-12 students. They have an academic focus and provide access to tutoring, homework help and mentoring in different ways.
 * Open Study
 * Everloop
 * Dweeber

Social Media Communication Tools
These tools provide different ways to communicate with students, parents and colleagues through social media.
 * ClassPager
 * Twitter
 * Tumblr
 * Remind101
 * Cel.ly