Resources

The main suggestion was the creation of an online community using social networking technology to learn about social networking technology.  Possible uses for this resource include: 

• The development of a peer-to-peer training network where instructors would be able to ask and answer each other’s questions about social networking, suggestions for the best uses of social networking, and sharing skills and third party training resources
• Being able to stay up-to-date about the changing terminology used to describe social networking as well as new technologies and pedagogies
• Posting relevant articles and web sites dealing with social networking and instruction

The groups envisioned that this online community, once started, would evolve organically, adapt and expand to meet their needs, and provide up to date support for their training needs.  Participants explored the possibilities of a blog, a wiki, or a forum on a social networking web site. 

Time

Participants discussed the time to learn, implement, use, and maintain social networking technology and agreed that:

• They did not wish to sacrifice time spent developing their courses to learn how to use this new technology
• The easier, more intuitive this technology could be made the better
• A chart indicating the time each technology would take to learn and use would be a welcome resource

Policy

4CAST groups also identified ways in which clearly defined policies, guidelines, and pedagogies relating to social networking technologies could be of assistance when integrating this technology into their courses.
The areas that the groups identified include:

• What the proper response should be when encounters with students occur in online social networking sites
• Tactics that encourage student's to engage with each other in online settings (i.e. strategies to draw quality discussion board responses from students instead of “yes, I agree” type responses) 
• Strategies to keep their professional and personal online presences separate
• Ways to maintain and encourage the importance of personal interaction
• How to confront issues of authenticity, privacy, and security in the online world

Support

Many participants had suggestions for ways the University could encourage and assist their use of social networking, including: 

• The development of student support programs (similar to the SITA program in the CTS Department) that would enable technologically savvy students to assist instructors with the development of social networking technology uses
• Embedding the student support mentioned above within the participants departments/groups for extended periods of time
• Increasing the amount of training that is offered (including night and weekend training opportunities) as well as training that is specific to individual social networking technologies
• Developing programs that would provide convergence of technology (integrating blog authoring tools within site specific software, etc)
• Provide free file storage for large files (podcasts, video blogs, etc)

Concerns were also raised about how social networking technologies could further blur the boundaries of their professional and personal lives. The participants also expressed interest in ways to counter the “dehumanizing” effect that technology often has on communication, such as the lack of non-verbal cues when corresponding by email. 

The participants recognized that as students move towards a social/collaborative existence in their online lives,   teaching can be adapted to reach students in new and unique ways.  Identifying the wants, needs, and concerns that instructors have when using social networking technology, as an instructional tool, is the first step towards using this tool successfully.