Thing #22 IN YOUR FACE...BOOK!

Yes, I'm on Facebook: Brian Romero Smith

What's addicting to most, is somewhat annoying to me. I not that much of a public social person other than at church, so online social networking is not that appealing to me. Yes, having an account on Facebook has served a good purpose. I like being able to allow my family and friends to catch up on what is going on with me and my family. I can share videos of the baby, and photos of the kids easily without having to send each individual an email that will not fit everything in one send. Great, but what I don't like is how much time you can spend away from old fashioned face-to-face time or simple picking up the phone to hear someone's voice. It has also made many people lazy, because instead of ensuring everyone knows what is going on personally, we leave up to our friends to find out for themselves what is going on in our lives. The other side of that is when you do update your life, it's instantaneously known.

For teachers social networking however is important in order to keep up with educational trends on our world. With everything going online, knowing what the latest tools to use in the classroom, or the what the greatest minds are thinking, we have to be able to keep up with the Jone's. However, a far more important reason to stay knowledgable about social networking is the help it provides in understanding the trends of our students. We are having to take education to another level with this new connected generation. Our old methods of reaching them are benign which behooves us to stay abreast on their methods of networking.

I have found Facebook to be more useful educationally then myspace because of widgets link out to references that are more valuable to the classroom. Also, Facebook seems to allow for more methods of communication with the site like writing on the wall, wall to wall conversation, group chatting, and simply when you log on, you know when someone has posted something. Myspace, mainly due to my lack of patience, seemed to juvenile and more of a "look at me" opportunity rather than actual networking.

I have used Facebook during my graduate work. We have set up groups where we collaborate our ideas for the projects to be completed.

However, having a Facebook account makes me feel old because some students from the my first year of teaching found me and wow, they are all grown. My how times passes you by. Well, I guess it was good hearing from them. In your face Brian!