Social Networking Technologies = Global Communication = Global Community

Social networking, to me, is a way to communicate not just with friends, neighbors, and family but globally. Ideally, social networking technologies will enhance our relationships and allow humans to develop into a true global family rather than the fractured group that we comprise currently due to geography, language, and cultural barriers. Social technologies allow us to share content, create content, and direct information in efficient, and immediate ways that we've never been able to  even imagine. Social technologies allow students, like me, to take classes in other parts of the world without leaving the comfort of my own living room. Social technologies allow my husband to communicate in Spanish with a friend in El Salvador when he doesn't speak Spanish and his friend doesn't speak English. Ultimately, all of the myriad forms of technology can allow humans the chance to share anything with almost any one in the entire world with merely the press of a key. From a library point of view, social technologies are a speedy, entertaining, and creative way to share information with students and a venue to assist them in creating and sharing content. Fair and equal dissemination of information is one of the only ways to achieve real social justice. Conversely, though social technologies are easy to use they can present a host of difficulties. With social networking comes great responsiblity and people who use social technologies must strive to do so in a fair and ethical manner.

Social technologies that I've used prior to this class include: Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, YouTube, Delicious, Wikis, Shelfari, LibraryThing, online classroom technologies like E-Learning and Moodle, I read several blogs weekly, and I've played many online games of various types. My knowledge of these technologies is certainly superficial. I can use them but don't know much about their inner workings and probably haven't tapped all of the possibilities.

I'd like to learn a lot of things in this class but the things closest to the top of list are: how to use and how to teach my students to use social networking technologies in an ethical and civil manner, how to make the most of social networking technologies/gain understanding of hwo the platforms work in a more complete way, gain a comprehensive understanding of the myriad types of technologies and their best applications and how to be a good online global citizen.

Mellow librarian just started blogging

This is my first blog post that I've created for my INF506, social networking for information professionals. Hopefully I'll have something witty and original to say but don't expect too much!