LinkedIn

LinkedIn ([|www.linkedin.com]) is the equivalent of the Facebook for the professional world. It began in 2002 and currently has over 150 million professionals from around the world, with over 2 million company pages ( []). Essentially, each member creates a page and is able to share as much or as little information about their person as they wish. This information can include anything about your educational background, present employer, professional organizations/activities, and if you would like to be contacted for various reasons (career opportunities, expertise request, etc.).



Another aspect to LinkedIn that is not as prevalent, but is self-associated is school usage. LinkedIn discusses on the viability of their service as a way for classmates to make connections and discuss classroom oriented topics outside of class. This will allow students to discuss homework questions or topics that are related to the course work in some manner. Also, students can arrange times to meet up to study or work on group projects. I think an interesting possibility with this site is to create a simulation of a real work environment. This unit could teach students about how to appropriately utilize the Internet for professional purposes. It could extend as a career resource, helping the students chose which field they are interested in pursuing. Or it could be utilized as a mock job application process from resume submission to actual interview. If a teacher was able to find a professional in the field, the site could be utilized to establish a professional relationship with this individual and create an avenue that would allow students to interact and engage with people who are using the content the students are learning in the real-world. This will hopefully allow the students to take more ownership of the content as they realize the real-world applications of the material. This will hopefully eliminate the idea “why do I need to learn this, I will never use this.”



As a final note, I think it would be important for a classroom teacher to moderate the site to ensure that cyber-bullying was not taking place. As a major issue with cyber-bullying is students not being able to get away from the presence of other students. -Andrew Hachtel

LinkedIn is a great resource for students in high school getting ready to go into college or the workforce. LinkedIn is filled tons of professionals in many different areas of work. This is very beneficial for students who are trying to figure out what they want to do in life. Most students have an idea of what they want to do when they get older but few have actual experience with the particular field they want to go into. This is exactly where LinkedIn can come into play.

Students will be able to communicate with professionals in an environment that doesn’t have a lot of pressure. They will be able to communicate with people who are currently working in fields that they are interested in. This will give students valuable information about different jobs that they probably haven’t thought about before. The students will be exposed to many different professions in one condensed website.



The students will also be able to work on their professionalism as well. They are going to have to create their own profile where they are able to think about what skills they have that will be beneficial to certain employers. Also when they are talking to the different professionals on the website they are going to have to talk in a professional way. Both of these things are going to help the students develop professionalism that they will need to have later in life.

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-Paige Mularoni

LinkedIn has specific[| tools] that make it very useful both in the professional world and in the classroom.

**Outlook Social Connector**
With the Outlook Social Connector, users can connect their LinkedIn account to their Outlook account, allowing them to build a network. Users can manage LinkedIn contacts through Outlook, see LinkedIn activity of anyone who sends them emails in Outlook, and easily invite their peers to join LinkedIn. Students could use this in role-playing as a businessperson, or even to get in contact with teachers and future employers in a more professional way.

Groups
LinkedIn allows users to create groups. These are often focused on employment, but include professional and career issues and alumni. Within these groups, users can have discussions. Students could easily use these groups in a similar capacity to another forum, discussing an assignment or perhaps job searching strategies. Teachers could have students do mock interviews with this tool. Also, students could post resumes on their profiles.

LinkedIn Mobile
With LinkedIn Mobile, users can make new connections with others, receive updates, and share statuses from their mobile phones. This mobile program works for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, and Palm devices. Since many people have these mobile devices, they can utilize this program almost anywhere. For students, this allows for more constant interaction, even outside of the classroom. Users can even download an application for their phone, allowing them to scan a business card and convert it into a contact. 

Lotus
With the LinkedIn widget for Lotus Notes, users can post their profile in a mini-program within Lotus. This enhances the collaborative functions of Lotus and LinkedIn, including Lotus's email, to do tracking, and instant messaging. While Lotus Notes is mainly professionally used, a teacher in an introductory business course could give students an overview of the program, utilizing LinkedIn's widget as one aspect of this overview. This will help students to be familiar with the technology that they may use in their future jobs. 

Sharing Bookmarklet
The LinkedIn Sharing Bookmarklet is a browser toolbar that allows users to share a webpage with their network simply by clicking a button at the top of their internet browser. This makes sharing faster and easier, and it can help users to focus on their work while staying connected. Students using this function can do research on a project and post it to their profile without getting distracted by other's updates. This will help students to have more efficient time usage.

Applications
LinkedIn also has an applications platform which allows other online applications to be used on a user's profile. These applications include Amazon Reading List, Tripit, Six Apart, WordPress, and TypePad. Now users can show books that they are reading and their recent blog activity. This will allow students and teachers to share things that they are learning throughout the year and educational resources so that other students can learn together. 

Job Listing
LinkedIn users can research companies and their statistics, including percentage of common titles/positions in the company and a ratio of male to female employees. Additionally, users can easily apply for a job listing with a plugin, using their LinkedIn account as their resume. In the classroom, students could be assigned a company to research and utilize this function. This will help students to more practically prepare for a future job.

While many of these tools are directly applicable to the professional world, students can also take advantage of them. For instance, a teacher could have students play the role of a boss and select a future "employee" based on their LinkedIn profile. This would allow students to learn what bosses look for in employee prospects, as well as helping them to think critically about what information to put on the internet, particularly when looking for a job.

-Michael Shivers