Social networks have surely changed the way we communicate and interact.  I remember creating my facebook page when it was still dubbed 'The Facebook,' after my friend from Notre Dame (who had it before MSU) told me of its greatness.  As I created the account, I couldn't imagine myself using it for long. Years later, my Facebook page has morphed into an account of my life.... I'm friends with everyone from my mother to political figures.

Not only has the life of Facebook evolved, but so has my usage of social networks.  Before joining the MAET program, I was turned on to the world of Nings... So many of my professional decisions are enhanced or made better through my involvement in the Classroom 2.0 Ning.  I am able to ask questions and actually get answers.  Amazing!

A few areas of social networking that I have not tapped into yet are social bookmarking, Twitter (although I tried to get into it a few years ago), and LinkedIn.  Linkedin has the power to connect us professionally, on a different level than a network like a Ning.  In an age where careers are changing and jobs are being eliminated, LinkedIn can hopefully connect us with people in order to help foster those career opportunities we might not find without the use of a specific, themed social-network.

As for social networking in the classroom, its already here.  Sites like Edmodo are providing teachers with an opportunity to create online classrooms and allow us to reach students in a way that's familiar to to them.  I work in a middle school, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a student without a Facebook account.  By bringing social networking into the classroom, we are building upon a skill-set that students already have.  It seems silly not to connect with them in a way that is so familiar.

One of my shining moments from my first year as a teacher-leader for technology was with the creation of a mock-social network.  Students in a 7th grade social studies class used a wiki I created to engage in a social networking scenario where they took on identities of individuals living in the early 19th century. They created profiles and as they learned content, communicated as they do on Facebook.  Because I created this activity on a wiki, the kids didn't have all the amenities of Facebook at their disposal, but they thoroughly enjoyed posting questions and discussing through the simulated social network as opposed to pencil and paper.