Checking in from Texas A&M

[SarahNicole]

I'm just checking in early on -- today is my last day as part of a summer program that is in large part dealing with the idea of networks and community, both online and offline (http://ebat.tamu.edu/). This section of our project currently involves 22 undergrads, 3 grad students, and 16 middle and high school math & science teachers.

One of the things I noted during the first week of this summer's installment was the a) nearly ubiquitous use of facebook, b) the way in which the students very quickly began incorporating their new offline relationships into their online networks (they made me get a facebook account, which to someone who's used to livejournal, was slightly traumatic!), and c) how often the students posted to facebook while sitting in the same room with the people they were posting to. That's diminished somewhat, but rather than Googling folks, their go-to for info seems to be facebook -- just yesterday two of the undergrads realized that they actually grew up in the same area and might know some of the same people from high school. In order to see if they were really talking about the same people, they went on facebook to match faces to names. People from my past seem to find me through Google and Classmates.com. But then, facebook and myspace sort of make me feel old. *shrug*

So, my experiences right now seem to be dovetailing right into the overlap between ubiquity and social networks...

I wish I was in Montreal already, in part because I just had to empty my luggage of all liquids and semi-liquids, and repack in case the carry-on limit is lowered.

Off to go watch folks make science. See you all on Saturday!