Christina Dulude

This is the second general session at HighEdWeb.Ning lets people create their own social networks about anything they want. It’s the largest “social network you’ve never heard of.” We had a demonstration of various Ning sites. Interesting educational uses of social networks:

• Posting video content
• Language immersion
• Video conferencing
• Social notes — Michael Wesch

Education should be a two-way street.  We need to stop thinking of education as a product to be passed along, and more of a process. We participate therefore we are. Google/the internet is like the calculator metaphor — having the tool levels the playing field in terms of knowledge.Education should be more about training people to synthesize information, not just how to look it up.Big is the new small. Tools like private forums allow people to participate without it being completely public. Also allows quieter students to participate with less intimidation. Asynchronous participation people can contribute outside of class.

Ambient awareness — the idea that minutiae of people’s life gives a snapshot of people’s lives, even though each little snippet doens’t realy matter. Makes you feel looped in when you’re not there. And lets you get to know people even if you’ve never met them in real life.