Why Do Teen Agers Use Social Networking Sites?

I found an interesting video which tells us why teen agers use social networking sites!!!

Information Revolution Is Beating Our Efforts!!!!

An interesting video to watch how info revolution is beating us and we have to make extra efforts to keep pace with it.Our students should know that they have to be always on the look for something new and better.

Mobilize Your Students And Let Them Explore For Themselves!

Have you ever tried RSS?

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by too much information available online?Have you ever been trapped by web ?Have you ever felt web is kind of vicious circle from which you cannot come out unless you know the tricks of escaping? If your answer is yes to any of the above questions,try RSS!

Educational Use of Facebook

Here is facebook traffic in six months of 2009.

Facebook is talk of the town now. According to a report ,facebook was growing 600,000 users per day in December 2008.Although Pakistan was not included in even top 30 countries in using Facebook in July,2009,yet reality on the ground shows that number of users is growing very fastly.Young people like to interact via Facebook.This has become one of the important activities of our youngsters now -a -days.If so many students are using fb(Facebook), then it can be used for educational purposes as well. It is said that facebook is for everybody.

It is already being used for group projects in western countries but it has not taken its roots in Pakistan and I think same is applicable in most of the thrid world countries.Using fb is still considered either waste of time or just a social interaction for its own sake.I have added Youtube links at the bottom of the reference list which can demostrate how a group can be created on fb . Also check how fb can be used for education in developing countries.

Being teachers, we can think:

• Being a fb user, what benefits do you see of this social netwroking site?


• Why students use fb in your context?


• How many of your students use fb?


• Have you ever tried to mobilize them with their already existing social interaction i.e.fb?


• What can be achieved via their fb presence?
  
  

References:

http://www.insidefacebook.com/2008/12/16/facebook-now-growing-by-over-600000-users-a-day-and-new-engagement-stats/

http://www.nickburcher.com/2008/07/facebook-user-numbers-by-country-and.html

http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/content/v08n02/mack_d01.html

http://www.plaveb.com/Upload/NewsImg/12885040892607452056_facebook_logo.gif

http://www.make-noise.com/trendspottings/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/istock_000003774391small.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UPxf_TgkCU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QYOoCG_zbA

Web 2.0 and Pakistan

Its good that people have started thinking about this issue. There is a great scope of Web 2.0 technologies in Pakistan for number of reasons.
Pakistan has greater number of young population; they are students and tend to use Internet for their educational and recreational purposes. These students can use Web 2.0 in variety of ways rather than just for entertainment and friend finding.
Students are not well aware of benefits Web 2.0 can give them in their learning. It needs a lot of work to be done on the part of teachers especially University teachers. They can learn about using these tools and can include it in their teaching so that students may start thinking of using Web 2.0.

Web 2.0 Tools & Pakistani Educational System

As the world is getting smaller with internet revolution ,web 2.o tools are getting embedded in every walk of life. According to Grosseck (2009), expression of web 2.0 tools has been one of the most fashionable expressions of our times. Grosseck quotes Alexander & Levine's observation that Web 2.0 tools seem to have an emerging role to transform teaching and learning .Today,these tools are being used in one way or the other in teaching and learning. Particularly, asynchronous tools have an added value and give people liberty of working and adding comments at their own time.

Benefits of Web 2.0 Tools:

There are host of benefits of web 2.0 tools in teaching and learning. Some of them are listed below:

• People not tools are the focus of learning.
• Collective learning takes place as more and more brains can enrich
  ideas.
• Collaboration is made easy among students, colleagues and other memebers of community.
• Better and convenient atmosphere is created whcih facilitates learning.
• Some students don't feel comfortable in class discussions but they are quite comfortable in communicating online.
  

Web 2.0 and Pakistan

In last decade,Pakistan has moved forward in field of higher education but there is a lot of work needed even now. As internet has overpowered our lives, it has become an integral part of education as well. Steve Hargadon (2008) claims ,"Web 2.0 is the future of education".

I am afraid, to incorporate these tools in education system of Pakistan will take a long time as there is no infra structure available there. Most of the students don't have access to internet.Computer labs in institutes are either not fully equipped or they cannot accomodate large number of students.If Web 2.0 is future of education,what strategy can be adopted to embed these tools in Pakistani education system?

How can we benefit from this great digital revolution staying in the same poor infra structure?

Suggestions from the group are welcome.

References:

Hargadon, S.(2008)Web 2.0 is future of education. 4March,2008. http://www.stevehargadon.com/

Grosseck .G.(2009) To use or not to use web 2.0 in higher education? http://www.sciencedirect.com/

www.bcps.org/offices/lis/web2.0/

etoolbox.wikispaces.com/Choosing+Tools