Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Social Networking???

Ok Ok...I bit the bullet and signed up for facebook.com and linkdin. I did so for the purpose of reaching out to others in the field of education to exchange ideas; to maybe see what others are doing; to maybe connect my classroom with another in Florida or South America. So far I have tw "friend requests" form current or former students, my uncle looking for a new job, a former girlsfriend and one mariage proposal. Am I missing somehting? What is the point of an on-line presence if it is full of junk?

1 comment:

Lori M. Carter said...

Wow, Doug, I can understand your frustration! Try this: Think about the "leaders in your field". For me, that list included leaders in the library media field and technology. I searched for those names - including some local folks that I know personally (or just know of) in the state. Then, I "friended" them. Now, I have a very cool network of leaders. In fact, the President of the International Library Media Organization "friended" me.

What am I doing with this network? In some cases, (locally) I'm just staying in touch with local leaders. Nationally, I'm reading links that those leaders post. Internationally, I'm doing the same. Eventually, I plan to post some of my own. My hopes are that should there be a professional question or debate about a topic - I can throw it out there and get a wealth of advice, thoughts, considerations....in short, I'm building a professional network.

Yes, I was also found by some high school classmates, my children, and their friends. I friended them, too. You do have the option to "see less of people" if they post too often or are annoying in some way to you. And, you always have the option to "block" them later.

I'm testing the waters...I'll let you know if anything worthwhile transpires. At this point, the "experts" are out there and I am connected to them. Will it be beneficial to me or them? Time will tell!

Lori