A New Course - Social Networking for Information Professionals

I sometimes reflect back about twenty years ago and remember the time when our definition of social networking was hanging out with friends and family at our place or theirs and, of course, the telephone that commanded pride of place in the family room.  Here we would patiently wait for our turn to phone while listening to a one-sided conversation from the family member that managed to get to there before us.  How times have quickly changed!

Today, the population have generally embraced the "digital revolution" and a more typical family scene might involved the various members on computers, tablets, and touch-screen phones, merrily communicating with friends without a word being spoken.  The family has entered the world of social networking.

Social networking can be used for communicating with or simply checking up on the latest news in the lives of our friends and family.  We can add our pearls of wisdom on life for all the world to see, post photographs of our travels or the newest family members, share the latest books we have read and what we thought of them, ask for help in moving house or advice on a good restaurant. The possibilities are truly endless.

Additionally, we can embrace our professional practice through social media via Twitter, sharing the latest apps we like, blogs we have read or news articles that are relevant.  Our students can email us or use Edmodo to find out what assignments require and when they are due, communicate with each other and their teacher, share learning information, ask questions and summit assignments.

In a nutshell, social media is all about COMMUNICATION.  It is at our fingertips, 24 hours a day.  We can use it or abuse it, but it is here to stay and who knows where it will take us in another twenty years?

SOCIAL MEDIA I PRESENTLY USE:

Facebook
Twitter
Good Reads
Instagram
Edmodo

INFO 506:

I have enrolled in this course to find out more ways or more effective ways to use social media in the context of school.  More particularly, I hope to discover ways in which social media can be used effectively as part of our school library services.