Extra Credit #2: Social Networking and Education

I think that if social networks are used as an extension, not replacement, of the class room they have the potential for an enormous benefit in terms of education quality. It’s obvious that social networks have the potential to make long distances separating people seemingly insignificant when all one has to do to interact with other people is log onto the web.
Yes, I will concede that there are certain issues to be concerned about: such as online identity misconceptions as well as the online community as a way of replacing the classroom. I do think that there are a certain number of emotionally challenged individuals who seek to create an online identity that is much different from their real personality, however, this is no reason to shun social networks and ban them from the educational community. Also, I think that the online community should not act as a replacement for real life situations, because although audio and video are helping to make it seem more realistic and interactive, it still is missing real life elements that are crucial to certain learning experiences. An example can be seen with Drivers ED. Although many adolescents choose to familiarize themselves with the rules of the road via an online course, the bulk of learning stems from getting hands on experience behind the wheel which I think is necessary to learning to drive a car. Most kids are not able to complete their written permit test and safely drive a car in traffic situations immediately thereafter.
That said, I definitely think that social networks do have a potential to add to the quality of education. Much about education is in meeting new people that have new perspectives that add to your own. It’s all about finding that one particular insight that’s necessary to make that one particular idea “click” in your mind. It used to be the case that a student is limited to learning in the class room. However, with the advent of social networks, it could be possible for a student to interact with a variety of different peers from around the world and gain valuable insight.
I also do think that the idea of online communities that work to inform parents of what their kids are up to is a great idea. If children were to update their blogs with homework assignments and projects, their parents could actually get to see first hand what their kids are learning about and how they are progressing as a student. Also, students could have blogs that could be viewed by educational institutions themselves. This could have multiple benefits: one particular institution could have a collection of blogs with statistics, samples of work, etc, in order to show potential students what the learning environment and expectations are at that particular school. Another potential benefit is that students could embark on research projects that would other wise be impossible. For example, if an economics student in the US is trying to learn more about how the micro-credit market is impacting the Mexican economy, there is very little amounts of resources that are available in the US. It’s necessary to travel to Mexico in order to gain first hand experience and interview people that are directly affected. However, if there existed a social network specific to international economic issues, then a student could conduct online interviews and surveys. This would make the project/research proposal much more feasible. Furthermore, the thought of online social networking as a way to build up online communicating skills is a great idea especially with the advent of online businesses. It’s going to become an increasingly necessary and important skill to be able to communicate with others over the World Wide Web. People who are not used to virtual etiquette, syntax, style, etc, will have a hard time adapting when they need to make an online sales pitch. They may be unsure if sarcasm or other emotions can effectively be communicated through the Web.