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Tom Crann
St. Paul, Minn.

Is 'Learning Life' the MySpace for baby boomers?

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Social networking Web sites are among the fastest growing trends online. The number of users sharing personal profiles on Facebook grew 270 percent between 2006 and 2007. The site expects 60 million users by the end of the year. That's still just half the users of social networking giant MySpace.

Teens, college students and 20-somethings make up the bulk of Facebook and MySpace users. But the University of Minnesota is about to launch a project aimed at their parents.

"Learning Life" will try to combine social networking with university level education. It aims to connect baby boomers with learning opportunities as well as each other.

Mary Nichols is the dean of the U of M's College of Continuing Education, which launches the Learning Life project at a festival Saturday.

Marion Burch is a baby boomer who will use the Learning Life service. She's been in the workforce for about 30 years as a communications consultant and entrepreneur. They joined MPR's Tom Crann to discuss the endeavor.