WEEK 4

This week I scanned the Internet for some good resource sites to refer to when creating some of the content for my site. I found two sites out of the three that offer me information on how to explain what social networking is, and how it can benefit a single person, or an entire business. The third website I found talks about different activities that you can do with your business or classroom in order to better  understand some of the elements of social networking.

Site 1:

http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2008/03/the-future-of-s.html

This first site I came across is an individuals blog, but it has some great material on social networking and how to better understand how social networking has come along. It says that its not going to happen overnight, but it is going to happen, and its done nothing but continue to grow. We have to be aware of it, and learn how to use it because it can be extremely beneficial to everyone. The whole point of social networking is to bring people together that cant physically be together everyday at every moment. Its a great way to get connected and stay together and learn off of each other. Ill be using this site as a reference when I get stuck in trying to explain how something about social networking works or can be applied.

Site 2:

http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSTRE49S3KU20081029

This site is more about finding particular sites that work for businesses. Although its talks a little bit about what social networking is, its more focused on how you as a business can create an atmosphere around your employees to create a social network. This site may not be the best in terms of finding information about an introduction to social learning, or how to apply it to classrooms. But the same material can be altered slightly to fit any atmosphere, and therefore be crafted into a social networking tool that fits into any situation.

Site 3:

http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/intech/cooperativelearning.htm

This last site has a lot of information on activities, or creating your own activities to learn about social networking with your peers. Although this site is geared mainly towards cooperative learning in the sense you will physically be with the people in your group doing these things, the conept can be applied to anything. Take away from this site just general dieas about activities, or ways you can bring social netwokring to others by doing something interactive, and youll be on your way to creating an effective social learning tool in no time. This site has material that ranges from group activities, to research, to working in pairs. I am planning to incorporate an activities section on my site and Im planning on using this site to generate some ideas and as a reference.