SERVICE OF EDUCATION ENHANCED BY SOCIAL NETWORKING

How Can the Service of Education be Enhanced by Social Networking?

ABSTRACT

This article situates current theoretical, rhetorical, and ethical analyses of the net's most prominent social networking sites, MySpace and Facebook. It also discusses the implications of bringing these web sites into the classroom, comparing how students, teachers, and administrators use (and abuse) these spaces. Both MySpace and Facebook privilege a discourse based on the construction and representation of an identity. Rather than assert unique identities, these sites ask users to label and classify themselves according to many criteria, including age, religion, political leanings, hobbies, and interests. Users can then list others who share these labels or interests and request to “add them as friends.” MySpace and Facebook emphasize categories and aspects of popular culture that teenagers find important. They remediate the traditions of high school for the Web and by doing so greatly extend their reach. Many writing instructors wonder how these sites can be used to teach writing. How users represent themselves online could help students understand postmodern logics of identity construction and political engagement. However, there are dangers for teachers who create their own profiles and add their students as “friends.” Like chat and email, these forums undercut concepts of more conventional rhetorical spaces. They both contribute to and undermine student and faculty ethos, although students may not appreciate that their profiles might have a lasting negative impact. Despite the public nature of most profiles, users often denounce these “invasions” as blatant violations of their privacy. Perhaps teachers and scholars should work to protect the integrity of these spaces.

DEDICATION

How Can the Service of Education be Enhanced by Social Networking? This study is 20,000 words in length (plus ____ pages of essential tables and figures), excluding title page, table of contents, summary, acknowledgements, preface, appendices and list of sources but including notes, and is thus equivalent to standard pages in length (225 words = 1 standard page).

In writing this study, I have cited all published sources used, including Internet sources, as follows:

C Direct quotations are marked as quotations, and the source of each quotation is indicated.

C The sources are also clearly indicated for material summarized or paraphrased from the work of other writers.

C Sources are indicated at the point in the text where the material is used, either through a reference in the text or through a footnote, as well as being listed in the bibliography.

I may have discussed the study with others and used advice and suggestions from others in writing it, but the study is my own original work and is neither copied from another source without proper acknowledgement, nor written for me by another person, in whole or in part.

Signed ____________________________________ Date ___________________

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my thanks to my advisor, for his suggestions, comments, patience and understanding. Very special thanks to my parents, my father, my mother, my brother and my sister who were continuously supporting me throughout my life and leaving me free in all my ...