Mar

Population growing on SNS accounts

Filed Under (SNS Postings) by pcallahan on 23-03-2008

I have yet to broaden out and find more adults for my Myspace and Facebook accounts, but my student population is growing. I find that I get to know my kids even better by reading their postings and viewing their pictures. I have almost thirty friends between the two accounts. Some of my former students have found me and are writing about their college experiences.

Having once been a person who said she would never take part in such forms of communication, I am definitely a convert as I can now see both the educational and social value of using SNS accounts.

The last post to my Myspace blog is a thread where students can discuss their memories of two of our students who died in a fishing/boating accident this weekend. I knew both the boys from my ESS group, and they were both wonderful students and will be dearly missed. I have such a heavy heart about the whole incident, such a tragic accident, and it will be a very emotional day tomorrow.

3 Responses to “Population growing on SNS accounts”

Barbara Nantz Says:
March 24th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
I am so sorry to hear about your students. That is horrible and I know there are no words that will help you to feel better. Again, truly sorry.
ahinson7 Says:
March 26th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
It sounds to me like you have a good thing going there for your students. They can put there persoanl thoughts there. Sorry to hear of the loss. Perhaps your students could really carry on the MySpace as a dedication to the ones they have lost.
pcallahan Says:
March 26th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I have gone out to several students’ blogs and they are doing just that on their personal pages, telling the stories of their happy memories of Brian and Billy. I will ask around and see if anyone has set up a site in memory of them.

I have been really proud of our students for depending on each other for comfort instead of holding their grief inside. I think this is an example where social networking can be used for more than just chatting, it can be an outlet for caring and sharing and a way to heal their wounds.

Thank you both very much for your words of sorrow. Although it was a very tragic event, I believe that our community will grow stronger and closer in response to this loss.

Addendum: I just checked and one of our kids has a Facebook account out there in memory of them. So far, it has 58 members.