Monday, August 8, 2011

Top 20 Social Networks for Education

"A social network is a social structure made up of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes," which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige. (Wikipedia)" Since I last posted on Social Networks a year ago, a number of new ones have been introduced that can be a huge benefit to education. With that being said, I decided to list my favorite networks for education that targets technology literacy.

Top 20 Social Networks for Education
  1. Twitter - Far and away one of the most popular social networks around. This micro-tweeting platform is used worldwide and especially in education (search hash tags; edchat or edtech). Plus, w/ the soon to come parental controls Twitter becomes a more viable option for educators everyday.
  2. Classroom 2.0 - Created by Steve Hargadon and used by thousands of educators on a daily basis. This site alone changed the way I viewed education and ignited my passion for Web 2.0.
  3. Facebook -nuff said!!
  4. Google Plus - Is the highly publicized social network by Google. While it is still in its early release there are a lot of features that make this an attractive option for education such as: hangouts - the impressive group video chat and circles - the way to control posts w/ privacy settings.
  5. Plurk - A social network similar to Twitter (micro-blogging) w/ a timeline view and fun karma based platform.
  6. Educator's PLN - Built by Thomas Whitby, this social network is one of the fastest growing around w/ some of the top technology based innovators being found.
  7. Sophia - Is a new (beta) social network for education. Lots of great features can be found here such as: free lesson plans, private group (study) creation, and online tutoring.
  8. Learn Central - Sponsored by elluminate, Learn Central is an ideal place for educators to host/learn through Learn Central's virtual conferences.
  9. ISTE Community - International Society for Technology & Education is a great place for educators to come together and collaborate on technology issues.
  10. WhoTeaches - Is a new (beta) network designed to bring students, parents, and educators together. This is done through collaboration w/ the ability to share documents and create groups. Also, this site offers high level education for online learners looking for tutors or to study.
  11. Edutopia - A very popular organization created by the George Lucas foundation.
  12. Technology Integration in Education - Is a wonderful social network created by Greg Limperis that is similar to Classroom 2.0. There are lots of groups and discussions for users to choose from in this educational network.
  13. The 21st Century Teacher - Is a new social network designed for teachers that is designed to help them facilitate using technology in the classroom. There is lots to like here such as the group forum, community blog, and abundance of resources being shared.
  14. Better Lesson - Is a free social network that is ideal for educators. 1000's of resources can be found here as well as collaborating w/ other educators to find out what teaching strategies work best.
  15. Diipo - A wonderful new (beta) social network that is similar to Moodle and Gaggle. This network prides itself on being social networking for "your" class. This allows for teachers and students to not only collaborate w/ themselves online through texting and blogging but collaborate w/ others as well.
  16. Intel Education Teachers Engage Community - A nice online community designed to facilitate online collaboration and increase teachers technology literacy.
  17. Everloop - Is an excellent social network that is designed to teach students how to network appropriately. Also, this site is ideal for education as it is being monitored by parents and supported by such organizations such as iSafe.
  18. Edudemic - Is an online community, magazine, and social network that has lots of information on technology, education, and integration.
  19. K12 Advantage - A great online environment that has lots of resources for teachers such as forums and chats to bring them together.
  20. Collaborative Translation - Created by well renowned educator James O'Reilly, CT is a great place to learn/share innovative ideas.
Enhanced by Zemanta
Posted by at
Labels: ,

18 comments:

  1. Chris Fry BarcelonaAugust 9, 2011 at 3:28 AM

    Edmodo should be on the list, too www.edmodo.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. abracadabraAugust 9, 2011 at 7:21 AM

    I may be biased but you also have to mention EFL Classroom 2.0. We have 4,000+ visitors daily. Teachers can make private classroom (groups) with multiple pages. Deep content/resources missing in most communities. Lots of innovative tech examples for practical use in the classroom.

    David
    http://eflclassroom.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. abracadabraAugust 9, 2011 at 7:22 AM

    I may be biased but you also have to mention EFL Classroom 2.0. We have 4,000+ visitors daily. Teachers can make private classroom (groups) with multiple pages. Deep content/resources missing in most communities. Lots of innovative tech examples for practical use in the classroom.

    David
    http://eflclassroom.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lori FeldmanAugust 9, 2011 at 4:57 PM

    Plurk is less known, but has a higher degree of collaboration amongst educators. So much easier to follow conversations.

    ReplyDelete
  5. crissycochranAugust 10, 2011 at 2:35 PM

    Gotta add My Big Campus to the list! We at Lightspeed Systems have created a free safe collaboration site designed for schools. My Big Campus provides an engaging online environment to promote blended learning within a safe monitored platform that balances educational use of Web 2.0 with network and student safety.

    And it can be integrated with our web filter for a district-wide solution!
    www.mybigcampus.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. By Med Kharbach, PhDAugust 11, 2011 at 1:27 PM

    Thank you for the list but the title is too general. The ones you mentioned are definately not the top 20 social networking sites some of them are but not all and you should reconsider other websites that rank higher than most of the ones you mentioned here an example is edmodo. You also need to tell your visitors what are the criteria you used to select those sites and have you done it alone or out of a study. things are not as easy as writing glamorous titles. anyway thanks for the efforts and wish you the best.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Luv2RideAugust 13, 2011 at 8:53 PM

    I must concur with Med and Chris Fry Barcelona about Edmodo. Best social networking for teachers and their students. Revolutionized this teacher's classroom

    ReplyDelete
  8. ShamblesguruAugust 15, 2011 at 8:55 PM

    Personally I consider Social Networks to be a subset of my PLN Personal Learning Network.

    I've quantified and visualized both and they can be seen at

    http://shambles.net/csmith/pln/

    http://shambles.net/socialnetworks/

    ReplyDelete
  9. tecnosalvaSeptember 10, 2011 at 1:02 PM

    I think that in this list is missing Edmodo, it's a great site for students and teachers.

    ReplyDelete
  10. UnknownJanuary 3, 2012 at 2:07 AM

    check out www.mytestbuddy.com its great...

    ReplyDelete
  11. JasonJanuary 30, 2012 at 5:06 PM

    You should add QuizMEOnline to the list. Students can create their own quizzes, flashcards and study guides and share them with their study buddies.

    Educational Social Network

    Study Online

    ReplyDelete
  12. UnknownSeptember 27, 2012 at 6:35 PM

    There is also a new one called The Education Network. It is a good one

    www.theeducationnetwork.com

    ReplyDelete
  13. M. ScribeSeptember 28, 2012 at 2:10 PM

    One site that should be mentioned is EducatorsCONNECT - The Social Network for Teachers. It is a safe alternative to general social network sites--a place where teachers can engage with each other and collaborate on a professional level, as well as socialize. All registered members have privacy controls to set the visibility level of their profiles, activities, blogs, and documents. Privacy from search engine crawling and indexing ensures that only the information members want to be seen will be visible to the web at large.

    ReplyDelete
  14. UnknownNovember 26, 2012 at 12:41 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  15. UnknownJanuary 7, 2013 at 7:43 PM

    David,

    What an awesome list you have here. I was scouring the web through Google trying to find these kinds of sites on my own - not very successfully. I found your list, and was elated. Work like this really helps those of us with little time to research.

    Darin

    ReplyDelete
  16. UnknownApril 24, 2013 at 6:56 AM

    Great Resource thanks for share...
    Please add one more great website.
    PracTutor: PracTutor – an adaptive learning platform to help your kids in K12 master Math and English (Language Arts) http://www.practutor.com

    ReplyDelete
  17. UnknownMay 18, 2013 at 8:25 AM

    This is really a nice blog sharing the list of the social networking sites which allow the people to stay connected with each other.
    free social networking sites

    ReplyDelete
  18. TutorspointFebruary 21, 2014 at 9:24 AM

    Check out with www.tutorspoint.com for online education and online tutoring

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for leaving a comment and reading my blog!!

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)