Facebook case

Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook Inc. As of April 2012, Facebook has more than 900 million active users.vUsers must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as friends, and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they update their profile. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics, and categorize their friends into lists such as «People From Work» or «Close Friends».

Release of statistics by DoubleClick showed that Facebook reached one trillion pageviews in the month of June 2011, making it the most visited website in the world. It should however be noted that Google and some of its selected websites are not counted in the DoubleClick rankings. According to the Nielsen Media Research study, released in December 2011, Facebook is the second most accessed website in the US.

In April 2012 Facebook bought the application Instagram for US$1 billion.

In January 2012, the countries with the most Facebook users were:

▪   United States with 152.5 million members,

▪   India with 43.5 million members

▪   Indonesia with 43.1 million members

▪   Brazil with 37.9 million members

▪   Mexico with 32.0 million members[135]

All of the above total 309 million members or about 38.6 percent of 800 million Facebook’s worldwide members.

Criticism

Facebook has met with controversies. It has been blocked intermittently in several countries including the People’s Republic of China, Iran, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Syria, and Bangladesh on different bases. For example, it was banned in many countries of the world on the basis of allowed content judged as anti-Islamic and containing religious discrimination. It has also been banned at many workplaces to prevent employees from using it during work hours. The privacy of Facebook users has also been an issue, and the safety of user accounts has been compromised several times. Facebook has settled a lawsuit regarding claims over source code and intellectual property. In May 2011 emails were sent to journalists and bloggers making critical allegations about Google’s privacy policies; however it was later discovered that the anti-Google campaign, conducted by PR giant Burson-Marsteller, was paid for by Facebook in what CNN referred to as «a new level skullduggery» and which Daily Beast called a «clumsy smear«.

In July 2011 German authorities began to discuss the prohibition of events organized on Facebook. The decision is based on several cases of overcrowding by people not originally invited.

In May 2011, HCL Technologies announced that approximately 50% of British employers had banned Facebook from the workplace. Facebook has been blamed for lower worker productivity and has been called a national obsession by anti-Facebook blogs such as Facebook Detox.

A 2011 study in the online journal First Monday, «Why Parents Help Their Children Lie to Facebook About Age: Unintended Consequences of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act,» examines how parents consistently enable children as young as 10 years old to sign up for accounts, directly violating Facebook’s policy banning young visitors. This policy technically allows Facebook to avoid conflicts with the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), requiring that minors aged 13 or younger gain explicit parental consent to access commercial websites. Of the more than 1,000 households surveyed for the study, more than three-quarters (76%) of parents reported that their child joined Facebook when she was younger than 13, the minimum age in the site’s terms of service. The study notes that, in response to widespread reports of underage users, a Facebook executive has said that «Facebook removes 20,000 people a day, people who are underage.»

Media impact

In April 2011, Facebook launched a new portal for marketers and creative agencies to help them develop brand promotions on Facebook. The company began its push by inviting a select group of British advertising leaders to meet Facebook’s top executives at an «influencers’ summit» in February 2010. Facebook has now been involved in campaigns for True Blood, American Idol, and Top Gear. News and media outlets such as the Washington Post, Financial Times and ABC News have used aggregated Facebook fan data to create various infographics and charts to accompany their articles.

Social impact

Facebook has affected the social life and activity of people in various ways. With its availability on many mobile devices, Facebook allows users to continuously stay in touch with friends, relatives and other acquaintances wherever they are in the world, as long as there is access to the Internet. It can also unite people with common interests and/or beliefs through groups and other pages, and has been known to reunite lost family members and friends because of the widespread reach of its network.

Some argue that Facebook is beneficial to one’s social life because they can continuously stay in contact with their friends and relatives, while others say that it can cause increased antisocial tendencies because people are not directly communicating with each other.

Olivia Suarez Montiel

Laws and Social Media

Companies and their Social Media policy

Social Media has become so important that some people forget that it is not a game and that they have to be aware of what they post because it can be use against them. A public posting on a public site is generally not private.

Nowadays, companies can check LinkedIn or any Social media page to verify information supplied by an applicant or employee on previous work history. Employers have an employee handbook to clearly address what is permisible in Social Media, and what is not. Companies are also addressing ramifications if employees don’t comply: probation or termination.

This is because:

–          Employees freely copying what they see on the internet

–          Posting of inappropiate or offensive content on company bulletin boards or blogs;

–          Badmouthing a company on personal blogs;

–          Using Facebook, myspace, etc. to discriminate against or to harass fellow employees

–          Employees who call sick are posting that their are really partying

Example:

“Cisco just offerd me a job! Now i have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.”

More over , employers cannot use information found on social media to discriminate against employees or candidates due to race, religión, sexual orientation or other protected class. They also some actions that employers can take on Social Media:

–          tell employees they are not allowed to discuss anything work related online

–          Counsel employees on what is appropiate, how to use better judgment, and if confused, talk to a manager

–          Designating a gatekeeper to be responsable for posts online or the employer’s website, instead of any employee posting anything, anytime.

Evidence and social media

Another subject related with laws and social media is the fact that everything online can be used as evidence in court. People can use the social media to accuse or demand others because of their posts. Any postings online should be considered the same as email or text messages. His information is discoverable and can lead to liability.

This is an example of what can happend:

Lara Buys, 22, on trial in Santa Barbara County, California, recieved two years in prison after posting pictures on the internet of herself drinkin and partying just months after causing the death of her best friend in a drunken driving accident.

It is important for us to know this because this is what we are living today in companies and life. We are about to become part of the bussines world and as a employers or employees we have to examine our Social Media practices and be careful with what we post.

http://www.slideshare.net/DaliahSaper/legal-implications-of-social-media

Mariel Escalante

The impact of social media on society.

Social networking has become a main part of our lives because people involved in it can obtain different kind of answers for many needs and restlessness, and they can analyze some problems that can be found in real life. It is an open system, permanently developed, that involves groups of people with common interests and allows them to organize themselves in order to satisfy their concerns.

Social networks on the internet appeared approximately between 2001 and 2002, beginning with social circles to meet friends. After that, this kind of networks became very popular for contacting new people with common interests to the users. The main advantage of these sites is that when someone logs in, the network begins to grow because many people will do it too in order to follow the first user.

The more people the network has, the more information is shared in an easier way. Considering this last part, we could assure that with the use of social media many commercial communities have been built, where a product or service is exposed to the people and in this way the product could be employed when it will be required. At this moment, in many countries, social media is a way to organize people with common interests. In many countries, social media have been very useful to display advertisements about local business, political candidacies, worldwide news, personal interest information, entertainment news etc.

For example, in 2008, Obama made 5 millions “friends” on approximately 15 social networking sites (3 million friends on facebook) and posted 2,000 you tube videos watched around 80 million times. MyBarackObama had 8.5 million of visitors and made 400,000 blogs. To obtain more popularity Obama spent $3.5 million on google search, $467,000 on facebook , $600,000 on Advertising.com and actually Obama has around 14,285,000 followers on Twitter. This substantially could contribute to win his election as a president.

In Mexican practice, social media has even been used to warn people about events of low self-safety. For example, in Monterrey city, people on the streets send many alerts by twitter or facebook about local disturbs such as shootings, robberies, drug dealer attacks, etc.

In recent times, social networks have been absolutely relevant for first hand information for example in the case of earthquakes around the world and mainly in Mexico were everyone announces what is happening in real time. The “Servicio Sismológico de México” emits reports in real time of the earthquakes with the basic information of intensity of the movement, the origin, the coordinates, the exact hour and whether there will be an aftershock. Even the President of the Mexican Republic, as well as most governors of different states from Baja California to Quintana Roo used Twitter to report the damages caused by these natural catastrophes.

The negative side of social media is, as many authors say, that the time spent online reduces the amount of time spent on important face-to-face relationships. The internet fosters mostly shallow relationships. The act of leveraging the internet to engage in social connection exposes private information. The internet allows people to isolate themselves, and it is being used to promote intolerance. At this moment, it is very common to find people spending many hours of their day chatting with people from another place, but when the person whom you are talking to is unknown, it could be a risk for your integrity if your personal information is shared. In the most common case you won’t know the other person ever, but in case that you wish to make personal the interaction with your new “friend” there is a high probability that the other person won’t be sincere with you, and in many cases, the other people could be dangerous in case they intend to cause any damage to you.

http://www.thehalsreport.com/2011/01/the-social-impact-of-facebook-in-2011/

http://www.cnnexpansion.com/tecnologia/2012/03/20/las-redes-sociales-alivian-temblor

http://ezinearticles.com/?Impact-of-Social-Media-on-Society&id=5378885

http://www.understandmedia.com/pdf/SJMLE-Vol1.pdf

José Francisco Delgado Jiménez 138896.

Daniela Gamboa Hernández 132866.

Access to information

It´s said that with the impact of the global internet, millions of people have easy and immediate access to a vast and diverse amount of information online, but what kind of information? What is available to all and which not? Who has free access to it and who does not? What is the cost to be paid for it? Are there restrictions? These are questions that we seldom do but it is important begin to consider it.
At the beginning, the internet was closed to a few people, basically those who had the opportunity to have a computer. Also it was difficult for updating the information because they needed knowledge about programming with binary codes and hypertext protocols.
Now the things have changed and continue changing. Information access is defined as concerning ensuring free and closed access to processed data and knowledge. Access to information now includes many issues such as copyright, open source, privacy, security, and other things.
If we compare the traditional ways to information access, the internet has decentralized the information and knowledge. The blogs and social networks are the new ways because they permit easily to be daily updatable.
Internet is present in many homes and businesses in rich countries, however not all regions in the world have the same access. The web has opened a digital division with the poor countries, where the penetration of Internet and new technologies is very limited for people, and consequently, limited access to information.

From a cultural perspective, access to information on internet has been an asset and a liability. For example, it provides a significant amount of information and interactivity between different cultures that would be unavailable otherwise.
Because of the overcrowding and incorporation of internet into human life, the information is constantly updated and more people can contribute to its growth, although such information is sometimes reliable or no.
Sometimes called “friend-of-a-friend” sites, social networking websites build upon the concept of traditional social networks in the “real world,” connecting users to familiar and new people through mutual acquaintances and common interests.
The very nature of such sites encourages users to provide a certain amount of personal information. But when deciding how much information to reveal, people may not exercise the same amount of caution on a Website as they would when meeting someone in person. This happens because:
• the Internet provides a sense of anonymity;
• the lack of physical interaction provides a false sense of security; and
• they tailor the information for their friends to read, forgetting that others may see it.
Sharing too much information on social networking sites can be problematic in two ways: first, it can reveal something about you that you’d rather your current or future employer or school administrator not know, and second, it can put your personal safety at risk.
Another potential downside of social networking sites is that they allow others to know a person’s contact information, interests, habits, and whereabouts. Consequences of sharing this information can range from the relatively harmless but annoying—such as an increase in spam—to the potentially deadly—such as stalking.
While the vast majority of people using social networking sites do not pose a threat, malicious people may be drawn to them because of the accessibility and amount of personal information available on them.
Criminals can use information provided about a person’s birthday, location, routine, hobbies, and interests to impersonate a trusted friend or convince the unsuspecting that they have the authority to access personal or financial data. They can even use such info to guess your account passwords—which is why you should never have a password that uses the name of your pet, favorite band, hobby, birthday, or something else easily known about you. And stalkers will really appreciate your help if you post your daily routine and whereabouts online!
So, when deciding whether to post something, remember that the more information malicious people have about you, the easier it is for them to take advantage of you.
Children and young teens are especially susceptible to the threats that social networking sites present. Although many of these sites have age restrictions, there is no real way to enforce these requirements, and children may misrepresent their ages so that they can join.
Predators may target children, teens, and other unsuspecting persons online—sometimes posing to be someone else—and then slowly“groom” them, forming relationships with them and then eventually convincing them to meet in person.
Ways to protect yourself on social networking sites
• Limit who can see what you post. If you don’t want random users to see your contact information, you can limit the publication of that data.
Limit what you post. Don’t share things that would make you vulnerable to unwanted contact (such as sharing your email address, physical address, or phone number) or to stalking (such as information about your schedule or routine).

Names:
Leobardo Pacheco Arias
Grissel Vázquez Zárate

Social Media and Politics

Well guys, I think that this theme is quite relevant in our days and the elections time we are going through. When talking about Social Media and Politics; we are talking about a situation, a game where the citizens win and the politicians need to be more careful and aware of their campaigns. Through the social media, we all know tons of political issues around the world and in our country, and the role of the social media it´s not only to inform but to organize masses, civil revolutions and resistance groups.
Here are some political events in the last year where the social media became part of the main network and a key element to inform and organize.
-Egyptian Revolution
-Libyan Revolution
-Grecian crisis
-Italian crisis and Berlusconi´s renunciation
-London Riots
-Middle East conflicts
-Russians against Putin
-Etc…
So, even thou journalism and the press keep their place in one of the most powerful and old sources of information around the world, cyberjournalism, social networks, forums, blogs, etc. have become a serious competence and a whole different way to be informed. At the same time social media elements let us express our opinions, ideals and organize our society.
What is happening in Mexico? I think we are very lucky to be in this generation, why? Because we are in the midst of the first Presidential Election were the social media and its elements, play a crucial role in the process. Not only the politicians, but the government itself needs to be more conscious and careful on their decisions, actions and the way society can perceive them through the social media eye. The Mexican society was fairly used to base its opinion, decisions and point of view on the TV, radio, newspapers, speeches, fake promises etc…but the social media came to really expand our horizons, to break the fragile and corruptible communication system that dominated past generations. We are now able to express ourselves with a unique sense of freedom and be in contact with every single declaration coming from our government, candidates and companies.

Now, I´m not going to mention any candidate in this post (we should stay in the social media context), but we can affirm that the three principal candidates in Mexico have received the impartial punch of the social media and its millions of users. How much the social media will influence in the final outcome of these elections? For us, the young citizens, the social media is our principal instrument of defense, attack, organize and inform.

We´ve crossed the breach between countries and different political ideals, now through the globalization that the social media caused, people is organizing and sharing their political situation, provoking a compact and strong group in a cyberspace where the government doesn’t have any authority. Politics will never be the same, politicians are also starting to use the social media to expand their influence and promote their ideals and compromises with the society, however I think it´s quite evident the pressure and the danger that social media may represent to them.

Armando

Social Media and Disabilities

Nowadays there is a great debate about the accessibility to the Internet, if it must be considered a right or not. This right tries to include all the population of the world, however, the exclusion it represents is wider than the inclusion. In order for people to have access to the Internet they must at least have a device that allows them access to the Internet, they must know how to read, they probably need to know another language and most importantly to have access people need to have an income that will allow them that access.

But these are not the only factors that exclude part of the society for being part of the social network. There is another type of exclusion, exclusion of groups with different capacities. These groups consider:

1. Elderly people
2. Disabled people:

• Attention deficit/hyperactive disorders
• Blindness and low vision
• Brain Injuries
• Deaf/Hard-of Hearing
• Learning disabilities
• Medical disabilities
• Physical disabilities
• Psychiatric disabilities
• Speech and language disabilities

Companies like Google or Apple are trying to develop new technology for helping blind people. Even though it is a great advance the problem is that being blind or having low vision is the only disability related to technology, Internet and social networks.

The first step to give access to disabled groups to the Internet and Social Networks is to develop assistive technologies.  An assistive technology is technology used by individuals with disabilities to perform functions that might be otherwise impossible or difficult (University of Washington 2012). These technologies include mobility devices, hardware, and software.

Microsoft has developed different assistive technology products which are software and hardware compatible with Widows, here are some examples:

So we can realize that technologies do exist however, once again they are limited.

After people with disabilities is able to get the assistive technologies they need, then they are able to interact in social media. There are many websites in which people with disabilities interact, for example there is Disability Social Network Blog which basically helps people with disabilities with helpful tips and information. There is also a website named Disabilityscoop which primarily shares news related to technologies and people with disabilities.

But what we can find must on the Web are communities were people with disabilities interact.  There are no statistics about how many of them use Facebook, twitter, YouTube, etc., the next links shows a video about the life experience of elderly and disable groups who use social media:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35UeJ0kyP8g

Mariana Hernández Hevia

References

http://web.jhu.edu/disabilities/faculty/types_of_disabilities/

http://www.washington.edu/accessit/articles?109

http://www.microsoft.com/enable/at/matvplist.aspx

http://www.disabilitysocialnetwork.com/category/disability-social-network

Social media and business.

Social Media is a complex and evolving medium that many businesses struggle to figure out. Few find quantifiable success with it, many have failed, and most have yet to truly form a social media strategy.

Failure is often a result of using social media before taking time to understand it. It’s free exposure, and often organizations fail to intentionally plan their message as they would for an expensive ad campaign.  It’s like trying to run before one has learned to walk.  Social media had significantly better results than traditional marketing.

The following rules apply to almost every social media user who seeks to develop a platform, client acquisition, increased sales, and better brand awareness.

1. Social media is relational, not transactional, according to social media innovator Michael Hyatt.  Probably the most important rule for any individual or organization seeking to expand exposure and acquire new customers through an online presence.  Keep the «keys» to the social media account away from the Sales department. Traditional marketing has no place in social media.  Overtly trying to sell a product or service will quickly damage a social media reputation.

1. Organizations must have a dedicated social media evangelist. An organization should have an independent social media manager who reports directly to an executive on the leadership team.  The social media manager should not be accountable to a supervisor who is commissioned or expected to generate a sales quota. They should be the keeper of the keys and the protector of an organization’s network of followers.

1. An organization should focus on engagement and not on numbers. The numbers will follow but should not be used as a performance indicator. There is significantly more value in having a smaller network of followers who engage on a regular basis than to have a large network of followers who view your page once and are done.

1.  Define your core audience and identify your area of expertise. Do not try to be all things to all people.  If you want to reach the decision makers in organizations, you may design your social media messaging and expertise around content that educates about organizational development.

When users see a new post in their stream, they should immediately associate it with positive psychology – they should know that the post will bring them value and it’s not simply trying to sell them a product or service.  They should be inspired to be an active participant as a result of content.

1. Content is king. As previously mentioned, social media is not the place to make overt sales pitches.  Posts should be succinct, not impulsive or emotional, but rather should be thoughtfully constructed and politically correct.  On Twitter a post is given 140 characters.  In order for followers to RT they must be given enough characters to retweet.  Posts should add value to followers free of charge, no gimmicks and no strings attached they may provide information, best practices, or free resources

1. Updates should be consistent and frequent. Social media is always on and so should an organizations presence.   It takes time and consistent impressions with other users to build the credibility needed for them to engage.  Posts should be daily and typically should occur a few times and not more than 8 or 9.  When there are days without updates followers get dubious, brand awareness fades, and credibility that has been built diminishes.

1. A Social Media platform must be manifested. Social media streams and accounts should be integrated into every page of an organizations website and communication including «like,» «tweet,» and «follow» buttons.

1.  A Profile must be Perfect. The profile is the most viewed page and too often the most neglected.  Users decide whether or not to follow an account based on it.  Images, background, and messaging should be consistent with an organizations brand.  It should be concise and not superfluous.  It should include a link to the organization’s website or blog.

VIDEO: http://youtu.be/X9sTq3pzNQQ

Reference:

www.socialmediatoday.com

María Montserrat Muñoz Minutti 137856

develop a platform, client acquisition, increased sales, and better brand awareness. 1. Social media is relational, not transactional, according to social media innovator Michael Hyatt. Probably the most important rule for any individual or organization seeking to expand exposure and acquire new customers through an online presence. Keep the «keys» to the social media account away from the Sales department. Traditional marketing has no place in social media. Overtly trying to sell a product or service will quickly damage a social media reputation. 2. Organizations must have a dedicated social media evangelist. An organization should have an independent social media manager who reports directly to an executive on the leadership team. The social media manager should not be accountable to a supervisor who is commissioned or expected to generate a sales quota. They should be the keeper of the keys and the protector of an organization’s network of followers. 3. An organization should focus on engagement and not on numbers. The numbers will follow but should not be used as a performance indicator. There is significantly more value in having a smaller network of followers who engage on a regular basis than to have a large network of followers who view your page once and are done. 4. Define your core audience and identify your area of expertise. Do not try to be all things to all people. If you want to reach the decision makers in organizations, you may design your social media messaging and expertise around content that educates about organizational development. When users see a new post in their stream, they should immediately associate it with positive psychology – they should know that the post will bring them value and it’s not simply trying to sell them a product or service. They should be inspired to be an active participant as a result of content. 5. Content is king. As previously mentioned, social media is not the place to make overt sales pitches. Posts should be succinct, not impulsive or emotional, but rather should be thoughtfully constructed and politically correct. On Twitter a post is given 140 characters. In order for followers to RT they must be given enough characters to retweet. Posts should add value to followers free of charge, no gimmicks and no strings attached they may provide information, best practices, or free resources 6. Updates should be consistent and frequent. Social media is always on and so should an organizations presence. It takes time and consistent impressions with other users to build the credibility needed for them to engage. Posts should be daily and typically should occur a few times and not more than 8 or 9. When there are days without updates followers get dubious, brand awareness fades, and credibility that has been built diminishes. 7. A Social Media platform must be manifested. Social media streams and accounts should be integrated into every page of an organizations website and communication including «like,» «tweet,» and «follow» buttons. 8. A Profile must be Perfect. The profile is the most viewed page and too often the most neglected. Users decide whether or not to follow an account based on it. Images, background, and messaging should be consistent with an organizations brand. It should be concise and not superfluous. It should include a link to the organization’s website or blog. VIDEO: http://youtu.be/X9sTq3pzNQQ Reference: http://www.socialmediatoday.com María Montserrat Muñoz Minutti 137856

Security in Social Media

Social Media has become an important aspect of the society with millions of people using the web 2.0 tools such as social networking, wikis, and blogs. 

There are criminal organizations that have been seeking to steal personal information of millions of users particularly from social network sites like Twitter and Facebook in order to make bad use of that information, because of this security in social media is a priority for all the organizations in the social media sector. On the other hand, if users don’t have an anti-virus, anti-spyware and don’t update them often, chances to get their information stolen are higher.

But, what can you do to avoid getting your information stolen, and surf more securely in the web? Here are some tips:

Be Discreet – Never type anything into a profile page, bulletin board, instant message or other type of online electronic form that would expose you to unwanted visitors or the possibility of identity theft or malicious threats. This includes personal and business names and addresses, phone numbers, job titles, birth dates, schedule details, daily routines and business or family information. It’s far better to communicate in generalities than to reveal information that unscrupulous individuals may someday use against you.

Check Privacy Policies – All major social network services have specific privacy guidelines that are published on their Web sites. Take the time to read and understand these documents, since they include the types of information that they will reveal — or sell — to other parties (including spammers). If you don’t like the terms, don’t use the service.  

Things you should never share- Social networking means opening up and sharing information online with others, but there’s some information you should never share online. Protecting yourself from sharing Too Much Information (TMI) can save you from identity theft and even protect your physical safety. Never share  your birth date, home address or home phone number.  Of course, you should protect all of your passwords, PIN numbers, bank account and credit card information.

Don’t trust, just verify –There are lots of reasons (most of them bad) why someone might impersonate or falsify an identity online. It could be as a prank or for “fun” such as those who impersonate a celebrity as satire. Faking an identity has a legit side too – it can be used by people who simply want to conceal who they are in order to protect their real  identities. But it’s also the first step of those who want to  embarrass or defame someone else by impersonating them, or steal an identity for financial gain or other crimes.

You can verify being on the lookout for anything unusual or out of the ordinary. If the content on the site doesn’t look like or sound like the person you know, avoid it.  E-mail or call your friend to verify the site is legit. Let them know, too, if you think someone else is faking your friend’s identity online.

Never click on a link or attachment in an email that you are not positive is from a trusted source– If you think the e-mail looks suspicious, it probably is. It never hurts to send an email to verify that this is legitimate.

Install an Anti-Virus program(ex. Norton, F-Secure, Sophos, McAfee, or AVG.)- Also available is the free AntiVir virus scanner. Make sure you keep your virus definitions updated and run a full system scan weekly.

Install an Anti-Spyware program(ex. Ad Aware SE, Windows Defender, Malwarebytes, spybot), that operates against internet malware and spyware-  Just like Anti-Virus, keep it updated, and do a full system scan weekly. Often these anti-spyware programs will find problems that anti-virus programs overlook.

Be careful when surfing. You can get a malicious script from a webpage and not know it. If you ever get a window asking if you want to allow an automatic install, say «No» unless you know the site requesting the install.

Check this VIDEO to get more information related to security in social media!

Agustín Urzúa

Job search and jobs in social media

Social Media and Education

We remember that when we were little and had a question, we used to ask any adult the meaning of the word we wanted to know. The answer was always the same: “Look it up in the dictionary.” The easiest way of involving a child into knowledge and searching for information, was sending him/her to look up what they wanted to know into a book, dictionary or encyclopedia. This question is no longer the same. Nowadays when a little boy asks the meaning of a word, the answer is: “Look it up in the Internet” or just “Google it”.

What Social Media offers to students are new opportunities of sharing information. A lot of teachers still think that Social Media tools are a distractor for learning. In 2008 eNews published a study from the University of Minessota about the benefits of Social Media in students. With this study they found out that: “94% used the Internet, 82% go online at home, and 77% had a profile on a social networking site”; and what the students learn with Social Media, they listed: “technology skills, creativity, being open to new or diverse views, and Communications skills.”

Now most of the universities around the world are accepting the use of technology linked to the social media like Facebook and Twitter, which has function very well as vehicle for teaching, getting help from other peers even have classes and interacting by a videocall by Skype. Or as says Chris Lehmann, principal of Philadelphia’s Science Leadership Academy:   Social-networking tools aren’t just for flirting. The evolving world of Internet communication — blogs, podcasts, tags, file swapping — offers students radically new ways to research, create, and learn. But, too often, schools use computers as little more than glorified workbooks, and that’s criminal.

A school could use blog software to bring together anyone who’s writing about politics or computing or Greek literature.

Christine Greenhow is the one who lead the research. We invite you to listen to what she said about the benefits students receive by using Social Media: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/urelate/radio/social_net_study.mp3

We agree that the use of Internet during a class, may be a distractor for students, but the idea of applying this new educational system to children, is to teach them how to search for information and involving them to the use of Social Media. The idea of teachers changing their teaching is that students obtain better academic results. This can be achieved by involving them into a new dynamic of study.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zKdPOHhNfY

Sources:

http://www1.umn.edu/news/features/2008f/UR_191308_REGION1.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/27/social-networking-schools_n_840911.html

http://mashable.com/2010/09/29/social-media-in-school/

http://www.edutopia.org/social-networking-how-to