1. Integrating Social Networking & Web
2.0 Applications into eLearning
Rob Gibson, Ed.D.

2. Social Networking in eLearning
What you will learn today:
 Understand how social networking is
impacting society
 See examples of common social
networking applications
 Have an opportunity to try social
networking applications
 See resources and data regarding how
social networking can be used within
eLearning

3. Social Networking in eLearning

4. • Boyd and Ellison (2007) define social networks as
“…web-based services that allow individuals to….
1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system
2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection
3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others
within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these
connections may vary from site to site.”
Social Networking in eLearning

5. The first officially recognized social network
was sixdegrees.com that launched in 1997 and
officially shut down in 2000. According to the
Wharton School of Business, as of October
2008 social networks impacted more than 230
million people worldwide.
Social Networking in eLearning

6. • Social networks now represent the
fastest growing Internet segment – 3x
the rate of overall Internet growth. (2009)
• Social networking sites are growing at
the rate of 47% annually, reaching 45%
of total web users. (2006)
• Social networking and blogging are now
the 4th most popular online activities,
according to Nielsen’s recently released
Global Faces and Networked Places
report. (2009)
Social Networking Factoids (Nielson Netratings)
Social Networking in eLearning

7. • 67% of the global online population now visit a social
network site, and this sector accounts for 10% of all
Internet time. (Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain, and
Italy are the fastest growing segments.)
• Social networks and blogs are now the 4th most popular
online category – ahead of personal Email
• Member sites now account for 1 in every 11 minutes online
Social Networking Factoids (Nielson Netratings)
Social Networking in eLearning

8. Orkut.com in Brazil (operated by Google) has the largest
domestic online reach (70%) of any social network
anywhere in the world, whereas Facebook has the highest
average time per visitor among the 75 most popular
brands online worldwide. However, the amount of time
spent on Facebook.com increased by more than 566% in
only one year. (Nielsen, 2009)
Social Networking Factoids (Nielson Netratings)
Social Networking in eLearning

9. Social Networking in eLearning

10. According to the web site Social Media Defined
(http://www.socialmediadefined.com), Twitter is a microblogging
application that is more or less a combination of instant messaging
and blogging.
Social Networking in eLearning

11. • Back-channel chat where participants at conferences
provide bursts of feedback regarding conference
proceedings to both other conference participants, and to
people who cannot attend the conference (Hargadon,
2009); or preceding a conference via keywords (Parry,
2008). Use Twitter during a webinar to post specific
keywords denoted by a hash (#facebook), and then
participants search on those keyword to see what other
people in the webinar (at other locations) were saying
about the topic. (Mullings, 2009)
• Polling students using instant Twitter polls
in Academia
Social Networking in eLearning

12. • Class chatter that allows students to continue
discussion topics outside the classroom (Parry, 2008)
• Follow professionals who are actively engaged in
particular topics or events. For example, students can
follow any number of correspondents at MSNBC, CNN,
and other news outlets
• Writing assignments where students build on each
other’s tweets to generate a story, poem, or haiku.
(Parry, 2008)
• Collaboration with students from other countries
regarding specific topics of political or historical
significance
in Academia
Social Networking in eLearning

13. Social Networking in eLearning
• Use Twitter to “track” a word. This will subscribe you to
any post that contains said word. So, for example, a student
may be interested in how a particular word is used. They
can track the word and see the varied phrases in which
people use it. Or, they can track an event, a proper name, or
a movie title. (Send the message “track ______” to Twitter)
(Parry, 2008)
• Storytelling - George Mayo, an eighth grade English
teacher, recently used Twitter as a tool to collaboratively
write a story with his students. Mayo invited his students
and students around the world via his Many Voices Twitter
account to add to an ongoing story with individual "tweets."
After six weeks and the help of more than 100 students and
six different countries, the story was finished. (Parry, 2008)
in Academia

14. Use twitterfall.com
• Type in a keyword (e.g., Iranelections)
and watch the results in real time
Use twittervision.com
• Twittervision and Twittervision 3D allow
you to GeoTag users and their posts to know
where certain topics are being discussed
in Academia
Social Networking in eLearning
http://twittervision.com/maps/show_3d

15. Social Networking in eLearning
Use Freshlogic Atlas
• Type in a keyword and watch the results
in real time
in Academia
Use historicaltweets
• Learn what it may have been like for
historical figures to tweet

16. Use tweetdeck
• Create “groups” of students
Social Networking in eLearning
in Academia
Use YouTube or twiddeo
• Link to video files from Twitter

17. Use twi.tt
• Poll students
in Academia
Social Networking in eLearning

18. Social Networking in eLearning

19. Facebook is a social networking website that was originally
designed for college students, but is now open to anyone 13 years
of age or older. Facebook users can create and customize their
own profiles with photos, videos, and information about
themselves. Friends can browse the profiles of other friends and
write messages on their pages. (TechTerms.com)
Social Networking in eLearning

20. in Academia
Use academia.edu
• Facebook-like application
Use Facebook Groups
• Create a class-centric group
Social Networking in eLearning

21. Social Networking in eLearning
in Academia
Research
• Analysis of how social networks are
formed
Academics
• Journalism
http://snipr.com/j5di5
http://snipr.com/j5d2m

22. Academic Networking
• Create a networkedblog
in Academia
Social Networking in eLearning
•http://www.facebook.com/pages/ww
wdonquijoteorg/27485153678?ref=ts/
•http://www.inigral.com/products/sch
ools.htm
•http://www.inigral.com/products/stan
dardissimo.php
•http://www.facebook.com/group.php
?gid=18977111129
•http://phoenix.facebook.com/group.p
hp?gid=12471635541
•http://usask.facebook.com/group.ph
p?gid=12256460391
http://www.networkedblogs.com

23. Social Networking in eLearning

24. A blog (an abridgment of the term ‘web log’) is a
website, usually maintained by an individual, with
regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events,
or other material such as graphics or video. Entries
are commonly displayed in reverse chronological
order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to
maintain or add content to a blog.
Co-Winner, Word-of-the-Year: 2004
Social Networking in eLearning

25. in Academia
Social Networking in eLearning
Wordpress.com (no fee; hosted option)
Wordpress.org (free software; non-hosted)
Variety of fee-based hosts that support Wordpress
Hostican
Laughing Squid
Bluehost
Mu.wordpress.org (Fee-based; multi-user; multi-host)

26. From http://onlinedegreetalk.org/blogs/
• The instructor posts various announcements, information,
assignments, and abbreviated lessons for student reference
• More aptly called an interactive medium of study, students get
an opportunity to express their opinions about a particular
topic or subject posted for discussion over the net
• Articles on various topics provide extensive knowledge on the
subject. Students, in turn, post their comments on these
articles
• Used as a writing portfolio, blogs are found to be very helpful
in expressing thoughts by students about their subject of
study
Social Networking in eLearning
in Academia

27. • Students find it very useful to post comments, throw
questions to their instructor about the course and the
subjects in particular and talk to fellow students about
course progress and related benefits
• Activities and presentations pertaining to a particular
subject can be discussed over the net by way of blog posts
• Students get to know each other, by not just chatting, but
instead by responding to the posts offered by various
students
• As a means of evaluation, assignments are cross verified
and the qualities of presentations are evaluated by fellow
students positively by way of blog posts and related
responses
Social Networking in eLearning
in Academia

28. http://snipr.com/j5rqk
Social Networking in eLearning
in Academia
Scholarly CitationsWordpress Plugins (5,000+)
•Twitter Tools
•Wordbook
•Daiko’s Video Widget
•Flickr plugin

29. Social Networking in eLearning

30. A wiki is a website that uses wiki software, allowing the
easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked
Web pages, using a simplified markup language. Wikis
are often used to create collaborative websites and to
power community websites (Wikipedia)
Social Networking in eLearning

31. Social Networking in eLearning

32. Ning provides a software platform (the "Ning
Platform") that enables you to create, join or
browse Social Networks (Ning.com)
Ning includes some interesting and useful
tools out-of-the-box, including a blog,
discussion board, groups, and video and photo
uploading capabilities
Social Networking in eLearning

33. http://podstock.ning.com/profile/RobGibson
in Academia
Social Networking in eLearning
Ning
• Custom social networks
http://bioarchaeology.ning.com/
http://education.ning.com/
http://www.ourprivatenetwork.com/

34. Social Networking in eLearning

35. Social Networking in eLearning
Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to
store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web
pages on the Internet with the help of metadata, typically
in the form of tags that collectively and/or collaboratively
become a folksonomy. Folksonomy is also called social
tagging, "the process by which many users add
metadata in the form of keywords to shared content“
(Wikipedia.com)

36. • A professor can save readings for a class. Since each tag
has it's own URL, the URL can be posted in the syllabus.
Many of these services also have RSS feeds, so students
who use a news aggregator can see new postings
automatically.
• Bookmarks available from any PC
• Merge Delicious links into Facebook via a plugin
Social Networking in eLearning
in Academia