It's Happening - Smiley Face

"AASL’s second longitudinal survey reveals schools’ acceptance of social networking tools"1

And the survey says, "schools are continuing to accept social networking tools and technology as vital parts of the education of a 21st-Century student." Key findings reported so far include:

• Fifty-three percent of elementary, middle and high schools use some sort of collaborative tools to aid in instruction.


• Fifty percent of schools use intranet within their school community and more than 41 percent of schools use podcasts.


• Twenty-nine percent of schools use blogs as an instructional platform.


• Although not extensively used, tools like online instruction and social bookmarking are popular with almost 20 percent and more than 15 percent of schools using some form of these tools, respectively.


• Integrating social networking tools into instruction is widely accepted by public and private schools alike.

Final results will be released in August 2008. We better get with it! What are you doing to adopt and advocate use of appropriate social networking tools?

P.S. Of note is that social networking sites like My Space were the least used - no duh! What are your favorite ones that you can access from school?

1"AASLsurvey," American Library Association, July 01, 2008.http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2008/june2008/AASLsurvey.cfm (Accessed August 01, 2008)Document ID: 498402