Where has the time gone?

It has been two years since I've updated this blog! My initial intention was to journal my way through my quest to understand Web 2.0 tools. It's not like I haven't been learning about them. I read about them, used them, helped design a course about them, taught the course, and then studied the experience. The result? A fantastic article co-written with Priscilla and published in Computers in the Schools.

After experimenting with Wikis, Blogs, and Podcasts, I am now investigating Facebook and social networking. I recently came across an article that outlined the trends in Higher Education. One of those trends indicated an increase in student use of Facebook for classroom collaborations, creating a situation where the traditional Blackboard discussion boards are used less and less by students for discussing course issues.

When I created my Facebook account, I was given the option to connect to my school Blackboard site for the purpose of receiving course announcements in my Facebook account. Since I was creating the announcements in my Blackboard courses, I didn't see the value of it. But what about for students? How much time and energy do our graduate students spend on Facebook?

I could just ask them, but I think I'm going to 'friend' as many as I can. So far what I've learned is that I know a lot about my students that I never would have known before. I'm still exploring the notion that this information actually helps build my relationships with the students and has educational value.

In the 2nd Edition of Will Richardson's book, Blogs, Wikis, and Podcast, the is an addition to the chapter on Social networking that focuses on Twitter. I will add that tool on my list to learn about and better understand in terms of educational value.