June
2008
Is that Myspace you’re looking at?2
Erica’s blog drives me nuts as she seems to write such detailed and thought-provoking responses to articles… in like two paragraphs (Whereas I tend to twitter on for ten). And her post titled “Social Networking” is no exception.
This article is really fascinating as it talks about a social networking site (Elgg) that holds an academic purpose as opposed to how many friends you can add in an hour, or how loud your obnoxious music video on your front page.
Source: Flickr
The issue with Myspace, though, is that it’s nothing more than an entertainment site. I fully approve of social networking and sharing information through the internet, but with sites like Myspace, I feel in schools it will be nothing more than a distraction. Unless schools magically find a way to use Myspace academically, I really won’t feel its purpose in the curriculum. It was built for entertainment, Elgg isn’t. So Elgg should most definitely be promoted if the school wants that sort of electronic interaction and such, rather than make Myspace into something it’s not.
I think the advantage Facebook holds over Myspace is that even though Facebook can be a distraction, it’s actually meant to be a “Myspace for college students.” I usually get on Facebook to find colleages and talk to them, or keep in contact with old friends. I really don’t see Myspace as that, rather a bloated, loud, distraction-ridden page. I just feel there’s a clear difference and some pages are just meant to kill time! There’s a time for everything.
Just a couple of minor corrections:
Elgg is a social application engine rather than a social networking site. In other words, it can be used to power social networking sites, and there are thousands of Elgg sites currently out there in the wild.
Elgg doesn’t solely have an educational focus, but the point is this: you can use it to create a network specific to your goals. Rather than fitting your teaching to the tool, you can fit your tool to the teaching. Surely that’s the way software should work?
Oh, really? Sorry about that, thank you very much! I must have misread the article, but I thought it was something that was being used for educational purposes.
And yeah, I definitely agree with that. I feel it’s a wonderful idea to create a site that can help with one’s teaching, especially the kind that children can contribute to and use to interact with others, my only concern was taking something like Myspace and trying to TURN that into something educational when it really.. isn’t. So yeah, I hope I made sense!
Thanks for the clear up!