Even though this session was targeted at Higher Education I related it back to some of the comments of the teachers in my classes who work in K-12 and most actually in elementary education.
When we talk about using technology, invariably comments about the school or school distric restrict access to social networking sites such as Facebook or mySpace. Here are soe of the connections and "messages" I constructed from the points she made:
1) We cannot turn our back to these tools because students will find way to use them and because they are an important part of our reality and construction of knowledge
2) We need to focus on media, knowledge and critical literacies in order to help our students navigate, assess and use the information available
3) Don't fight it, but also don't just uncritically join it = know about it and use it for what it's good for - connecting individuals interested in the same thing, or trying to find out information about the same thing.
4) Maybe a role I can play as a university faculty is to talk to site administrators about these issues by compiling some information about it...and bring to the schools... something to think about - I should at least post a short presentation on my Website and offer to share my thoughts and those of others in the field.
As a start, here is her presentation:
http://www.slideshare.net/intellagirl/educause08-social-media-and-education-presentation/
