This document discusses the rise of social media and participatory web tools like blogs, wikis, social networking sites, video sites and their impact on culture and learning. It notes that these tools have led to a decline in traditional gatekeepers of information and empowered people to publish content. The document urges educators to engage with these new media, guide students in responsible use, and model lifelong learning through connections in the digital world.

1. http://flickr.com/photos/7447470@N06/1345266896/ INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES, AND YOUTUBE (WEB 2.0)

2. The Internet – more than just a book

3. “ The Read/Write Web” (Tim Berners Lee) Original photo by Hummanna .

4. PERSONAL PUBLISHING/ PARTICIPATORY MEDIA TOOLS Blogs – writing (mostly) Podcasts (audio) Wikis – collaboration (mostly text) Social Networking sites (MySpace, Facebook, Ning, Bebo, etc) MEDIA Video repositories: YouTube, TeacherTube, Google Video, BlipTV Flickr (photo sharing) UStreamTV (video creation)

5. PARTICIPATORY MEDIA/CULTURE SOCIAL MEDIA SOCIAL NETWORKING SOCIAL SOFTWARE YouTube Flickr MySpace Facebook Ning, etc

6. WHAT HAS CHANGED? Decline of the Gatekeepers Publish then evaluate Content Creators; Content Rankers Everyone has access to everything The World is Flat (Thomas Friedman) “People just don’t subscribe to magazines anymore; they also subscribe to people.”

7. Networked Learning

9. CONNECTIVISM: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age (George Siemens, University of Manitoba, Canada) Principles of Connectivism: Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning . Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.

10. 9000 hrs of extra content each day In 6 months generates as much content as major broadcasters in US did in 60 years Superb video from Michael Wesch: An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube www.youtube.com /watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU

12. A GLOBAL AUDIENCE: YouTube - http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =QjA5faZF1A8 Performance by a 13 yr old Korean boy Jan 31st: 34,770,497 million views; 142796 comments That’s more than the populations of Israel 5.7m Denmark 5.3m Finland 5.1m New Zealand 3.6m Ireland 3.6m Holland 16.4m Australia 20.4m etc

13. WHAT’S ALL THE FUSS ABOUT? Is it real? Who are these 34.7 million people? Copyright implications? – I can reuse the content for my own purposes Who is exercising editorial control? Disintermediation – the decline of the gatekeepers of content Should students have access to sites like this? (see ‘YouTube – a Class Act’) How do students like this feel at school? Should we be encouraging our students to create content to publish to these kinds of sites Empowerment and realisation of identity through personal publishing to social networking sites

14. Rewriting or Killing our Cultures?

15. THE CROWD: Collective wisdom? Stupidity of the masses? Is our culture being re-written? Is the Internet killing our Culture? (Andrew Keen: the cult of the amateur)

16. http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =e5jtiJPlv4Y

18. MySpace/Facebook September 2 nd , 2008 POLICE are trawling social networking sites and tracking text messages to find the organisers of a wild party shut down by the riot squad in Sydney. About 1500 people crammed into a Camperdown warehouse in Sydney's inner west for the party which was publicised through Facebook and other online forums. ( http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,24273455-5014108,00.html ) September 2 nd , 2008 A wild teenage party promoted on MySpace has been condemned by Geelong police who were pelted with glass bottles when they tried to close it down. ( http:// www.theage.com.au/national/myspace -party-teens-pelt police-with-bottles-20080902-47hg.html ) fear

20. It’s a Wild World http:// youtube.com/watch?v =T-t8tUED9MI “ Just remember there’s a lot of bad and beware.”

21. Indian Initiative: babajob.com/babalife.com NY Times, Oct 30 th , 2007

22. Second Life See Second Life in Education

23. Are we sociologically ready? What are our ethical responsibilities as adults/educators : to our children/students? to ourselves? (teacher sacked for posting photo on MySpace)

24. IN CONCLUSION: Being a connected educator involves : engaging with the world of participatory media guiding students in this new disintermediated world modelling the use of technology for lifelong learning allowing time for ‘slow learning’ and reflection It’s all about connections ……

25. Education by and large has not changed. Syllabus/curriculum is still rooted in a past paradigm of fixed knowledge. The world beyond classrooms has changed a great deal, and will continue to do so at an ever-increasing rate…… Photo courtesy of Sawrah, http://flickr.com/photos/sawrah/314474272/

26. Accompanying URLs for this session available at http://socnetyoutubesl.wikispaces.com/ This slideshow on the web at http://www.slideshare.net/michaelc Michael Coghlan can be contacted via NewLearning.com http://protopage.com/michaelc , or via email – [email_address]