CNN.com – MySpace generation going online for yearbooks – Jun 26, 2006
Your yearbook committee may be obsolete. Well there are many good arguments why this won’t work, there are some compelling reasons why this is a valuable idea. A group of teenagers have created a site called MyYearbook.com to create student designed yearbooks.
…during Spring Break 2005, just 2 high school students flipping through a yearbook, realizing it sucked. Imagine if these were online,and if everyone in them were too, everyday
“We just think yearbooks are obsolete,” said Catherine Cook, 16. “If you think about it, all you’re going to do with it is put it on theshelf and never really look at it.”
Josten’s of course argues this point.
“…will anyone want to haul a laptop to the 25th class reunion? And whathappens if the technology changes, or something happens to the dot-com?”
I’ll bet in 25 years, we’ll have many options for carrying around our digital content. (we already do). Besides, why only look at a few photos when you can access a full range of multimedia memories.
Like it or not, kids are making it very clear what’s important and the Read/Write web enables them to pursue these ideas.
How many off shoots of Myspace need to be created before more people begin to realize there is something important and valueable happening?
technorati tags:myspace, students, yearbooks, remix
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I have been talking about social networking for some time and I always get the same response from teachers and administrators. They are worried about what the students will see. Although I agree that much of the content on MySpace and MyYearbook may not be appropriate for students to see, they are using these tools and changing the way the interact. Your comment about realizing that something valuable is happening is on the mark!
I agree with you Dean that we will have many more options to view our digital content in the future. Laptops/notebooks will be a thing of the past … or at least, reincarnated in superior, more manageable forms.
However, I am still skeptical on the appeal of Myspace type services in education. I think once you take the dating/sexuality type appeal which currently exist in these spaces, and try to replace these with an educational type basis, kids won’t find these as interesting to use. It’s possible, but I don’t we will see nearly the same takeup. However, I do think there is more potential with higher-ed … where in the best of cases, you may lose some of the rigidity of network control due to privacy/content paranoia. It’s hard to say what will happen, but it’s interesting enough to speculate.
Alec,
I’m not suggesting the use of a MySpace in an educational setting but I think what this idea demonstrates is the power of social networking and some of the off shoots of it like the yearbook.
As educators I think we need to tap into the concept of the social networking and steer the ship somewhat. Grant it, the loss of sex, dating, etc., which seems to dominate the conversation may diminish relevance but there is enough other positive things happening within MySpace that it’s worth leveraging.
Again, not specifically to utilize MySpace but social networking in general.
Hi Dean,
I should have clarified. I’ve seen several posts across the blogosphere in the past several months where people somehow get the idea that education can easily adopt something like MySpace on the simple premise that such social networking sites quickly gather youth partication. Obviously, trying something like this in education is much more complex, and I know you well enough that you’d likely agree.
All the best Dean. Aren’t you supposed to be holidaying yet?
You right to to point out that something really important is happening here. It is only by observing and listening to what people, especially kids, are actually doing that we can find what is happening . Too bad some realize this late.
Don Lapre is a Superstar
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