Social Media in the Classroom

Advantages of using social media in the classroom:



Disadvantages of using social media in the classroom:

Is the "pipe" fixed?

Probably all of us noticed that Julian Assange's Wikileaks stopped with its "information flooding" and that after his arrest there's practically no voice from him or his non-profit organization in mainstream media. The latest release on their official website was published on 25th of April about Guantanamo's prisoners, but before that they were inactive for almost 3 months. I guess that the main reason is the Assange's situation and closing their bank accounts.

But as I discovered, they're very active on Twitter. Assange also gave an exclusive interview to a Russian 24/7 English-language news channel which brings the Russian view on global news -
he said it is only a matter of time before more damaging information becomes known.

But are there any special reasons that he chose this news/tv station? Here's the interview with him.



There's also an information that Grand Jury of Virginia may be investigating WikiLeaks.

Do you still think that real and virtual worlds are separated?

Think again. The latest Sony PlayStation Network case where 77 million players were stolen account information shows the same (or even bigger?) vulnerability and risk in virtual as in real world. The boundaries have long been gone, nice proof is this theft of credit card numbers and other personal data but people're still not aware enough of all the dangers that prey on them when loging to a website/network. In my opinion here are many things to be examined:

a) Is the safety of social networks adequate?
b) Are members of social networks aware of the dangers and risks?
c) Can they together make social networks a safer place?

It is very hard to say that Sony's guilty for this negative situation but maybe the security wasn't good enough - but on the other side we have people who should be aware that identity theft happen in "cyber" world.

In the title I asked a rhetorical question which could be answered: no, because people act and do same things in reality as in virtual world. So Internet is just a new communication tool and not a world/reality of its own. I just wanted to open up a bigger/broader question that arises in Sony's case.