I have joined the social networking site Classroom 2.0. This is a network designed to allow educators at all levels to communicate and share ideas. There are about 5,800 members internationally, although mostly from the U.S.
I completed an introductory message set up to create a forum for new members. It did not take long to get comments from other people. However, the only comments I have received so far are from people who seem to be using the site as a business network. I have been contacted by people from business ventures such as Livetutor, an educational consultant, Living-Textbook, curriculum designers, and fund raisers. I felt a little like new prey to a group of waiting predators. It was a little disappointing to see the only contacts were people out to make money from people on the site.
To be more proactive, I joined a group within the site for Second Life. It is described as a forum where educators could discuss the potential use of 2L in education. So far, there has not been any recent discussion in the forum.
Social networking does appear to have potential for educators. It would be very useful to inquire about new ideas for teaching particular units and sharing our successes and challenges. further, I can imagine sharing whole unit plans. I have always felt that there is nothing wrong with stealing good lesson ideas in teaching (as long as you are not financially profitting from someone elses ideas...). I typically collaborate with other teachers in my content area, but this offers the opportunity to bring in a wealth of new ideas to the table.
However, as with many aspects of the internet, you need to sort through things you do not need, such as the business solicitations. I suppose there is a place for those as well, if you have an interest in what is being presented to you. But for my interest so far, they seem more of a nuisance. I look forward to the opportunity to discuss practical educational applications with other teachers. We'll have to see how things progress.
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I certainly agree with you that there is a great deal of sorting out that needs to happen in these information rich environments. You need to determine not only which information is valid and useful, but you have to figure out how to manage it once you acquire it. I will include filing, sorting, or simply determining that you will not need to keep that information and can always find it later from the original source. With so much information, so many interesting connections occur.
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