100 Education related Social Sites

100 Education related Social Sites for students to study and share their work, much to the dismay of teachers everywhere. From finding old friends to online collaboration with current classmates, social networks are a powerful tool for modern students.

1. Classmates.com: Keep track and up to date with people who went to school with you. One of the rare sites actually using real names rather than user accounts.
2. College Tonight: A social site specifically for college students, an account requires a college email address with the “edu” ending.
3. Playboy U: A social networking community much like others, offering features such as photo sharing and instant messaging. However, since it is operated by Playboy, the site also offers sex advice geared toward college students.
4. B4Class: A social site primarily aimed at high school and college students.
5. Campusbug: A social learning website for college students. Tries to help students coordinate notes and study sessions.
6. College Classifieds: A community of college students attempting to sell various items such as textbooks and furniture.
7. Graduates.com: A social site helping graduate students stay in touch with old classmates. Excellent for finding that next job or organizing a class reunion.
8. LocalSchools: An interactive education community linking local US colleges and universities. Find your school and connect with users about any common interest or activity.
9. Pazap.com: A student trading site for buying and selling books as well as trading course notes and party information.
10. Quizilla: Quizilla is a social site for teens still in middle and high school.
11. RateMyProfessor.com: Connects students taking similar courses and has them rate past classes. Never deal with attendance grades or tough professors again.
12. Student.com: An online community for the MTV set that also contains information on grants and student loans.
13. StudentSN.com: A social network for students allows users to create home pages sharing contact information and photo albums.
14. Uloop.com: Allows students to trade books, promote parties and other activities. However, it’s limited only to college students with “edu” email addresses.
15. eCRUSH: A social site for college dating, eCRUSH is designed to minimize the hurt of rejection.
16. eSpinTheBottle: A site for high school students to swap advice, photos and create their own profiles.
17. Piczo: A little slice of pop culture heaven, this is a social network for music, movie and TV loving teens. Also offers helpful tips for homework and studying.
18. Faces.com: Highly customizable profiles combined with a youthful community make this a great place for students to spend their spare time.
19. Meetup: Find people near you with similar interests. Rather than developing a distant online relationship, the goal here is to meet up at some point. An awesome site for new students or graduates moving to a new city.
20. MyYearbook: A yearbook meant to follow users for the rest of their lives, this colorful social site is aims to be a part of everyday life offering advice and tools for navigating tenuous social waters.
21. ConnectU: An online community of college students and alumni from schools and universities around the world.
22. Wamba: A world wide Spanish social networking site, Wamba allows Spanish speaking users meet and connect anywhere.
23. Black Planet: The largest online community for African Americans.
24. StudiVZ: A resource for German students studying internationally.
25. CampusBooks: A social network giving students the ability to buy, sell and donate textbooks with little frustration.

Academics

The Internet has undoubtedly changed the way people share information. Sorting through the data has proven to be an extremely difficult task perfectly suited for the collaboration of social networks. These social sites are tailor made so academic users can share reviews, summaries and collaborate on work.

1. Shelfari: A way for book lovers to connect, this networking service allows users to create and share their own virtual book shelves.
2. Revish: Another community letting book lovers review their favorite books, form groups or update their current reading status.
3. Good Reads: A book reader’s community allowing members to review ans share books they read.
4. Connect Via Books: This clever social site connects book lovers based on their reading list and allows them to discover similar interests.
5. Zoetrope: From Francis Ford Coppola’s production company, this site allows poets, musicians, playwrights and a variety of other artists to post their works in progress and get feedback.
6. Pronetos: Seeking to link scholars with the hope of facilitating academic research, Pronetos is free and extremely helpful
7. Academici: A knowledge network for professors and general academics. Includes networks for nearly any subject from gravitational physics to US history.
8. Financial Academics Network: A social site for finance geeks, FAN seeks to connect professors and students financial academics. Search forums, groups and blog postings.
9. Graduate Junction: A social site specifically to help graduate students with their research, Graduate Junction also connects members with industry contacts.
10. Academia: A far reaching connection of academics at universities from around the world. Chat with academics in similar fields or find old classmates.
11. Humanities and Social Sciences Online: Individuals in the science and math sector tend to gravitate to new technologies first often leaving the humanities in the dust. No anymore with this social service dedicated to liberal arts academics.
12. Social Science Research Network: A research network aiming to disseminate information among social scientists and researchers.
13. Access Research Network: A non-profit research network connects researchers in science, technology and society. This site focuses on controversial issues such as abortion and evolution.
14. Rare Diseases Network: From the University of South Florida and supported by the National Institute of Health and the US Dept. of Health and Human Services, this excellent social site connects scientists and researchers working on rare diseases.
15. FUMSI: A powerful research tool that harnesses social networking technology to improve research quality.

Educators

Social networking has certainly made students’ lives easier. Students share homework, notes and test information before teachers and school administrators even know about it. Grade books and lesson plans have been digital for a while but teachers (much like older people in general) have been slower to visit social sites. These social sites for teachers are going to change some outdated thinking.

1. TeachAde: Find other teachers and get resources to help develop professional skills at a great social site for new teachers.
2. 4Teachers: Offers a social community along with tools and information for teachers, this site wants to bring technology to the classroom.
3. Twitter For Teachers: A website and community helping teachers learn how to use Twitter for classroom use with discussions, photos and videos.
4. Classroom 2.0: An active social site for teachers focusing on web 2.0 and collaborative technology for beginners to online networking.
5. Edutagger: A social bookmarking site allowing users to save interesting articles related to education to share with colleagues.
6. The Schools United: This social networking site brings schools together from around the world through videos, blogs and other features.
7. NextGen: This site seeks to supports the worldwide efforts of teachers to make a positive impact in education with technology.
8. Education Leadership: A social networking site aimed at creating and connecting new leaders in education.
9. Passionate Teachers: Share work ideas and strategies with teachers who care deeply about their work and promoting quality teaching.
10. Teachers Network: A social network with great information, videos and podcasts to help teachers. Also includes a section specifically for new teachers.
11. BONy: A European education social network offered for free by the European Union.
12. Global Classroom: A social network of students and teachers seeking access to quality education. Provides free online classrooms for teachers to help integrate the internet into classrooms.
13. EDU4DRR: A social network by and for teachers who want to make a difference in disaster prevention.
14. Learning 2.0: An invitation only learning community for teachers and educators.
15. Comenius Program Network : A network for teachers across Europe to seek support and share ideas to help ensure successful projects.

General

Social sites have come to dominate the Internet. Recently, social networking sites even supplanted pornography in terms of traffic. While there are social networks for virtually any topic or category, an account at one of these major sites is a must to keep your surfing current.

1. Facebook: One of the most popular social networking sites in the world, Facebook has sustained the social networking revolution in the face skeptics and doubters. Currently the king of social sites with over 200 million users worldwide.
2. Bebo: This site combines the connectivity of social sites with blogging, even allowing musicians to upload songs and authors to post chapters of books.
3. MySpace: It’s the social site that made Tom everyone’s friend. Though its popularity has stymied a bit in the face of fierce competition from other sites, MySpace is still popular for its customizable profiles.
4. tribe.net: This site has waxed and waned in popularity among its users. Members join and surf the site to join “tribes” based on their interests. The Burning Man tribe, for example, has over 20,000 members.
5. Tumblr: A blog that lets users post video, articles, images and other interesting material. The site makes it really easy to share content from different users profiles.
6. Twitter: The site that made micro-blogging famous, Twitter has proven itself invaluable to celebrities and media companies looking to share information quickly and easily.
7. Wasabi: A European social site with members primarily from France, Spain, Germany and Italy. Since its founding in 2001, the site has grown with Internet technology adding Web 2.0 functionality like photo sharing and blogs.
8. Friendster: A social network aimed at keeping both old and new friends connected. While having sizeable members in the U.S. the site is mainly popular in Asian countries such as Singapore and the Philippines.
9. LiveJournal: A community of blogs, journals and diaries. The site has drawn a number of notable users such Billy Corgan and Dmitry Medvedev.
10. Multiply.com: The concept is a little foreign to most users online: a social site based real world relationships. Share content and keep up with people you know in real life with an easy and fun interface.
11. Hi5: The Web’s third most popular social networking site links friends along with friends of friends. Extremely popular in Latin American countries.
12. Friends Reunited: Popular in England, Friends Reunited links people with common school or military experiences but also links based on common interests.
13. Xanga: This site offers its users weblogs, photoblogs and videoblogs. Combined with 60 million users, Xanga is top notch social network site.
14. Flingr: Feeds, forums and blogs combined with shared user content make Flingr fun for everyone regardless of age, however users tend to be younger.
15. WorldStuffer: Free classified and social networking sites for your city.

Book Sharing

While it seems the Internet has been slowly replacing paper books for years now, nothing could be further from the truth. Through the collaboration of social networks book lovers are sharing reviews, summaries and lists of favorite books. Some are even swapping their books with others around the world to completely overhaul their personal libraries.

1. America’s Bookshelf: A book exchange community with networks extending across the US.
2. Books Connect: A paid service, social site, BooksConnect shares thousands of books among members.
3. Book Crossing: A community of users from over 130 countries that meet to trade books in public places.
4. Book Ins: A book sharing website giving member a real time used book exchange.
5. Book Mooch: Users exchange books with one another based on a point system. Gain points giving books to other users.
6. Book Sale Scout: An online community of online book sellers based in the US.
7. Book Swim: Most book borrowing services require members to pay for shipping. This site, on the other hand offers free shipping with a couple of catches.
8. Paper Back Swamp: Pay the delivery charge and swap books with other members. Great for rare or obscure titles that are out of print.
9. Read It Swap It: A free service allowing users to exchange books with others.
10. Socialbib: Book swapping network between students.LI>

Professional and Job Opportunities

Employment is unique for those in the education field. Students can rarely work full time schedules and education professionals often fill niche roles. Specific circumstances makes finding work harder but social networks help solve the problem by making easy connections. These social sites are great for helping individuals in education get the jobs they want.

1. AlumWire: AlumWire has been created to assist college students, alumni with professional opportunities.
2. iHipo: An international community for college students and business professionals looking for networking opportunities.
3. Zumeo: On online search database just for students. Find information on internships, post resumes or search for jobs. Easy to use and packed with features.
4. Tapped In: A social network for educational professionals to meet and discuss the finer nuances of their industry.
5. Konnects: This site enables members to create their own networking communities based on profession.
6. LinkedIn: A community of over 40 million professionals exchanging information, ideas and contacts.
7. MEETin: A fun and friendly community for professionals to gather without the pretense of making business connections.
8. Ryze: Business networking for an array of industries. This site offers professionals from over 200 countries a unique, quality networking service.
9. Xing: A network of over seven million professional in industries such as education. The site also offers great organizational tools.
10. Ecademy: Share knowledge, opportunities and contacts with friends and colleagues around the world.

Miscellaneous Social Networking Tools for Students, Academics and Educators

Most major research universities are practically cities unto themselves. Keeping track of updates and events used to be the sole territory of campus newspapers. Social networking sites are making it easier to keep up with obscure university information from sports teams not covered by mainstream press to the latest in research news.

1. YouNoodle: A social networking site designed to connect people involved in university innovation and research. Includes neat little tools like a “Startup Predictor” calculating the potential value of an invention or business after so many years. This is a really great site.
2. Takkle.com: This site offers student athletes the chance to interact with college recruiters and ask questions regarding college sports.
3. Sodahead: Get answers to questions from a range of topics including money, music, schools, research and a lot more. The site also lets users share news stories and voice opinions.
4. diigo: This social tool saves research, highlights and annotates important pages while also managing group projects and sharing content.
5. Fark: A social bookmarking and social networking site with sections for sports, business, showbiz, politics and more.
6. Cramster: This site offers help with math problems, answers to textbook questions or study help. Their premium service makes experts available to answer random questions.
7. Internshipratings.com: Internships have become an increasingly important part of the college experience. Before you apply find out if a particular company is the right fit for you with this helpful social site.
8. Zimride: This carpooling and cab share networking site can save users thousands in fuel costs every year.
9. Box.net: A social network site that allows users to upload files they can make available to other members. Great for group projects or parties.
10. Gradefund: Students with good grades can create their own accounts where sponsors pay money for academic accomplishments.