Social Networking in Education

Content or Conversation? Steve Hargadon talks on his blog about two topics I would like to address. 1. Topic or Content is maybe not as important as the act of engagement. 2. Focus is important to having good conversations.
I believe, as a facilitator, my role is to assist students by inspiring and motivating them. To do this they need to feel a connection with me. They need to feel safe to answer a question and not expect to be belittled. They will not learn the content if they feel afraid. If I can engage them in conversation, they relax and will absorb the information which they need. I am concerned for students today who seem so isolated and only connect to people via technology. If I could transfer my philosophy of face to face teaching and apply it to social networking, it might make me feel better. If we can use social networking in the classroom so students become involved in conversation about important topics, then we have really created something special. Some students do not like to talk in class. Public speaking is still the number one fear. But they seem comfortable with the web, even when speaking to strangers. If that comfort level can translate from teacher to computer, then we have a winner. Engagement of students can be more beneficial than the topic.
That being said, you still need to have a topic to engage in good conversations. People get together because they have something in common, therefore, something to talk about. It is important that the topic is not too broad, otherwise you can have may side conversations. For example, I teach alternative health. That is a very huge topic. I narrow down each class and each page on the wiki to a particular subject for students to comprehend. Otherwise a topic can appear overwhelming. So, I do agree that focus is important to having good conversations.