Personal learning environments are designed to empower learners. Social networks are one tool which allow informal peer-to-peer learning outside the context of formal education. MySpace and Bebo are popular networks among school age students, and learners entering higher education may well have established networks on these sites. Facebook was launched to connect students in higher education but has expanded beyond its original purpose. LinkedIn is a business-oriented networking site mainly used for professional networking and currently more popular in the USA than in Europe. As in real life, you can be a member of more than one online social network. Ning allows you to create your own private social network, but think carefully before taking this route rather than joining an established community, because isolation will not allow you to tap into The Wisdom of Crowds. The growth of social networks has been explosive in recent months, with developers scrabbling to produce tools for marketing and branding. The extent to which students welcome what may be perceived as intrusion by formal education into their social network is uncertain, and so even though applications such as CourseFeed are available to make the contents of courses students are registered for in Blackboard available in Facebook, they should perhaps be approached with caution.
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