Sunday, March 6, 2011

Reflection on Steve Hargadon and Social Networking

I totally agree with  Steve Hargadon when he states, “There is very real value in “moderating” or “guiding” your network.  The nature of a social network site encourages free response and uncensored posts.   If one were to use a social network within their classes, clear cut expectations for responses must be communicated.  Inappropriate posts must be dealt with immediately as inappropriate behavior must be dealt with in a face-to-face setting.  It just wouldn’t be that someone would post something offensive, but rather, posts might begin to diverge away from the classroom topic at hand.
I definitely feel that some disciplines lend themselves better to a social network than others.  Humanity types of courses where there is much verbal expression of ideas and writing would be better types of courses for the social network.  Math classes would benefit the least from a social network setting.  Writing is a valuable tool in math.  However, the type of writing is often more technical.  For instance, students might be asked to explain their approach to a problem.  Their explanation may involve math symbols which are not easily available through the mechanism of a social network.

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