I conducted a hands-on workshop yesterday on the integration of social networking in online teaching and learning at the 2010 Creating Futures Through Technology Pre-Conference in Biloxi, Mississippi. Below is the first part of my presentation. Please feel free to provide comments and suggestions here. Thanks.
很喜歡這一個簡報，很多圖像式的內容讓人感受到Social Networking的現況和威力外，內容上非常豐富，尤其裡頭對於Social Networking的國家比喻非常引入注意，讓人更了解Social Networking，也更想要實際運用在教學上。雖然過去一直在討論如何將科技應用在教學上，但是Social Networking帶來了另一個新世界，因為它可以全面性的顧慮到學生的各個需求，課業上的提升動機、統整、理解到發表，甚至在情感上的支持也有了。
我相信這絕對是運用在教育上很好的工具，尤其是學生可以透過這樣的過程，完全保留了學習的紀錄，這是傳統教育無法做到的，看到老師已經運用了很多個Social Networking在教學上，會覺得多多去運用這樣的資源是很好的。而且我另外思考到的是，這樣的方式不只是學生有他們的學習檔案，老師同時也是在形成一個教學檔案，等到教師專業評鑑時，我們可以直接拿出來接受評鑑，絕對會是很好得分的，等於是把教學負擔減到最小。
首次獨立完成了一個social network，再重新看一次老師的講義，有特別深刻的體悟，能夠了解為何在國外學校裡師生能夠如此熱絡於social network的學習互動型態；因為在一個有彈性、有組織、有架構的學習空間裡頭，老師能夠隨時掌握住每個學生的學習狀況，也可以提供多樣化的課程內容，依學生的年齡與能力作適當地補充知識(課內外皆可)，讓學習的空間與時間不再有所限制；學生能夠將自我的主動學習態度建立起來，同時對照在同儕學習方面也能夠產生互助學習&良性競爭的效果。
將來如願考上正式老師後，期許自己將social network的技巧與功能研究得夠深入，再善加套用在自己的教學上面，相輔相成的效果一定非常精彩。
I came across the first part of Dr. Yuen’s hand-on workshop on the integration of social networking in online teaching and learning at the 2010 Creating Futures Through Technology Pre-Conference in Biloxi, Mississippi in one of his blog entries. The presentation discussed what the social network is, what the popular social networks are, results of study on social networking, and social networking in education. I agree with benefits students will receive if instructors integrate social networking into online environment. In addition, I believe that students in hybrid and face-to-face environment will get similar benefit from social networking. I usually teach face-to-face environment. After I integrate various technology tools such as podcast and social networking, I upgraded my class to be hybrid classroom. I convince that social networking benefit traditional and non-traditional class setting since I had observed significant change in the degree of student connection from my own class.
Ning is a social networking tool Dr. Yuen utilized in his presentation. In my opinion, Ning is very useful social networking platform. My students and I love Ning. It is easy to use and provides a lot of useful features for students to connect and to form their community. Many of my students have customized their own page. We had a lot of useful discussion forums. I used Ning as a tool for my class social networking until the summer of 2010. It is unfortunate that Ning has changed their policy to charge some fee even for educators. Regrettably, I had no money to pay for even the fee for mini group is small. I am sad to say that from that point on I have not used other social networking sites for my class.