iLibrarian links to a recent study that says the number of adults with online social networking profiles has quadrupled since 2005. This is relevant to a couple things I've noticed recently in my social networks:
Older family members (i.e. aunts, uncles, etc) are joining my networks. A year ago, I'd never have guess that I'd be reading my aunt Janice's Facebook status on a regular basis.
There's been a rash of old high school classmates joining Facebook recently. This has been good and bad. Good in that it's fun to see photos of everyone's kids. Bad in that... well... it got interesting during the Fall presidential campaign.
So, based on my own anecdotal evidence, I already knew that adults were increasingly using social networks. However, it seems that we won't really see big increases until it becomes easier to create and/or find niche social networks.
I'm sure my aunt would join a social network for her senior center where they could talk about zumba, upcoming trips, etc... But she needs to know how to create her own local network.
My father-in-law would love a retired pilots network... but he needs to know how to find an existing network.
My graduate program desperately needs to create a social network. They're still using an ooooooooooold school listserv as a tool for lifelong learning...
They could create new networks with Ning or Buddypress, or join existing networks. However, these tools don't have large audiences, so most adults aren't aware of them. Once adults learn to find or create their own social networks, these numbers will shoot through the roof.
A few weeks ago, I attended the E-learning Guild's Annual Gathering in Boston, MA. One of the sessions I attended was the Rapid Elearning Tools panel, in which representatives from Articulate, Adobe Captivate, and Qarbon discussed their existing tools w/ Jay Cross. After the conference, I posted a comment on the Articulate "Word of Mouth" blog, but wanted to expand on my thoughts here.
It was interesting to have someone who is widely considered to be a guru on informal learning exchange ideas with rapid development folks. Wouldn't it be nice if these rapid development tools could integrate with services such as Blogger, PBWiki, MySpace, Facebook, EduSpaces, etc?
Anyone could give a 10 minute video presentation w/ accompanying visuals and post it to their blog w/ two clicks. Or post a software demo to a social networking profile with a snap. Or post a simulation to PBWiki. (and so on)
Rapid E-learning tools could really take off if they made the "I" in ADDIE so simple that anyone could do it.
UPDATE: After re-reading my post, I realize that I made it sound as if all there is to the "I" in ADDIE is posting content on the web. There's more to it than that... but a seamless integration between rapid development tools and web 2.0 services would simplify things, no?
