Social network as information and pedagogical potential of education

Social services have now become an affordable way of communication, support and development of social contacts, creativity and networked sharing of media data. Social networks have become an integral part of life, not only young people but also the adult generation. Social network allows users to associate groups with common interests. This allows the teacher to use the social network for learning purposes. With the help of social services may direct the activities of the student in the right direction without distracting him from his usual environment. Active in social networks — a powerful tool that allows us to see and understand what our students live, give a glimpse into their world, to bring to the various activities. A social network can also help in increasing the motivation to learn.

Key Words: social network, virtual environment, communication, membership, relationships.

In modern conditions, education is the most important factor in the accumulation of human knowledge, so the targeted development of the education system is among the priorities of the state policy.

The education sector is one of the most innovative industries. Training should take place where students spend the most time. In today's environment it is «on-line». And when you consider that social networks are very popular among students, it is logical to use them as a platform for academic work and learning.

What is a social network? What are the benefits and opportunities for the teachers?

Social Network — an interactive multi-user site, the content of which is filled by the participants of the network. The site is an automated social environment that allows a group of users to communicate with common interests.

Social Network — structure of nodes of social objects (individuals or organizations), which have social communication relationships. Widespread social networks have received through the relevant internet service supports various formats of inter-user communication, which have appeared in recent years. In the context of the Internet social network is a web resource where the user after registration given the opportunity to fill in the questionnaire on the basis of which will subsequently be installed inter-user communication. [1].

Principles of social network:

1.      Identification — the ability to specify information about yourself. For example, participants indicate a school, institution, date of birth, hobbies, books, movies, skills, and so on.

2.      The presence of the site — the ability to see who is currently online, and to enter into dialogue with the other participants.

3.      Relationships — to describe the relationship between two users. For example, participants may be marked as friends, family members, friends of friends, and so on.

4.      Communication — ability to communicate with other network members. For example, to send them private messages, comment on the materials they are placed in a social network.

5.      Groups — the ability to form social networks with communities of interest.

6.      Reputation — the opportunity to learn the status of the other party, to trace its behavior in social network.

7.      Exchange — an opportunity to share with other participants materials such as photos, documents, links, presentations and so on.

Is it possible to use the social network for pedagogical purposes, can detect whether there is something the professional interests of his teacher? Does it make sense to register a teacher in a social network or an extremely private space of personal communication?

The above guidelines allow the teacher to create a unique learning environment. For the organization of work have the ability to use any already in force, the social network (Facebook, VKontakte) or build your own. And the advantages of using it as a social network of educational sites are:

-        familiar environment for the students;

-        the social network person acts under his own name, surname;

-        technology allows all participants to create a network of network learning content;

-        ability to work together;

-        availability of the forum, «wall», chat;

-        each student — participant can create your own blog as an electronic notebook;

-        activity participants traced through the tape friends;

-        convenient to use for the project.

Of course, there are several problems associated with the use of social networks during training. For example, often, lack of netiquette participants, a low level of motivation and information, communication and telecommunication competencies teacher. And, of course, very important that the teacher felt intuitively picked audience and appropriate for learning platform and tools.

As an example, consider a social network service «Facebook» (http://facebook.com/). Facebook interface is one of the most friendly to the user (all of its functions are convenient and easy to learn, there are easy to understand instructions).

What is the phenomenon of social network «Facebook» from a pedagogical point of view?

The most important factor is that in this social network registered a huge number of students. And before teachers opens a wide field of analysis and work: the student’s personality, hobbies, life. In traditional formats of communication, «teacher-student» we basically can be satisfied only external, formal information (statistics, journal entries, etc.) about the student. Provoke a teenager on a story about yourself is not easy. And here we see the constant and variable time-pupil dialogue with the world, which he learns to behave in many different areas.

Obviously, the search for contact with students, for understanding of his inner world, the interests of information provided to them in a social network — interesting material for monitoring. Let's see what kind of information can be used for analysis and further contact between teacher and student?

Formal information:

-        marital status

-        birthday

-        home town

-        political views

-        religious views

-        mobile phone

-        house. phone

-        ICQ

-        web site

Services «Facebook», which can help the teacher in the analysis of this unit profile:

-        «Calendar», through which friends can see each other's birthdays and congratulate on the holiday.

-        Specifying the hometown of the institution through which you can create groups and consolidation of the target audiences.

-        Presence or absence of communication on a page (home or cell phone, ICQ — a means of rapid communication in the Internet, through which you can send messages, engage in real time).

-        Picture — user selectable visual image (photograph, drawing or object). Avatar can give a significant psychological information.

-        News — another function of Facebook, through which you can receive a daily message about what is happening on the pages of those with whom you communicate (posted new photos, new friends or new groups, new notes written, appointed new meetings and so on.)

-        Block «Personal Information» may be filled with the owner, in whole or in part. And here the subject of the analysis may be not only the content of the questionnaire, but the list of items: items blank, apparently, no interest / relevance to humans.

The list of items of this block: action, interest, favorite music, favorite movies, favorite TV shows, favorite books, favorite games.

Another important service in «Facebook» is «Groups». This is one of the main tools that allows a horizontal inter-user communication, find friends, like-minded people to communicate on a specific topic. The list of groups to which a person also becomes a kind of portrait of a person. The teacher can use the service of the «Group» for various activities within the community. For example, support and conduct subject competition, aid in the development of the subject, etc.

It is obvious that the activity in social networks — a powerful tool that when a certain look and ability allows us to see and understand what our students live, give a glimpse into their world, to bring to the various activities. [2].

Social networks, especially such as «Facebook», today may be a means of analyzing the results of certain deferred teacher, any educational site. For example, we may obtain information about the education and professional development of graduates of individual sections of «personal information», hence the same — the data on the system of values​​, the cultural context in which there are graduates. About the world of their interests, hobbies and values ​​tell albums, of which it is possible to sometimes get information about professional activities.

Very often in the discussion of the phenomenon of popularity of social networks is said that, «Facebook» — specific youth environment in which students interact and build their own world, and adults nothing to penetrate this space. Actually called Facebook uniquely among adolescents is not quite true. There exist very different age people, and if young people constitute the majority, it is not possible to call a system of pure teenage environment. On Facebook there are people of different ages, different professions and status. And teachers, intuitively feeling the possibilities and advantages of social networks.

Membership in a social network has become another alternative to e-mail or mobile phone: «friend» on a social network — is the possibility of rapid communication with a person, along with e-mail and mobile phone. Lack of a person in a social network account today regarded as a nuisance communications, the difficulty of communication.

Such a significant prevalence of social networks creates a virtual copy of reality in which there are both positive and negative aspects of everyday life.

You can hear the questions: «Do you think that children from an early age to engage the internet, at one point, the hacker can gain from zombie information team. Today, there are cases when school children access to social networking sites are closed. But at home, then this output is — and maybe we did not make sense to step back contemptuously of «child» of the space, and to settle and dignify it with our students? Do not lose me, turning away from this reality, the current teenagers, allowing other systems to win this «struggle for the student?"

What specific educational objectives may be achieved by means of social networks?

1.      The participation of students in various projects in different subject areas at various levels.

2.      Widening the circle of communication students, fostering tolerance, critical thinking, development of subject specific competences.

3.      Improving information competence of both students and teachers.

4.      Ability to find like-minded collaborators joint networking, join the professional community and the community's interests.

Today the number of online communities, uniting the education community, is sufficiently large. The main thing is to make the right choices and actively use the network resources, namely social networks to create a network of like-minded people — students, teachers, parents, opportunities for fast communication, which would promote the development of mutually beneficial dialogue.

References:

1.                  Patarakin E. D. (2009). Social interaction and networking training 2.0. Moscow: NK, Project Harmony, Ink.

2.                  Popov V. B. (2007). Internet technology and development of education. Voronezh: SGMP.