A Social Network Site for Kids and Teachers!

Recently I was speaking with some co-workers about some of the work I have been doing in ET630. As the subject of incorporating blogging in the classroom came up, the topic of internet safety came up. I decided to do some searching to see if there are any websites that promote social networking in a safe environment. Not only will I need to know these sites for classroom use, but I can also recommend them to parents as social networking is becoming more popular.

So I did some searching, and I found a website called Imbee. It allows parents, kids and parents to set up accounts on their sites.
Taken right from their website . . .

Kids! Sign up now and start using imbee right away. When your parent approves your account, you'll be able to use the great imbee features!

Imbee makes it easy to guide your child's interaction with others. Register now to create an account for yourself and your child.

Register now and easily create accounts for all your students.

Each account allows the user to share pictures, audio and movie files, create social groups and chat sessions. Depending on the type of account the user has, restrictions can be set to limit the user's access to these features.

Overall, I think this site can be used in the classroom between teacher and students, and also at home between parent and child. As long as the child is supervised while using this site, and has restrictions set on his/her account, he/she will have difficulty seeing or doing something that is inappropriate.

This is a very interesting YouTube video that shares the numbers of people involved in some type of social network.