SL Experiences

Who knew an online world could be so fun?! I am known in the SL world as Abby Aloix and I have been amazed with the worlds and people I have seen so far, while I know there is so much more out there to explore! I can't wait to check out a lot of the educational worlds, because the ones I have seen so far have not only been informative, but also interesting! I can't imagine how must work must have gone into some of these areas, and I appreciate all the time it must have taken to make these works of art.
My favorite area so far has been svarga which has so much to offer from SL history to beautiful views of the island. I would recommend taking the wasp ride as soon as you arrive so you can find out exactly where you should visit and what interests you on the island, but once you have completed that basic overview I trust you will have a great time exploring the island on your own! Make sure to check out the tower with the books to get a little history lesson on SL, and also the nice sitting area where you can listen to some relaxing sounds!
This has truly been an amazing experience and I can't wait to continue throughout the worlds!

Podcast

Dana Boyd’s podcast on social networking sparked some thoughts about the relationship of social networking and education. Before taking this social networking class, I had some experiences with social networking but I never thought about the implications of using social networks with education. Social networking sites have become extremely popular, especially with teens. While some adults are criticizing and trying to prevent teens from accessing and using various social networks, I believe that instead of preventing teens from using these sites we need to become knowledgeable and stay up to date on what is popular today. As an educator, I believe that we need to bring more social networking opportunities into our classroom, lessons, and curriculum and embrace this new technology. As Dana Boyd also discussed in her podcast, I believe that instead of trying to enforce rules on our students in regards to social networks, educators should be encouraged to create a public profile and demonstrate role model behaviors publically on the network for students to see. If more educators and adults were to take this approach instead of being so hesitant, we may be able to have a positive impact on our children and students.

Twitter

I have created my Twitter account and my Tweet username is sarbear905.

Ning Network

Here is the link to my Ning social network
www.summernights.ning.com

Social Networking 3

I chose to explore a very interesting social networking site called goodreads. This site caught my eye as soon as I saw that it had personal reviews on books, and even an area where you can swap books between one another over the internet. I love to read and I would call reading a hobby for me, so this website really caught my eye. From the ease of creating an account to the user friendly layout of the pages, this site was a breeze to navigate and really opened my eyes to a new way to see reviews before you get a book, and also to swap books you are no longer reading for another book you would like to read. I am excited that I won’t have to buy all the books I want to read anymore, knowing that I can use this social networking site to swap and exchange. If I had to change anything about this website it would be the fact that they almost had to many options of other things to do. I would like a book club social networking site that dealt solely with books and did not include the games and trivia that other sites do, but since this portion is so minute within the overall site, I was easily able to get past what I wasn’t going to use and focus on what I needed!

Social Networking 2

Social networking is the practice of expanding the number of one's business and/or social contacts by making connections through individuals. While social networking has gone on almost as long as societies themselves have existed, the unparalleled potential of the Internet to promote such connections is only now being fully recognized and exploited, through Web-based groups established for that purpose

Social Networking. In What it is database. Retrived from http://http://www.whatis.techtarget.com/

Social Networking 1

Social Networking is the connection and communication between individuals, and is now handled using a variety of mediums. The most common social networking today is through websites like Facebook and Myspace, but instant messaging, alumni groups, and other similar organizations help lay the foundations for social networking. This important tool is used for keeping up with classmates, making new friends or business ties, and has a variety of other uses that have pushed social networking to a mainstay in our lives.

I believe that social networking can become a very useful tool for many aspects of education, the most important being a direct communication line between parents and teachers at all times. Giving a parent access to a social networking site devoted solely to their child the teacher can load any information they deem necessary so the parents always know what their kids are up to, and there will never be any surprises come report card time. In the same light parents could comment to the teacher if the child was having a difficult day for some reason, or something to that effect and the teacher could be prepared for the child before they arrived in the classroom. I see a lot of uses for social networking in the education world.