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Internet Integration Research Carol S. Carter Georgia Southern University

Social media is defined as a group of Internet-based applications that build ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of usergenerated content. (Sau-ling, 2011 p. 39) The worlds three most popular social media sites include Facebook, YouTube, and Wikipedia which are all socially media-related. People around the world spend over 110 billion minutes a day, and Facebook is the second largest social media site in the world. (Sau-ling, p.39) What started out as a college communication site has now grown to be a world-wide social network gaining its revenues from sponsorship and advertising. In todays global village, Facebook is considered the most popular online metropolis. (Sau-ling p. 41) The emergence of Web 2.0 has resulted in a number of new communication and participation tools. Wikis, rss, weblogs and social networks have turned the Internet into a writable platform where the user acts as aprosumer, that is a consumer and a producer of information. (Gaggioli, 2011, p.75) The social media revolution is deeply affecting Science and unfolding the Science 2.0 Revolution promoting open collaboration, open data, and open publication and access. (Gaggioli, p.75). Web 2.0 technologies are paving the way towards providing a new means of collaboration, education, and communication for researchers. These new social media formats are affecting both our youth and adult education. Teens are drawing from traditional literacy practices of reading and writing by expanding these techniques to include texts other than print. (Berg, 2011, pp. 488-489,) These patterns of text use include reference, authority, experience, expression, and instrument. These text patterns provide teachers a solid bridge between the old and new literacies of today. Teens use these texts to extend friendships and learn collaborative, distributed and participatory practices. These new literacies have both technical stuff and ethos stuff. The ethos stuff is useful for educators and it aligns with the ideas on student-centered education and pushes teachers to expand their thinking about authorship and knowledge. (Berg, p. 489) Teachers must take a genuine interest in their students out-of-school literacies. Teens are having live conversation using online texts to strengthen and form their friendships and expand their knowledge and interests. Berg studied the conversations of teens from similar socioeconomic status, ages 11-18, over a two year period in a Midwestern town and found that todays teens are acquiring text from particularly online texts and social interaction. Patricia Horn, a teen librarian intern, suggests several strategies to help adolescents get involved in the library services. She created a Facebook page and blog page for her library and started talking with the teens to find out their after school interests. This helped her to introduce subjects, programs, and software to capture their interests. She started a book trailer program and a creative writing program for adolescents increasing attendance and participation in the library. According to insidefacebook.com, as of January 1, 2010, 40 percent of Facebook users were between the ages of thirteen and twenty-five which amounts to roughly 38, 676, 560 persons between thirteen and twenty-five. (Horn, 2011, p. 25) There is also a revolution occurring with the social media and adult education. Social media helps adults work collaboratively and cooperatively despite being separated in space and time. (LeNoue, Hall, & Eighmy, 2011, pp. 4-5) Self-directed learning is becoming digital-mediated learning; technology enhanced delivery revolutionizes education by offering greatly expanded access to quality

educational resources delivered at a much lower per-student cost. Social media works better than learning management systems and can facilitate a social constructionist approach to learning where the technology tools support learner choice and self-direction. The researchers further assert that social software can create opportunities for radically new conceptions of independence and collaboration in distant learning. All of this supports fluid interaction among people and between people and data. Social networks are particularly useful in digitalmediated education delivery and social network sites allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system articulates a list/networks of other users with whom they share a connection and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. (LeNore, Hall, & Eighmy, pp. 488-489) Social networks are taking us from teacher-focused learning to student-focused learning and todays students want more control over their learning environment whether they are adolescents or adults. Social media affects all facets of our life including education, government, medicine and social media even engages politics. The Obama administration was determined to use social media and other online technologies to make government more transparent, participatory, and collaborative. (Farina, Miller, Cardie, and Cosley, 2011, p. 6) Obama sees technology as a way to keep the public informed and engaged just like Howard Dean used technology in his 2003 run for the presidency. These researchers report that the Obama administration is urging agencies to embark on the second generation of technology-assisted rulemaking by bringing social media into the process. Technology is apparent in all facets of our life and each day more technology becomes available. This brings us to the ethical and lawful uses of social networking. Social networking sites allow individuals to freely post photo, videos, comments, and a wealth of personal information is placed at the fingertips of users. (Strutin, p. 228) Social medias power is unmeasured and the rules for the users are unclear. Social networking is a convergence technology, combining communication media and information storage is affected in unprecedented ways. (Strutin p. 229) A unified approach is necessary to administer the application of criminal law, evidentiary rules, and ethical constraints in this context. Since there are no guidelines for criminal defense discovery or investigation within networked social networks, laws cannot be found in existing statues and ethics codes. (Strutin, p.233) We must remember that people in prison and on the run are also using Facebook and similar outlets. Even adolescents are starting to use fake names, ages, and a cloud of lies to keep parents, employers, and colleges from knowing their real identity. To me, this confirms how powerful even young adults see social networking. Adolescents are not the only ones who are able to fake their identities. Everyone knows the harm that can come from predators who take advantage of the young and innocent. Social media is here to stay! Social media is bringing us the possibility of using the tools provided by social networks in sharing information and know- how through open collaboration which provides for powerful collaboration and better learning environments. Open data will help in the publication and reuse of scientific data with or without permission and open access will

give unrestricted online access to articles. The 21st Century learner must have access to the available technology tools that will help them to become successful and competitive in a global economy. We must realize that our young students are already participating in technologies outside of school and advocate for those resources to be offered in schools as well. We can learn a lot from this generation of learners if we will allow them to teach us. Social media resources can be used in the classroom for note-taking, sharing class information for students and parents, book reviews, book trailers, book talks, student poetry and story-writing. Students can work on real world problems collaboratively with other schools in their own district or around the world using social media. These activities provide for collaboration and cooperation and teach acceptance and diversity. Teachers are able to prioritize student learning to meet their individual needs and interests. By using social media and other Web 2.0 tools, students are being better prepared to compete in a global economy. There will new job opportunities which will come into lives because of the new and emerging technologies that are being developed at a very high rate. Other countries and even states in our own country are experiencing great gains by implementing technology into their curriculum. Personal learning plans are reaching students who were bored before because their learning environment did not fit their interests, learning styles, or both. Educators have got to advocate for technology for their students and adults must take responsibility for keeping it as safe a venue as possible by becoming more involved with their children and their learning. Most people are advocates of technology use and realize the impact that technology already has had on our lives and the impact it will have on our future. These new tools and social media will improve how consumers are treated and engaged in all aspects of their lives including education, the medical field, government policies and rulemaking, and the improvement and quality of consumer products. There are people who do not have access to technology and these people are reluctant of technology because they are not familiar and educated about what it has to offer. They really dont realize how much their lives are affected by it already. Most people have cell phones even if it doesnt have Internet capabilities; it is still technology just like the original telephone was when it was invented. Considering the amount of user that access different social media sites, both young and old patrons are accessing these networks on a regular basis. As many of the researchers have mentioned, Facebook and the other social networks are being used around the world in all facets of our lives. It is changing the way we do business. People will actually buy products from companies or visit a business when they see other friends Liking it on these social networks. Adult education is being changed by the access of social media and online learning, and many schools are offering online classes for younger students as well. This is another way to individualize learning. The researchers have also discussed the impact of technology in politics and other government related fields. Technology could possibly be a tool for lawmakers to use to help fight crime. The medical industry has also made great strides by going to computer record keeping.

I know there are still a lot of issues to be resolved, but I believe that Americans will make sure our future generations are not lagging behind other countries. More research needs to be done so that Best Practices in technology can be found. Future innovators and creators of technology must find ways to apply ethical and legal considerations to their products with adolescents in mind. There are also going to be great demands in the future for record keepers of the vast amount of data that is in cyberspace. Cyberbullying is a real and serious issue that causes adolescents to take their own lives. Care must be taken to ensure that cybersecurity is addressed and precautions must be taken to prevent it at all costs; especially, its affects in regards to our young. Another issue that many people are concerned about is the lack of face-to-face interaction and conversation. I saw this first hand the other night when my husband and I were having dinner. A younger couple with their pre-toddler was having dinner with one of their parents. During the dinner, both the young man and woman were eating with one hand and using their Smartphone with the other and occasionally making sure the baby had something to eat. There was little or no conversation at all, and it was kind of heartbreaking to me, so we do need to be mindful of our personal interactions and not lose sight of those valuable moments to share family time. I fully see the value of technology in our future and how it can improve education and other facets of our life as well. When I work with my own students using technology, I am able to see the assets first hand. You will notice students working together on the computer who may not work on a project together without the use of technology. Technology definitely opens the doors for student collaboration and cooperation and it is time for those who are technology savvy to shine. My students have taught be enormous skills and helped to find information for our classroom use. They have showed me sites that are games, but related to our curriculum. I have come a long way with using technology myself. I have evolved from someone who was scared and skeptical of technology to someone who cant learn enough about it. I hope that the next generation of young teachers will implement enthusiasm with technology to turn our students in the right direction for the future.

References Berg, M. A. (2011). On the Cusp of Cyberspace: Adolescents' Online Text Use in Conversation. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 54(7), 485-493. doi:10.1598/JAAL.54.7.2 Farina, C. R., Miller, P., Newhart, M. J., Cardie, C., & Cosley, D. (2011). Rulemaking in 140 Characters or Less: Social Networking and Public Participation in Rulemaking. Pace Law Review, 31(1), 382-463. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Gaggioli, A. (2011). CyberSightings. CyberPsychology, Behavior & Social Networking, 14(3), 175-177. doi:10.1089/cyber.2011.1509 Horn, L. (2011). Online Marketing Strategies for Reaching Today's Teens. Young Adult Library Services, 9(2), 24-27. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. LeNoue, M., Hall, T., & Eighmy, M. A. (2011). Adult Education and the Social Media Revolution. Adult Learning, 22(2), 4-12. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Sau-ling, L. (2011). Social Commerce -- E-Commerce in Social Media Context. Proceedings of World Academy of Science: Engineering & Technology, 7239-44. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Strutin, K. (2011). Social Media and the Vanishing Points of Ethical and Constitutional Boundaries. Pace Law Review, 31(1), 228-290. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.