(Via Miguel Guhlin) Business Week has an article titled “MySpace Generation” that once again paints a picture of the social networks kids are creating:

Although networks are still in their infancy, experts think they’re already creating new forms of social behavior that blur the distinctions between online and real-world interactions. In fact, today’s young generation largely ignores the difference. Most adults see the Web as a supplement to their daily lives. They tap into information, buy books or send flowers, exchange apartments, or link up with others who share passions for dogs, say, or opera. But for the most part, their social lives remain rooted in the traditional phone call and face-to-face interaction.

The MySpace generation, by contrast, lives comfortably in both worlds at once. Increasingly, America’s middle- and upper-class youth use social networks as virtual community centers, a place to go and sit for a while (sometimes hours). While older folks come and go for a task, Adams and her social circle are just as likely to socialize online as off. This is partly a function of how much more comfortable young people are on the Web: Fully 87% of 12- to 17-year-olds use the Internet, vs. two-thirds of adults, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

In other words, kids are connecting to one another online. And when kids connect, no matter where they do it, they learn, just like we all do. And I’m going to guess that the things they are learning in these networks are more relevant to their lives than what they are learning in school. Not more important, but more relevant.

But here is the problem:

Meanwhile, the phenomenon of these exploding networks has companies clamoring to be a part of the new social landscape. News Corp. (NWS ) Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch has spent $1.3 billion on Web acquisitions so far to better reach this coveted demographic — $580 million alone for the July purchase of MySpace parent Intermix Media. And Silicon Valley venture capitalists such as Accel Partners and Redpoint Ventures are pouring millions into Facebook and other social networks. What’s not yet clear is whether this is a dot-com era replay, with established companies and investors sinking huge sums into fast-growth startups with no viable business models. Facebook, barely a year old and run by a 21-year-old student on leave from Harvard, has a staff of 50 and venture capital — but no profits.

Still, consumer companies such as Coke, Apple Computer (AAPL ), and Procter & Gamble (PG ) are making a relatively low-cost bet by experimenting with networks to launch products and to embed their brands in the minds of hard-to-reach teens. So far, no solid format has emerged, partly because youth networks are difficult for companies to tap into. They’re also easy to fall out of favor with: While Coke, Sony (SNE ) Pictures Digital, and Apple have succeeded with MySpace, Buzz-Oven, and other sites, P&G’s attempt to create an independent network around a body spray, for one, has faltered so far.

These networks that kids are creating are prey not only to potential ne’er do wells, they’re prey to marketers who see them as little more than sales opportunities. Don’t think they’re not already infiltrating these networks in covert ways to manipulate the kids into buying their products. That’s a whole ‘nother literacy we need to teach. If this next snip doesn’t really scare you, you’re not paying attention:

What Lawson really likes about Buzz-Oven is how deeply it weaves into teens’ lives. Sure, the network reaches only a small niche. But Buzzers have created an authentic community, and Coke has been welcomed as part of the group. At a recent dinner, founder Holt asked a few Buzzers their opinions about the company. “I don’t know if they care about the music or they just want their name on it, but knowing they’re involved helps,” says Michael Henry, 19. “I know they care; they think what we’re doing is cool,” says Michele Barr, 21. Adds Adams: “They let us do our thing. They don’t censor what we do.”

Oy. Coke cares about me. What about my teachers?

One of the earliest edbloggers is Peter Ford who, with Adam Curry, started schoolblogs a long, long time ago, at least in blog years. Today, Peter has a great post about the state of the edblogosphere and the changes it’s undergoing:

Weblogs have had great impact so far because they have an inherent flexibility that allow teachers and students to explore, create and find solutions on their own terms. Software that imposes limits on teachers’ ability to teach will stifle creativity in the end. That for me, is where the present danger lies. Big corporations will start producing their blogsafe walled-gardens for schools to use. Districts and LEAs will love them, and pay handsomely for them but their very blogsafe and inflexible nature will drain them of their enabling power, adding just another demand on teachers in the classroom.

As we work our way through the current very legitimate concerns about blogging in the schoolplace, there’s no doubt there will be vendors that will try to capitalize on the current unsettled feelings that many districts are having. There are open source solutions that are would seem to satisfy most concerns, but I think that most districts don’t have the comfort level or the knowledge to effect them and that in the end, they’d rather pay to play.

Much of the power of blogs lies in the openness of blogs. Outside of school, they are a critical part in the open content movement that is expanding at a pretty amazing pace. That’s another whole issue that schools are going to have to get straight with, one that I myself grapple with to some extent. Freely sharing ideas and knowledge leads to more ideas and knowledge than not doing so. It’s not as neat and tidy as current solutions (textbooks), but it’s more valuable, if we know how to deal with it.

For connective learning to work, we have to be able to access and build networks around the knowledge that’s relevant. Teachers have to be able to create their own networks and model the learning process for their students. That’s what open blogging facilitates. Using blogs in closed environments may have some benefit, but as Peter says it won’t enable the true promise of tool.

Technorati Tags: blogging, connective_learning
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