Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 2
Educational and Social Benefits
of Social Network Sites
Applications to Human Services
Education and Practice
Christine Greenhow
University of Minnesota, USA
Beth Robelia
University of Minnesota, USA
abStract
Online social network sites present opportunities for human service educators, practitioners, and clients.
Human services education students can collaborate through multimedia networks, sharing ideas and
experiences. Human services professionals can leverage online networks to problem solve, socialize and
develop common resources, and clients can use such networks to engage in self-reflection and get sup-
port from those facing similar challenges. This chapter offers an introduction to online social network
sites, summarizing their features, uses, demographics, and trends, and presents emerging research on
their social and educational potential. An accompanying case study reveals how young adults might
use online social network sites to further personal and educational goals. The chapter concludes with
a discussion of how such sites might be employed by human services education students, practitioners
and clients.
opening vignette
'In
education
there
should
be
no
class
distinction'.
It is seven o'clock in the evening. Emilio has just
finished dinner with his family and retreats to his
bedroom to check in on the other social network
in his life. Like the majority of U.S. online teens
who are daily users of a social network site, log-
ging twenty minutes to an hour or more, Emilio
goes to MySpace.com and signs in. Once within
Confucius (K'ung Fu tzu 551-479 BC), Analects,
ch.15, v.38 in Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
(2004, p.238:8).
Search WWH ::




Custom Search