More and more schools are appropriating social software tools into the classroom under the general assumption that connectivity and networking is necessarily productive for teaching and learning. But the social dynamics cultivated in sites like Facebook and MySpace can sit uneasily in the classroom. These sites are non-hierarchical platforms in which young people can “hang out” and “chat” without fear of surveillance. And even though this expectation of privacy is unfounded (anyone, including parents and advertisers can easily pry into these spaces), the dynamics of the community depend on it. In the classroom, however, the expectations are different. These communities are limited, controlled and heavily monitored by professors. The success of these communities, then, depends on the students’ ability to be comfortable in them while continuing to operate within existing classroom hierarchies. So, how do the dynamics of academic platforms overlap with the dynamics of popular social software platforms? To what extent does “hanging out” contribute to teaching and learning? And conversely, to what extent does academic surveillance destroy community dynamics?

The experimental course, Cyberone: Law in the court of Public Opinion is being offered both to students at the Harvard Law School and to distance students, some of whom are enrolled in the class though the Harvard Extension School and others who are "auditing" it as "at-large" students. For the off-site participants, student and staff interactions happen through a Wiki and discussion boards, and within the 3D virtual world, Second Life.

In Second Life, students communicate with each other primarily through Instant Messaging and Chat. Second Life has aspects of the on line games called MMORPGs (for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games),such as avatars and virtual locales, and aspects of social networking sites, such as public user profiles and friends lists. What's unusual about Second Life, is that most of the "world" is user created. Second Life provides the tools for users to create and animate, as well as buy, sell and trade, virtual objects with relative ease. Meetings of the people in this course, for example, can take place in a room that is a replica of a lecture hall at Harvard Law School.

Rebecca Nesson, one of the instructors of the Cyberone class, will join us via Second Life. She will take workshop participants on a guided tour of Berkman Island, the locale in Second Life where much of the course activity takes place, and in the process discuss many of the characteristic features of Second Life. Becca will talk about how she uses Second Life as a course venue and the particular challenges and opportunities it presents, and she wil take questions from workshop participants.

How can social software enhance inquiry-based teaching and constructivist approaches?. Participants will see examples of how thought provoking questions and intriguing scenarios can lead to transformative thinking and original projects. Using asynchronous and synchronous social software, students can collaborate to research, analyze their findings, and create original products. WebQuests and other constructivist approaches will be highlighted, and examples of ways to inspire imaginative thought will be included. Data from a survey of 500 online students and faculty in a fully online Master's degree support the claim that this type of instruction contributes to an almost 100% retention rate and very high student satisfaction. Participants will leave this session with practical suggestions for thoughtful ways of using emerging technologies to enhance teaching and support learning.

The current college age demographic is quite comfortable with social computing tools - email, blogs, wikis, instant messaging and online collaboration through multiplayer online games. Katie will discuss ways in which MIT has been experimenting with incorporating weblogs into the undergraduate curriculum and admissions process, and how students' experiences with online games may shape their ability and interest in collaborative learning projects.