About face

So, says my friend, the end is in sight,

You need to assess all your work, if you might.

Let's start with Facebook, what do you think?

Will you keep it or is it bound to shrink?

As my Web 2.0 explorations draw to a close, I feel it is necessary to go back and visit each tool, seeing what I have learned and where I will go from here.

Before beginning my inquiry, I did not have a Facebook account. In fact, I actively avoided signing up for Facebook, based on various things I had heard about it - ranging from the time consuming aspect of it to privacy concerns about it.

After investigating the privacy concerns and learning how my personal privacy settings could be set to control who sees what, I am much more comfortable with Facebook. In terms of eating up my time, I do find that it is one more thing that I "need to check" when sitting down at my computer, several times a day - in addition to my two email accounts, Twitter and Google Reader. However, with my Facebook feed going into my TweetDeck, I find I only need to open up Facebook once unless I spot something I want to investigate further.

So, yes, I will continue to use Facebook. Personally, it allows me to connect with friends that I don't necessarily talk to or see very often. It gives me a taste of what is going on in their lives. It is nice to be able to share a photo and have everyone see it and give a comment. It also lets me connect with groups that I am involved with so that I am up to date.

Professionally, Facebook can also be used by teacher-librarians to connect with their personal learning networks. Buffy Hamilton, the Unquiet Librarian suggests using Facebook to connect with likeminded colleagues in Start Social Networking with Libraries and Librarians @ Facebook. She suggests some groups/organizations to "fan" as well as some groups to join to keep up to date on what is happening in the library world. Although I can see the value in this, right now, I am going to keep Facebook a personal foray and keep my PLN connections through Google Reader and Twitter.

Will Richardson (2010) suggests that the "key" to Facebook "for educators is to move beyond the friendship-based connections and really explore the potentials of the networked, interest-based learning that's possible" (p. 132). Facebook "has become an important online space in our kids lives" (p. 133) and, for the most part, no one is teaching them how to navigate it safely. Right now, I am at an elementary school. Since students must be 13 years old to sign up for Facebook, it is not possible to use it as a learning tool. However, I do believe that general discussions around internet safety and digital footprints need to begin in elementary school. In the event that I re-enter the world of secondary school, I can see some direct uses for Facebook in the classroom including creating private groups for discussion (Richardson, 2010) or creating Facebook pages for characters in books or history (What Would Romeo's Facebook Page Look Like). In fact, here are

So, the final word? I will keep using Facebook personally and will look to use it the classroom if I end up in secondary education in the future.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin.

Where am I?

I am still on my web, but where are you?

The spider asks as I wander through.

You've tried so many things on your great big web,

When will you be done? the spider said.

I feel like I need to check in with my progress for this class, and see how I am doing and if I am still on track.

I have been very consumed with creating a video at the moment with students from the environment club at the school. We are putting the final touches on our entry for the BC Green Games. It is created in iMovie, which is not technically Web 2.0, so I am not sure if I should include it as part of my project here.

Anyways . . . where am I?

Facebook

I have set up my Facebook account and have added a bunch of friends. I find it is mostly just something else to check each day for news. I am not interested in most of the items my friends post, but do enjoy seeing the occasional fun photo, etc. I have posted some general questions to my friends and a few pictures of my kids. I have also commented on other's posts.

The most useful part of Facebook for me, so far, is the group that I belong to for the climbing gym where my son trains. I like that the group shows up on my home page and I can immediately see if there is anything new posted by the little number that shows up. This was very useful when there was snow and the gym was cancelled.

I can see how the "group" function would be useful as a school to have for parent communication (elementary) or even for students (secondary).

Twitter or more importantly, Tweetdeck

Part of my inquiry was finding a better way to manage Twitter. I believe I have found that with Tweetdeck.

Integral to my use of Tweetdeck is my installation of Google Chrome. At one point last year, I had actually installed Tweetdeck, but didn't like the fact that it sat on the desktop of my computer. With Chrome, the Tweetdeck plug-in allows it to sit in the web browser on the start-up page. I like this much better.

Tweetdeck has allowed me to organize the information I gather from Twitter. I have also loaded my Facebook account into Tweetdeck, so I can also see my Facebook news feed. I am not sure why the Facebook posts I see are not the same in Tweetdeck as in Facebook. I also can't see the "groups" from Facebook, which means I need to open up Facebook separately as well.

But, overall, I like Tweetdeck. I currently have the following columns:

• Facebook news feed
• Home - which is all the people I follow on Twitter
• #edtech
• #tlchat
• #pbl - for Project Based Learning, but seems to be some sort of foot fetish thing as well
• #frimm - French immersion
• @me - for tweets where I am mentioned
• inbox - for direct messages to me

I can easily skim through the columns and click on things that interest me for more information. I am not feeling as overwhelmed with Twitter now.

Social Bookmarking

I continue to use Diigo personally for keeping track and organizing links, but after exploring the education side of it and finding no filters to the outside world, I don't think I would use it with students.

I have just begun using Pinterest and find it very appealing because it is so visual. I believe this would also appeal to students, so will explore a bit further and see how I might use Pinterest with students.

Blogging

I have explored Kidblog, which I like, and Blogmeister, which I don't. I am excited to have enticed a teacher to begin blogging with her Grade 3/4 class. Next week, I will help her set up Kidblogs for her class.

Still to come:

• Voki
• Glogster
• Voicethread

Stay tuned . . .

Lovin' the deck!

A deck for your tweets, what's that all about?

Sounds like you're balancing words on your snout!

TweetDeck is great, it puts things in a line,

Instead of things wasting too much of my time.

So yes, I am really loving TweetDeck! I actually tried TweetDeck sometime last year when I began using Twitter and didn't like the fact that I had to open up another program on my computer. However, because I am using the Chrome browser, I can now easily open TweetDeck whenever I open up another tab on my browser.

When I started using TweetDeck to follow Twitter, I included Facebook to be included. However, my Facebook messages were all mixed into my general Twitter feed which was kind of weird.

I have since made several columns in TweetDeck, to follow different hashtags of interest and just figured out how to create a column for my Facebook feed as well. This will make TweetDeck even more useful as I won't need to open Facebook to see what is new.

Tweetdeck

You need something else to look after the tweets?

Twitter isn't enough to manages your peeps?

Tweetdeck might be a better way for me,

I'll give it a try - just wait and see.

Although exhausted from a full day of work and then two hours at the bank, I did manage to play around a bit last night.

I added Tweetdeck to my Google Chrome browser and played around with it for a while.  I must say that I like how it is embedded right into my Chrome interface and easily accessible when I make a new tab in my browser.

I imported my stuff from both Twitter and Facebook, as I thought this would save me some time as I would only need to check into one place.  However, I didn't like how the Facebook and Twitter were mixed up together so moved the Facebook data.  I think I will play some more, having only my Twitter feeds in the Tweetdeck before trying to add Facebook again.

I like the way the columns are set up in Tweetdeck and how easy it is to add hashtags or lists as separate columns.  I didn't import any of my lists from Twitter as I am not that pleased with them - I may delete them completely and restart with some new columns in Tweetdeck.

I do think this is going to be a better way to manage the information flow in Twitter and I can add new columns as I want to follow various interests.

How's it going?

So how is it going, you've been working so hard?

Twitter and Facebook, no time for the yard!

It's coming along, but it all takes my time.

Thank goodness it is free and not costing a dime!

Twitter Lists

I created some lists within my Twitter account to try to keep things better organized.  I am liking the lists - it allows me to check on various topics that I follow individually, making the entire feed less cluttered.  One thing that I have found (which I read about) is that if I stop following someone, they continue to be on any list they are included in.  There seems to be no way to remove them from the lists.  That is rather frustrating!


Facebook
I have been trying to engage with Facebook since joining up.  I find, however, that it does not interest me all that much.  I have located some faraway friends.  I have also come across some interesting/fun links from some of my friends.  However, much of the posts seem to be happenings of the day that are of no interest to me.  I find it rather ironic as this is what I think many people think of Twitter, yet I find Twitter quite engaging and useful, but am still trying to figure out the appeal of Facebook.  I am trying to engage and have posted some photos and comments, but I am not quite getting it!  Will keep trying!

Facing the Book

A book full of faces, how strange is that?

Is it all just your friends or also the cat?

A picture of you and your friends on this space

Connecting with words but not face to face.

So, why should I be on Facebook? Personally and professionally - what can it do for me?

Will Richardson (2010) suggests that:

"whether we like it or not, if we're working with kids in schools, we have a responsibility to understand what Facebook is all about, even if it's just to the extent that we participate there for ourselves." (p. 132) 

This is where I am coming from right now - everyone is using Facebook, so I need to understand it and know what it is all about. Although they are too young to actually have Facebook accounts, I know that there are students at my elementary school who have them. Many of my friends use Facebook to communicate and I know that most parents at my school use it.

What else should I be thinking about as I explore Facebook?

In Why #Educators Should Use Social Media, Anne O'Brien suggests the following major points:

• communication - with parents
• public relations - highlighting successes
• branding - of the school and its name
• professional growth and development - communicating with PLN
• student engagement - innovative projects using social media
• opportunities - connections throughout the world

In The Why and How of Using Facebook for Educators - No Need to be Friends at All!, Ronnie Burt suggests different ways of using Facebook, including how to safely "friend" students so that they do not see the rest of your personal information and communications. He also suggests setting up a separate page to connect with students or a "fan" page that can be used to disseminate information or setting up a Facebook "group" for students.

Here is a quick video that shows how to alter your privacy settings:

While I am going to stick with using Facebook personally for the moment, if I end ever end up teaching at a high school again, I can see that Facebook may be come part of my teaching life as well. Having students so connected in this way, it only makes sense to tap into this method of communication as a teacher.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin.

Facebook fun!

I don't have a phone, said the spider to me,

To keep in touch with those in a far a way tree.

How do you talk with your friends far and near,

Surely the post is too slow I do fear.

So, while I was busy checking out the security settings that I put on my Facebook account, I noticed that there was a chat option in the bottom that indicated one of my friends was online.  I clicked the "chat" button and then we could type notes back and forth.  I also noticed there was a video chat option so we gave that a try as well.  We each downloaded the application and then did a video call.  The opening page (as it quickly disappeared) seemed to indicate that it was run by Skype.

It is fun that you can actually leave a video message as well.

Of course, the friend I was talking with online only lives about 15 minutes away, but . . . ?

About face!

So how do you keep in touch with your friends?

Are they on other webs, just around the bend?

Or is your web so big that everyone can fit,

With conversations around bit by little bit?

Somehow, I have managed to avoid Facebook, the social media phenomenon that began in 2004.  While many (most?) of my friends have used Facebook extensively, I have always been tentative about jumping on the bandwagon.  In the past two years, as my technological aptitude has skyrocketed, I have started to interact more with the web, creating blogs and using Twitter, yet have still avoided Facebook.  However, I think the time has come to take the plunge.  As part of my Web 2.0 inquiry project for LIBE 477, I will be adding Facebook to my repertoire of social networking tools.

I have actually been a bit of a Facebook "lurker" since January, when I initially set up my account.  This allowed me into Facebook, where I could look at information about various organizations that are on Facebook.  I even searched for some people I knew, checking out how much information (or not) was visible.  One of my big concerns about Facebook has been the privacy/safety issue, so I was interested to see the level of control people had over their accounts.  It seems some of my acquaintances have their information wide open while others are very limited.

I did a quick search looking for "hazard of Facebook" and came up with some good tips:

• use the lists function to limit who can see what; ie. family vs. friends vs. the boss
• take some time to go through all the profile pages and make the settings appropriate
• review all privacy settings; "only friends" is the safest setting for any feature
• keep friends from sharing your info; in applications and websites
• don't friend people you don't know
• don't reveal your location
• limit use of applications; they may take your personal info
• you can remove a tag of yourself from someone else's photo
• turn the "social ads appearance" to no one

Some of these tips seem very obvious.  I went back to check out how I had set up everything and my settings were pretty much in line with the recommendations.

References:

Facebook. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved January 30, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook

Liu, A. (2010, October 24).  5 ways to stay safe on Facebook.  Foxnews.com  Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/10/23/ways-stay-safe-facebook/

Null, C. (2009, June 25).  Facebook hazards - and how you can avoid them. itbusiness.ca Retrieved from http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=53662&PageMem=1