Facebook Rules the World
First of all, please open the trailer before you start reading as it really strengthens the impression of the whole topic.
If you watch the trailer above and the video as well, and if you are even registered on Facebook , you know that FB is the biggest Social Network worldwide. It can be fun, it can be cool but it can also be dangerous. In my opinion, it is very important to deal with the topic Social Networking Sites and to clarify what they really are and how they work. Especially Facebook is on its way to rule the world - also your world! That makes it even more important to carefully consider what you do. If you exclude yourself from it, you are not up-to-date. If you register, you enter a world nobody really knows much about.
If you have seen the movie The Social Networ you get an impression of how Facebook came into existence and which mechanisms and ideas define it.
If you click here, you will enter the homepage of "The Social Network" which contains a couple of good interviews with the actors! Play around with it and familiarize yourself with the movie and the ideologies.
As our teaching lesson is about Social Networking Sites, we belive that this topic is porbably more important than anything else regarding new media today as we are all connected to it.
Zuckerberg Launches Education Foundation, Donates $100 Million for Newark Schools
Zuckerberg is a name almost every student is familiar with. The boss and founder of Facebook, the biggest Social Network worldwide. This article shows that Zuckerberg at least pretends to be interested in education, donating money for a school in Newark. His power or rather the power of Facebook has changed the world and society in the last few years and will change it during the next years as well. The network grows fast and today not only individuals but also companies register in order to be up-to-date. If you are not on and working with Facebook, you don't seem to go with the time.
Would I Add my Students on Facebook as a Teacher?
Susanne asked this question in her e-portfolio and this is my answer. At least from my viewpoint today I would clearly say "no".
Facebook is, at least for me, still a rather "private" (haha) tool and I don't want to share pictures and thoughts and my private life with my students. I think that I am happy if I have at least some time left in which I am not observed by my students. This kind of "Big Brother is watching you" should not determine my whole life. Anyway, students will never be your "friends" - it is simply not possible and it is also the wrong attitude towards the students. That does not mean, of course, that my students and I can't have a good and friendly relationship. Facebook should not be neccessary for that - people are real and this is what we should keep in mind.
Business and work are still for me two different things. Facebook is too transparent which makes my decision easy. No, I will not add my students on Facebook. I do not deny that maybe in the future this will be a common thing, but I hope that it will not happen.
Facebook is, at least for me, still a rather "private" (haha) tool and I don't want to share pictures and thoughts and my private life with my students. I think that I am happy if I have at least some time left in which I am not observed by my students. This kind of "Big Brother is watching you" should not determine my whole life. Anyway, students will never be your "friends" - it is simply not possible and it is also the wrong attitude towards the students. That does not mean, of course, that my students and I can't have a good and friendly relationship. Facebook should not be neccessary for that - people are real and this is what we should keep in mind.
Business and work are still for me two different things. Facebook is too transparent which makes my decision easy. No, I will not add my students on Facebook. I do not deny that maybe in the future this will be a common thing, but I hope that it will not happen.
Facebook and Co. - For me, still a medium that enables me to keep in touch with 'real' friends...
How Social Is the Internet???
Some people argue that people who mainly spend their time on social networking sites lose their relation to reality and are not able any more to communicate with "real" friends and to cultivate social contacts.
The Spiegel article (unfortunately in German) "Sozialkontakte übers Internet - Online entdecken, offline treffen" makes it clear that this is not the case. The article is very interesting and provides different kind of data.
Furthermore, they mention a study from January 2011 called "The Social Side of the Internet" which provides some interesting facts and numbers regarding the topic and is, of course, more detailed.
I have always thought about the question whether social networking sites are to be judged positively or negatively when thinking about the relation of the real and virtual social life. And I am surprised!!! Would you have thought so?
added: January 2011
The Spiegel article (unfortunately in German) "Sozialkontakte übers Internet - Online entdecken, offline treffen" makes it clear that this is not the case. The article is very interesting and provides different kind of data.
Furthermore, they mention a study from January 2011 called "The Social Side of the Internet" which provides some interesting facts and numbers regarding the topic and is, of course, more detailed.
I have always thought about the question whether social networking sites are to be judged positively or negatively when thinking about the relation of the real and virtual social life. And I am surprised!!! Would you have thought so?
added: January 2011
