On the AAACE-NLA Discussion List, a question about the usefulness of social networking technology for adult education was raised. Several adult educators and advocates shared their experiences using this technology.

On October 14^th, Dorothy Taylor, Educational Opportunity Center, University at Buffalo/SUNY shared the following experiences, including how she uses a blog with her ESL learners:

“I teach ESL to students with pretty low literacy, and I was equally hesitant to use some of these tools, but enough of my students were interested in Facebook that I decided to start a Facebook page for them last year. It's taking off slowly.

This year, after much deliberation, I decided to create a class blog. It's work, but not as much as I thought it would be and I have found it definitely worth it. I use it to keep students who were absent informed about what we did in class, to give announcements about special activities or holidays, and to encourage students to write and share information. My students work with me in a computer lab for 1 hour, 4 days a week. The first thing they do in the lab is go to the blog, read it, and answer the blog question that I pose every day.  Students who are absent sometimes go to the blog and answer the question at home. They really seem to enjoy it, and enjoy reading each other's comments. I used wordpress.com to create the blog. It's a free blog, simple to use, and you can set up more than one. You can restrict access, but I haven't done so. In fact, if you'd like to take a look at my class blog, you can find it here: http://tayloresl.wordpress.com .

Now that I'm into the routine, it only takes me about 10 minutes at the end of the day to write that day's blog. I'd like to start an audio/text blog for my students with very low literacy, but I'm afraid that WOULD be too much work. If anybody has any pointers about how to do that, I'd appreciate it.

Facebook is starting a little more slowly. I want to use it as more of a tool for students to share photos, music, and other fun stuff. I created a Facebook identity for my students separate from my friends and family Facebook, and then created a group page. I can't share it because it's restricted to students and invitation only. So far, I'm finding that students who have moved or left the program are using it more than students currently enrolled in the school, but I haven't really focused on the Facebook page in my classes this year. I hope to do so in the future.”

Ms. Taylor's Advanced ESL Blog