Robert Scoble has too many friends?

I was perusing a great article Beth Kanter posted on Facebook and saw that she had some notes about Robert Scoble. So, I wanted to follow this rockstar-for-geeks on Facebook and see what I could apply for education.

Here is the screen I got when I tried to add Robert to Facebook.


It seems unfortunate that Facebook cannot handle the uber-geek popularity of Robert Scoble.

I'm enjoying some things about facebook, but other things like its slowness and now realizing that I'm too late to the party and because I didn't get there first I can't follow someone like Robert.

Looking at Beth's article again and considering that Robert is using facebook to network and obviously make money, I think that the chart on digital citizenship that I've used in the past should be revised to include effective networking. (See below.)



Beth's article encourages learning to add friends of friends (which I do also by the way.) And we tell students never to do it!

The "Good Little Boys and Girls" will be the "Poor Little Boys and Girls?"

Something tells me that the "good little boys and girls" who don't use myspace and facebook may end up being the "poor little boys and girls" who are left out of the conversation when the deal is being done.

All the kids I can think of who don't use these services are luddites!

The Place Where Deals Are Done
When I was in business many deals were done on the golf course and yes, even in the men's room. (That was how they left me out.)

But that has changed. Deals are happening now in this spidery network of social networks which should really be renamed business networks in many cases (as least it is for me.) People are doing business with those they've never met Face to Face with only their acquired techno-personal skills linking them together.

It is time for schools to create their own private social networks (as I've done on Ning) to give our students a place to network safely! Imagine the esprit de corps! I think you'll unleash a giant if you let your students and parents network privately and you'll see greater understanding of what this is all about.

It is something I'm working towards at our school and hope to get approved soon.

Social networking shouldn't be called "social" at all... it is really life networking or hey, just networking.

It is not about the technology it is about professionalism
So, the Ohio Teacher's Association telling its teachers not to myspace or facebook couldn't have it more wrong. It is not the technology that is the problem it is the people who behave unprofessionally.

So, lets teach professionalism in social networking. Let's be the professionals who use it.

Eawwwww! A Rat!

Educators need to stop jumping up on top of their chair and pulling up their pants leg like a mouse ran through the meeting every time someone talks about social networks!

They can be your friend! We've been using a social network for our Flat Classroom project with incredible results! For goodness sakes, I'm using one for an elementary youth group at our church!

Don't be late to the party!

Oh, and I guess you'd better get on facebook and add me soon before I become too popular. ;-) lol

tag: facebook, education, teaching, Robert Scoble, social networking, Ning, Beth Kanter