Facebook is the best social networking tool for educators.

[Steve Mackenzie]

What are people's opinions on facebook as a social networking tool for educators. Because of the wide take up of facebook would it not be easier to use facebook with students rather than a Ning network. What extra has a Ning network got to offer?

[Deirdre Bonnycastle]

I've seen several issues with student/teacher links on Facebook. Facebook is social, so students post pictures/jokes that I don't want to see and vice versa. I don't attend student parties for the same reason. Facebook was not meant to be a professional connection site, so don't criticize kids for being unprofessional.

Leave them their social network and use other resources for academic interactions.

[Eduardo Peirano]

I agree with you Deindre. It´'s their social network. Even for teachers there are differences between Facebook and other networks. My friend Sabrina De Vita, a very young ESL Web 2.0 Teacher, explained to me that she uses her Facebook only to network with real friends, post pics (parties, trips, social life). She uses Twitter to network with Web 2.0 professional virtual contacts. She told me that she would be really upset if she had to use her Facebook for anything else than to share her social life with friends

[Deirdre Bonnycastle]

My favourite professional networking tool is Twitter.

[Lisa M Lane]

I agree also. Because students usually use FB for social purposes only, I see two problems:

1. The "creepy treehouse" effect: I prefer to stay out of their treehouse unless explicitly invited (and sometimes not even then).

2. I don't want them to confuse the social with the educational -- when they're "in class" I want them in class, not doing class at the pub.

[Cathy]

I am a technology trainer and I am working on developing a web 2.0 course were we will probably spend a semester learning about different technologies. I thought why not use a social network for the course so they actually learn social networking while navigating through the course. I'm new to Ning so I am trying to decide the best way to organize this. I could see having a general technology training site and then have the web 2.0 course somehow just be a part of that site. I could have various other training topics on the site as well. Or I could have a site that is devoted just to the web 2.0 topic. Do you have thoughts on how I could best organize things?

[Deirdre Bonnycastle]

Images 4 Education used Ning very creatively for their online course. They linked to a wiki for course content. This was so successful that the community continued after the course.

[Steve Mackenzie]

makes perfect sense to me Deidre. thanks for the link

[Alev Elci]

I have started using Facebook for educational purposes from 2007-8 Fall semester. I have created groups for two of my courses Project Management CSIT422 and Advanced Database Mangement CSIT474. I was happy with it. But at the end some of my students commented on it, saying that they were distracted when they were trying to learn. Some others closed their accounts immediately after I have graded them, saying that their partners didn't want them to use it. Now I am using ning, and Facebook as a secondary environment.