paper from the Brookings Insitution: " Can new media actually boost democratic participation and change politics in a lasting way? Or is such optimism as inflated as internet stocks during the dot com mania at the beginning of this millennium?"
Part III - New/Social media in "learning" outside the classroom:
Employees' social media use--both inside and outside the workplace--remains a double-edged sword for employers, however, promising both business opportunities and risks.
Monday, March 22 Google announced on its official blog that it would stop censoring its search results in that country. David Drummond, Google’s Senior Vice President for Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, attributed the decision in part to “a sophisticated cyber attack originating from China” and “evidence [suggesting] that the Gmail accounts of dozens of human rights activists connected with China were being routinely accessed by third parties.”
"Comments, rumours and opinions can be quickly spread between internet groups in a way that makes it hard for the government to censor.
So instead of just trying to prevent people from having their say, the government is also attempting to change they way they think.
To do this, they use specially trained - and ideologically sound - internet commentators. "
"# Why the perceived weaknesses of American education are actually its strengths.
# How reform proponents, business executives, and politicians have misjudged American education.
# Why China and other nations in Asia are actually reforming their systems to be more like their American counterparts.
# What really matters for an education system and what really counts as educational excellence."
Mary- recent news
"The company is running the risk of being cut off from the world's most populous country because it is no longer willing to censor search results that China's government considers to be subversive or pornographic."
China has more Internet users than any other country
China’s largely anonymous right-wing, online message board community commands disproportionate attention from Communist Party leaders seeking to keep their fingers on the pulse of public opinion
Facebook competitors delighted at the bans, quickly sweeping in to claim market share.
in July of 2009, Facebook and Twitter were both banned by the government in the aftermath of violent protests by ethnic Uighurs in China’s Western Xinjiang province
Renrenwang
founded by college students at a prestigious university — Tsinghua in Beijing
rom “Xiaonei,” meaning “within the school,” to “Renren,” meaning “everyone
The Chinese site has entirely borrowed Facebook’s interface, including the news feed, app menus, status updates, “wall,” profile, photo albums, notifications, and chat feature — they’re all exactly as they appear on Facebook
more people use Qzone, the personal blogging feature of ubiquitous instant messaging program QQ
A Qzone page is more of a personal blog than a Facebook-style “profile”; people post their thoughts and photographs chronologically, and members can communicate by public comments or private messages.
As for Renren? “I only use that to steal other people’s vegetables”, Qiong says — a reference to a hosted app that allows users to grow and sell virtual crops, itself a model borrowed by the popular Farmville in the US.
The ban of Facebook and Twitter just served to strenghthen Chinese run social networks. One of which has "borrowed" the interface of Facebook. This article talks about a few of the popular Chinese social networking sites.
Looking at the negatives of social media:
A few states say that school conduct codes must explicitly prohibit off-campus cyberbullying; others imply it; still others explicitly exclude it. Some states say that local districts should develop cyberbullying prevention programs but the states did not address the question of discipline.
Judges are flummoxed, too, as they wrestle with new questions about protections on student speech and school searches. Can a student be suspended for posting a video on YouTube that cruelly demeans another student? Can a principal search a cellphone, much like a locker or a backpack?
"Recently, The New York Times reported on the results of a survey that concluded that the majority of Americans are in favor of filtering Internet access in schools."
To use social media or not to use social media… that is the question facing many school districts across the country.
*Should video sharing sites like YouTube be used in the classroom?
*Should teachers use FaceBook or Twitter to communicate with their students during class and outside of the classroom?
*How can sites like this improve how we educate our students?
Sample from PBWorks:
The X School District realizes that part of 21st century learning is adapting to the changing methods of communication. The importance of teachers, students and parents engaging, collaborating, learning, and sharing in these digital environments is a part of of 21st century learning . To this aim, X School District has developed the following guideline to provide direction for instructional employees, students and the school district community when participating in online social media activities. Whether or not an employee chooses to participate in a blog, wiki, online social network or any other form of online publishing or discussion it is his or her own decision. Free speech protects educators who want to participate in social media, but the laws and courts have ruled that schools can discipline teachers if their speech, including online postings, disrupts school operations. The X School District social media guidelines encourage employees to participate in online social activities.
While Facebook and MySpace are popular among students in Anderson County, you're not likely to see many teachers on the social networking sites.
At least three school districts in Anderson County discourage teachers from having social networking sites at all.
In Williamston-based Anderson School District 1, teachers are "strongly discouraged" from having social networking accounts, said Jane Harrison, spokeswoman for the district.