ePortfolios+and+Social+Networking+Tools+(Ben)

In its broadest definition, Social Networking is the practice of making connections with other individuals, and thereby increasing one’s own business or personal contacts. In the context of eLearning, connections are made using some form of electronic medium, such as the Internet, and popular platforms such as Facebook or Ning. Further to this, it becomes necessary to link electronic means of ‘social networking’ to the practices of learning and teaching. Also required is a method for measuring its effectiveness, and central to this is a method to measuring effectiveness of existing methods of learning and teaching. Social networking, as other eLearning tools, can be used to make electronic connections with other people. In my context, which is a government secondary college in Melbourne, we can establish electronic connections between students and teachers within a school. It may also be possible to establish these connections between a number of schools, in order to share ideas and resources. One way electronic Social Networking could be implemented is to literally create a facebook (or similar) page for the school community. One way to do this, and retain control of the site to a greater extent is to use a site that allows this to occur, such as [|www.ning.com]. This could be used to share ideas and learning resources. It would be important for the school to establish security guidelines and protocols for the use and modification of the site to ensure that only material appropriate was published. Although there are a number of other social networking tools available, Facebook is already used by the vast majority of students in our classes today and therefore a high level of familiarity and acceptance has already been achieved. Central to introducing eLearning (and Social Networking by way of example) to the practice of learning and teaching is establishing a rationale for its use, and a methodology that is appropriate in the context in which it is used. I believe from my experience as a Teacher, measuring the effectiveness learning and teaching must include two factors. Student engagement, which can be measured by student and teacher surveys, and student learning, which can be measured by regular testing of students across the school, measuring literacy and numeracy standards.
 * Emerging eLearning tools: Social Networking in the Context of ePortfolios **

__**Mahara and Social Networking**__
__**h[|ttp://mahara.org/features#networking]**__ Mahara provides a social networking facility where users can create and maintain a list of Friends within the system. ePortfolio owners choose whether other users can add them to their Friends list automatically or by request and approval. An ePortfolio owner's Friends lists shows those Views to which they have been assigned access.

References: Chan, Selena (2009) //E-Portfolios using mobile phones and social networking sites// Paper by Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (presented to ASCILITE 2009 Conference, Auckland NZ) retrieved from []

Insight (2005) //Social networking software and e-portfolios foster digital learning networks// In Insight: Observatory for new technologies and education retrieved from
 * [] **