Thing #5 -- Library 2 Play 2

I created a Facebook account (I think!) but I have no idea what to do with it. I have never had one and never seen one so I don't have a clue what to do with it. I have been reading about the importance of not posting private information on it and so I'm scared to post anything. I used my Avatar for my photo, hid my birthday, put my school and college, and my religion. Other than that...that's it.

I gave them very little information and it was downright eery how friends, family and others I knew whose names automatically popped up to click for friends!!!! I clicked on a couple and then got leery because I didn't know what was going to happen if I clicked on them....or why I was even clicking on them! I kept saying over and over....how did they know to put those people on there to choose???

At one point it asked me to agree to access my yahoo account...and I backed out. Facebook may be something EVERYBODY already knows about....but not me and the tutorials on this part are not helpful. I did search for a friend's name who has an account and clicked on it to see what it was supposed to look like...everything was private. So I clicked on something and it allowed me to send her an email and I tried to explain what I'd just done. I'm not comfortable with this because I don't have enough explanation on it yet.

I did go back and look at my friend's facebook page. (I guess I was able to because I clicked her to be my friend) I could see her photos (my family was in some of them...and identified....kinda scary) and I could read comments she and others had made. I don't like that....some sound personal. I'm not convinced yet unless I can see a good example of how to use it productively. If I want to post useful information...I see a blog as more positive.

I now have some "friends" on my facebook. I can see one advantage and that is if I want to contact someone for whom I do not have an email, I could search facebook and click under their picture (provided they have a facebook account) and contact them that way.

As to Twitter...you can see me at http://twitter.com/luv2learn2 and my 3 little tweets. I spent the longest time searching for friends who also tweet and came up empty. So I tried searching for some topics I was interested in and either came up bust or a bum search result. For example, I searched for "school library" and got random tweets which happened to have school and library in the same sentence...nothing I could use. So consequently, I did not check anyone to follow. I did add a photo and changed the background.

However, I do see a use for twitter in my school library. I could post the titles of any new books I get or tweet about library events.

Back-channeling looks like it would be a useful tech tool in some schools, but we are such a tiny school that we don't have class settings where that would be feasible. It might work for our teacher in-service sessions though.