Social Networking In Schools – An Alternative?

Posted by Brian on December 30, 2009 under web tools | 3 Comments to Read

While on the train journey back from London, I took advantage of the free Wifi service, courtesy of East Coast Rail and I decided to have a quick look at Stribe. Stribe could be the answer to the ‘should we allow or not allow access to Facebook et al in schools’ question.

Stribe offers individuals, or in our case, schools, to create a social networking site with all the tools you would expect to find. Including user created profiles, chat/private messaging and sharing pages. Your social networking site can then be accessed via any domain(s) you see fit. To get Stribe, you need to request a beta invite and answer 2 short questions. You can do that here.

As I see it, this could offer great opportunities for schools to create their own social networks and provide appropriate social netiquette, safety and privacy awareness. Not to mention the obvious social aspects of it – clubs, departments, teachers, classes can all create and contribute towards school pages.

I’m quite keen to give it a go and host a social network on the blog, however, the free wifi service doesn’t seem to let me do it at the moment! It’ll be a job for 2010!

Please let us know if any of you have used Stribe and share your experiences with us!

You can follow the Stribe team on twitter on @stribe

Tags: CFE, education, facebook, school, social networking, web tools

Mark Cunningham said,

Whilst I agree there is definitely potential in a social networking platform such as Stribe in schools, it can’t be viewed as a substitute for Facebook/Bebo etc. As an application it will give social networking functionality, but the problem with this and a number of other safer networking options I have seen is that they are artificial. Kids’ social networks are not restricted by schools, and neither are they moderated by schools.

That aside, Stribe does look like it could be a useful tool and from what I have seen using Edmodo, pupils enjoy and work well with any form of social media and chat interaction.

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admin said,

I agree with your comments re ‘artificial’ social networks Mark. However, I do see applications like this being a useful training tool, not to mention the opportunity to use it as a real social network focussed on the life of the school. By creating a bespoke social network, with a real purpose, may encourage pupils to see it as a ‘cool tool’. The content of profiles and pages would of course be impossible to fully moderate there is the facility too moderate. Adding options such as ‘report this as inappropriate’ gives content control and responsibility to the users. Not to mention the scope for bespoke apps and games to be cretaed for it – advanced higher computing projects anyone?

I am by no means saying that this is the way forward for social networking in schools, but an addition to facebook/bebo etc.

It’s an interesting discussion though! How would / could you use a custom, local social network in schools?

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Mark Cunningham said,

Yes, I’m with you on that, I can see how it could have the potential to be a powerful school-wide addition to existing social networks. I might set up something in the new year although it will have to wait until we (Edinburgh schools) have control of content filtering.

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