Педагогические науки/1. Дистанционное образование в высшей школе

Юлия Остапченко, студентка магистратуры

Татьяна Тарнавская, к. пед. наук, доцент, научный руководитель

Национальный университет биоресурсов и природопользования Украины

Social Networks in Educainment

Social networking on the Internet continues to be at the peak of popularity and has been the object of sustained attention of researchers. It is opening up new opportunities for teaching and learning, and are becoming an integral part of them.

Effective use of social networks for recruitment has been proven in practice. Can a social network be a teaching tool and serve as professional development? The issue is not yet fully understood and learned. Can network simplify the training manager’s work? What options are open for the employees who need knowledge?

Social networks have now become an integral part of life for millions of people around the world. These services allow people to form groups with other people all over the world who share their interests. In addition, they can conveniently search for former classmates, colleagues, comrades and friends from other cities. For this reason a lot of people spend a lot of time on these sites, talking with old friends and finding new friends. And it becomes a great opportunity to learn foreign languages.

Today, however, social networks are not only used for entertainment purposes. Currently, many people are looking for the opportunity to educate themselves.

Social networking on the Internet originated in the 90's, (as a professional music community), and the term appeared only in 2004. However, the experts say that social networking is software on the Internet, allowing users to create their own profiles and communicate with other participants in the virtual space. Traditional social networks allow users to connect people to their network, communicate with other people through their friends, and send messages, post pictures, text and any other content.

The Internet Social Network is a software service platform for interaction between people (individuals, users) in a group or in groups. Theoretically, a social network means any online community, whose members are involved in discussions, for example, on forums. An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. Social network also creates thematic readers community service for blogs. Many professional societies have become a tool for finding people and job search.

Social networks in their present form have a number of additional features. The main feature of the social network is providing next generation services, such as search tools and contacts necessary to establish links between people. With the help of these tools, each user can create his/her own virtual portrait – the profile, which gives detailed information about the user, his/her work experience, hobbies, interests and goals. It provides the opportunity to find like-minded fellows, colleagues, people who are necessary to be contacted with for the work or training.

According to the Voice Runet \ Social Network survey, which was attended by more than 2,000 active users of the Runet, including 86% who live in Russia and 14% abroad, the majority (66%) of the respondents are aware of the existence of online social networks and enjoy their features. Among those who are aware of the existence of social networks, only 10% do not use them.

The most popular resources in a survey of Voice Runet are Classmates (74%) My World (40%) In touch (37%) My Circle (27%), Planet Rambler (24%), LovePlanet (22%).

American social network Facebook is the most popular one. It is used by over 50 million people. Firstly, Facebook allows university teachers to create courses for students, and secondly, organizations can create a closed corporate employees network on the Facebook platform. It is designed for employees of one company that may be in permanent contact with colleagues from different branches, post news of their organization, etc.

According to a survey of British experts in the field of e-learning Jane Hart (Jane Hart) conducted in 2007, the social network Facebook entered the top twenty ranking of the most popular tools (software) for training and development. MySpace works on the same principle.

Another popular resources to consult with experts on professional issues are Linkedin.com and www.Xing.com.

Nowadays more and more people are using the Internet to learn foreign languages. There are a lot of online social networks providing effective learning of foreign languages. The most popular of them are www.livemocha.com and www.soziety.com.

Social networks are very useful for those who need some advice from an expert. In social networks, people are more open than in real life. They are more willing to share information.

References

1. The System of Education in the USA. – United States Information Agency. – N. Y., 2006.

2. Путеводитель по социальным сетям интернета [Элестронный ресурс]. – Режим доступа : http://www.social-networking.ru/, свободный. – Загол. с экрана.