"What we found was that students using social networking sites are actually practicing the kinds of 21st century skills we want them to develop to be successful today...Students are developing a positive attitude towards using technology systems, editing and customizing content and thinking about online design and layout. They're also sharing creative original work like poetry and film and practicing safe and responsible use of information and technology. The Web sites offer tremendous educational potential."
-Christine Greenhow, a learning technologies researcher University of Minnesota, College of Education and Human Development (
ScienceDaily
, 21 June,2008)
This page contains these sections:
Table of contents
Summary and Goals of this page
Social networking tools are emerging technologies in the education field and their potential is yet to be explored.
Don Reisinger (2009) makes a good point when he says, "Facebook might be fun, but some of its
apps can really teach you something". Facebook was not created for education purposes, but it's educational uses are slowly emerging.
This page aims to provide a space for collecting, storing and sharing information, examples, and ideas on the use of Facebook in learning contexts. It has two parts. The first part aims to explore Facebook and its applications that are being used or have the potential to be used in teaching and learning. The second part aims to explore the benefits and drawbacks of using Facebook for students, instructors and institutions.
Contributing to and using this page
Anyone who is using social networking tools in learning or is interested in exploring their potential in education can contribute to this page.
You may directly write on this page or use the COMMENT button at the end of the page to add your comments.
This page is released under the default knowledgeGarden Copyright license which you can access by clicking COPYRIGHT on the left menu.
Page Contributors
YOU ARE INVITED TO ADD YOUR AVATAR to the list of contributors:
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| Who | When | What
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 | 4 August 09 | Created page.
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 | 8 August 09 | comment facebook use
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 | 10 August 09 | Social networking culture
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 | 11 August 09 | comment on Facebook related to my teaching situation plus using YouTube, suggested alternatives to Facebook and ethical issues.
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 | 12 & 16 August 09 | Definition of Facebook & ethical issues
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 | 5 September 09 | Groups & Pages
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 | 5 September 09 | Photo Sharing
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 | 8 September 09 | student activity idea, legal issues & concerns for instructors
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Facebook
Increasingly,
online social networking, or building communities on the web is facilitated by
social networking services such as
Facebook,
MySpace and
Twitter. See for example,
Facebook statistics.
Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region (
wikipedia).
In addition to these
basic social networking features, Facebook has a whole range of internal and external
applications.
Facebook platform allows anyone to
build an application for Facebook. This has not only increased the range and number of applications available to users, but it has also made it easy to integrate online content and services (blogs, Youtube, flickr, bookmarks, professional networks, news feeds, etc.) into one's Facebook profile, making Facebook a one stop shop for everything online (Good, R., 2007a)
Many of these applications or tools, such as blogs & video sharing are already being used as tools in education (see examples under Related KnowledgeGarden Pages section). Some are specifically designed for education, for example
Teach the People and
CourseFeed. We will look at these below. These make Facebook an attractive tool.
Facebook Applications that can be used for Learning
According to Lawrie Phipps, managers of Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc):
"The challenge for higher education is to learn how to integrate the social networking sites with traditional academic practice and traditional ICT systems." (
Students tell universities: Get out of MySpace!,
Education Guardian, Monday 5 November 2007)
Some of Facebook's current features and applications provide opportunities for enhancing existing teaching practices in various stages of learning (Siemens, 2003). In addition, Facebook is a rich environment for enabling other types of learning, such as recreational or professional learning.
Photo Sharing
Facebook allows you to upload and share photos from your mobile or even Nintendo DSi (Peckham, M., 2009 from
DSi photo sharing on Facebook starts today. According to Stan Schroeder,
Facebook Trumps Most Photo Sharing Sites With 10 Billion Photos. Of course, there are many
Pros and Cons of Photosharing on Facebbok vs Flickr or vs other photo sharing services for that matter.
Cathleen I have found Facebook to be very useful in classes that we call Special Projects. A student picks a new learning experience that he would like to engage in, creates a proposal and then follows through on it. In the end he must give a summative account of what he has learned. I've had students who were active in a community service, building a motor, learning to sew, learning concepts in photography or taking an educational trip abroad... You name it, they do it. We've used facebook as a part of the final summary. The student would make a photo album and would comment on the learning that took place. Often they share the album with friends, but the option is there to share it with the teacher only. There are issues to this. Students have to trust me enough to allow me onto their facebook friend list. Some of my students have asked me to be on only long enough to see the completed work. Others are still on my facebook and I enjoy interaction with them.
Sarah I recently listened to a podcast called EdTechRoundup (British teachers discussing new technology) and one of the teachers mentioned using Facebook with his 12-15 year old students in much the same way that Cathleen describes. He recently decided to stop using Facebook however, because he was concerned that his activities as a 'friend' of his students might be misconstrued by educational authorities, and he had no way of proving that his activities were only ever about education. I think this is a common concern for teachers using social networking tools with underage students.
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Video Sharing
You can easily:
- use Youtube Video Box application to share Youtube videos in Facebook and integrate your Youtube account with your or your organisation's Facebook profile
- use Facebook video to upload personal videos even from your mobile phone, tag friends in videos, or send video messages.
According to Chris Putnam, a Facebook engineer, Facebook video "video player has much better quality and privacy controls than most other video sharing sites" (Putnam, 2007,
Video is here,
Facebook Blog)
Carmel We do use
Youtube. Students upload assessment tasks or presentations videos to YouTube. As Distance Education teachers we are also finding YouTube very handy for creating little instructional videos, uploading to YouTube, and then sending students the link. (eg. a particular maths concept that is difficult to explain via a teleconference phone lesson) Our Maths teacher is becoming a YouTube star! This is perfect in our situation. Quick and easy.
In terms of our distance education context, YouTube is provding us with a very useful (and economical...a digital camera is all you need...we don't pay for the hosting) medium for communicating with students, communicating with the school community, showcasing events, presenting student work, promoting the school and providing quick lessons on specific topics. The videos can be embedded into LMS or websites.
Another place for sharing and uploading videos is Slide Share where you can upload and share powerpoint presentations and documents.
Slideshare
Katayoun Slideshare is now one of the applications on Facebook too. It seems that Facebook is really going for creating and integrated web experience for its users and Slideshare seems to think being on Facebook is good too.
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Groups and Pages
Professional networking or discussion groups can easily be created in Facebook to facilitate sharing of resources and ideas and encourage dialogue and discussion.
Mashable, the Social Media Guide, has this to say about the
Difference between Facebook pages and groups. Groups have more privacy option in that one can create a 'secret' group where membership is through invitation only or a 'closed' group where the administrator must approve membership applications. On the other hand, pages can have applications added to them which allows more control over content.
Facebook Groups vs. Pages lists specific features of pages that groups lack.
How can groups and pages be used for learning purposes?
Educational institutions or specific Faculties or Schools can create groups or pages to create a presence on Facebook and facilitate sharing of news and links. Teachers can create a page for their 'public self-as-teacher', or their course. Appropriate applications can be added to this page. Students can 'become a fan' to receive links, notes and notification of blog posts and to participate in discussions. This way, teachers and students can keep their personal profiles separate. Students can also create a 'public' page for themselves and use it as their e-portfolio where they can upload, organise, share and comment on photos, documents, or videos.
Stephen An interesting application - can you set up a facebook page and call it, for example, FET8611? and have people contribute that way? I see you mention public pages - being a Facebook novice, does this mean certain pages can be viewed as public or private?
Katayoun I deleted the word 'public' from the subheading. The idea of group was that celebrities have a page for their fans. Other people on Facebook can then 'become a fan', rather than a friend of the celebrity. In that sense, the page is public. But it is still within Facebook. People start groups all the time. Just recently, a new group was set up called Zotero, a Firefox extension tool for managing information. You can 'become a fan' of Zotero. This means that you can join the group and start networking with other Zotero fans. Page is similar. Businesses, organisations or just individuals with a cause can start such 'public pages' to get in touch with other like-minded people and network or to have a public presence on Facebook without having to become 'friends' and share their personal profiles with strangers. I am sure you can start a group or a page for FET8611 on Facebook. But that would require everyone to have a Facebook acco unt.
PaulaI can see a few of benefits in educational situations for creating a group rather than a personal page:
- Students can become fans without having to share their personal pages,
- It's a convenient way to pass on new information etc as postings go straight to the fan's homepage, rather than requiring them to log into another site, and
- It is easy for students to post a response by just clicking on the Comment or Like links under the post.
SarahThis approach would get around the concerns about privacy that I noted were raised by teachers discussing the use of Facebook on the EdTechRoundup podcasts. Can you see and do everything on a group page in the same way as you can on your own pages? If so, this does seem like a safer way for teachers and students to interact.
Katayoun You can access the page from your profile with a click. Depending on your settings, you can get feeds from the page to your profile so you can see any links or comments. And as Paula said, you can see other people's comments to the link or comment yourself right from your own profile page. Is the page has the blog application, then you get notifications of the blog posts and so on. By the same token, I assume (and have to find out for sure) you can send notifications to the page yourself. This is helpful for allowing students to post photos on their own profile page and send the link to the 'public' page.
CathleenIs it not true that once you join a page there is an immediate connection to your own page. While it might be worthwhile as a tool to create your own page, I do not think that this would be any more secure than using personal pages to communicate. Is this true? As a comment to Sarah's comment about the teacher who quit using facebook, I am in agreement that this is a huge issue. I have the opportunity to have a great deal of contact with my parents because, in my school, we have a unique teaching partnership with our parents. When my students choose to use facebook to communicate with me it is with the parent's consent and, quite often, the parent's involvement. I am not sure that I would use this medium in other circumstances.
Katayoun When I join a page, my name and picture appears as members of that page. But there is no direct link to my page unless someone is my friend, they cannot access my profile from that page. When I get links or feeds from that page to my page, I can comment on it and see other people's comments to the same link. I can discuss the link with that other person without either of us seeing the other's profile. Jan has mentioned before that perhaps FB is not very appropriate for young students. I think she is right and you are also right for not wanting to use it in your case. I don't teach young children but my guess is that 16 years and above is probably the best age. My own focus is on university students. But regardless of our actual circumstances, there are interesting possibilities one can explore.
SarahI think the school jurisdictions are primarily concerned with the legal implications - anyone under the age of consent (18) would need parental consent to use Facebook for classroom activities. However I think parents would be more likely to give consent if the 'public' page approach was used. Students of all ages might also be more comfortable if the teacher's interaction was within specific borders - this might get around the 'get out of MySpace' attitude of students towards using Facebook as an educational tool?
Blogs
Blogs are useful tools for various stages of learning, such as a tool for preparatory activities, evaluation and self expression (Siemens, 2003). Facebook has a blogging tool called
Notes, which, though internal, allows you to import your entries from external blogs. Notes allows people to share their writing with their friends. Since the launch of Notes in 2006, Facebook has gone further by making it easy to link external blogs to Facebook profile or to Facebook public pages. For example:
- NetworkedBlogs is a Facebook application that allows people to link their blogs to Facebook by importing blog feed to Facebook profile or public page.
- My Blogs application posts your external blog posts to your Facebook profile or public pages.
- Blog application provides a blogging interface inside Facebook where users can choose to give either private or public access.
Blogs in the Secondary School,
Using blogs and wiki's to engage digital immigrants in professional development, and
Exploring the educational value of Web 2 applications look at educational value and uses of blogs in more detail.
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Teach the People
"Teach the People is a Facebook application that provides a platform for online education."...
Read more or watch this
video on
Vimeo.
With this application you can create a course or subscribe to any number of available courses. I have subscribed to Instructional Design 2.0 course! This Facebook application makes Facebook a useful environment for recreational or professional learning.
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CourseFeed
Facebook does not have to become or replace
Learning Management Systems, but these can link themselves to Facebook to place themselves where the learners are. Currently, for example,
CourseFeed application allows learners to link their
Blackboard courses to Facebook.
CourseFeed links learning content to Facebook. This is done in three ways:
- Schools can download the free plugin and get connected. CourseFeed works with Blackboard to allow learners to get course updates, connect with classmates, form study groups, and access course materials from their Facebook account.
- Some universities including Stanford University offer open courses via CourseFeed. Anyone can subscribe to a course to watch video lectures or even get some help about the subject matter.
- Anyone can create a course, upload files, post on course wall or form study groups.
While being essentially a network environment with many overlapping communities, this application allows Facebook to be used in a traditional learning environment such as a course, while allowing course participants to remain connected to their 'classmates' and other learning communities after the duration of the course.
Document sharing
There are various internal and external applications (for example, My Documents and Slide Share)that allow uploading and sharing of documents of different types and sizes. In addition to allowing collaboration and sharing, such applications allow provision of structured content by teachers through Facebook.
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OR add links to the definition or discussions on the above mentioned concerns
Your Verdict: Friend or Foe?
Now that we have had a look at some Facebook applications -which are not very different from other Web 2.0 tools available- we need to consider:
* Is Facebook a useful and effective learning environment? Why or why not?
For students
According to a
report on social networking and education by the National Schools Board Association in the US, use of social media and social networking sites by students is almost universal. Unlike traditional media such as television, students are not passive recipients of information, but use these technologies to share, collaborate, create and express.
Benefits to students
Benefits to students can be classified in terms of skills as well as opportunties. While providing informal or formal opportunities for gaining various skills, the unique benefit of social netwroking sites is in providing a 'space' for life-long learning and staying connected with existing communities and creating new ones.
As Siemens (2003) writes
"What we know is less important than our capacity to continue to learn more. The connections we make (between individual specialized communities/bodies ensure that we remain current. These connections determine knowledge flows and continual learning." (Siemens, 2003, p. 1)
Facebook has all the features that
Net Geners appreciate. As Oblinger and Oblinger (2005) write, this generation values the activities that technologies enable rather than the technology itself. These activities include connecting with communities and forming social networks, experiential or first-person learning, interaction, constant and instant access to information and responsiveness, and expressing themselves in various media (pp.6-8). These activities are not just fun, but have educational value in themselves and in the learning opportunities they enable.
ScienceDaily, in an article titled,
Educational Benefits Of Social Networking Sites Uncovered reports a a study at at the University of Minnesota, in which students reported that social networking teaches them:
- technology skills,
- creativity,
- being open to new or diverse views,
- communication skills.
Skills developed in using social media help and encourage learners to (
Herrington & Oliver, 2000):
- take initiatives to access and evaluate knowledge from the vast available resources (critical thinking),
- seek and share multiple perspectives,
- learn from carefully observing and modeling behaviour and language of experts,
- use cognitive strategies to construct, and assist others in the construction of, knowledge
- acquire new, more social, habits of study
These global networking skills are also important for allowing teachers and learners to make the most of the collaborative and constructivist learning processes that online environments offer:
- Teacher’s role changes from provision of content to supporting the development of a learning online community (Anderson, 2004) or network.
- Learner's role changes from passive receiver of knowledge to active participant in a community of learning (Herrington & Oliver, 2000).
- Global Education and Multiculturalism
Integrating social networking tools and sites into teaching practices to create online learning circles or to 'socialise' social circles into learning ones, can help students acquire skills and knowledge needed in a globalised world. Margaret Riel (1993) argues that learning circles, “small electronic communities that form to accomplish specific goals” (p. 223), promote global education by:
- raising awareness of the complexity of issues by exposing learners to a range of view points and perspectives
- facilitating an “interdisciplinary study across the curriculum” (p. 221)
- promote multicultural sensitivity and understanding
- Literacy and social networking
Jan Clewett. Facilitated page:
What can we learn from video games?
Jenkins, Clinton, Purushotma, Robison & Weigel (2006) explain literacy learning opportunities are being lost because “Schools as institutions have been slow to react to the emergence of this new internet participatory culture.”
Students are developing wide range of
- literacy skills through social Web 2.0 technologies and
- developing new literacy practices.
Marsh (2007) agrees and believes schools should be offering students opportunity to “become competent and effective analysers and producers of a range of multimodal texts and artifacts.”
By integrating social networking software into teaching, there is opportunity to tap into the practices of this teenage culture in which students are actively engaged. As Jenkins et al. (2006) reports this culture:
- “encourages artistic expression,
- engagement,
- informal mentoring and support
- to create and share creations.”
Social networking will not only chronicle student work but also become a personal learning environment where students create learning reflections. As students write and contribute with a purpose and for an audience, there is potential for this technology to transform the learning environment and my literacy teaching.
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Dangers to Students
There are some dangers in exposing students to social networking sites such as Facebook.
- Cyberbullying,
- Copyright and privacy issues,
- Child protection issues,
- Identity theft,
- Cyberstalking.
Carmel Online SafetyAnother comment on student protection in relation to the organisation that I work for. I agree that it is our duty as teachers to provide education to students in safe online practices. I believe the best way to do that is to use the tools that students use (eg Facebook, Ning, and other social media) and use them to model safe online behavior. To provide a CMS and other online environments and say that this is the only tools that teachers are permitted to use is very much a 'bury your head in the sand' attitude. Students have access to all this at home. We should be tapping into this and guide students within context?
I use the following videos with my students to teach safe online practice. They are very good...geared towards secondary school students.
http://www.wiseuptoit.com.au/videoclips.htm
Carmel The 'Creepy Treehouse' syndrome.
As I have been investigating the use of Facebook in Education, I came across an interesting article that discusses the 'creepy treehouse' The 'creepy treehouse' is defined by John Krutsch as a ' place online that adults built with the intention of luring kids in. Kid’s, they said, can see them a mile away and generally do a good job in avoiding them.'
How much research has been done on how social networking systems translate into academic value?
More content coming.....
Use of Facebook by educational institutions may also be a source of 'danger' to students in that it 'invades students' social spaces. According to
Learner Experience Project conducted by
Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc), the use of Social networking sites by educational institutions is not always welcomed by students. According to an article titled
Students tell universities: Get out of MySpace! in
Education Guardian:
"Not content with podcasting mini-lectures to students' mobile phones and i-Pods, universities are hijacking the internet telephone system, Skype, and invading FaceBook."
Jics finds that although students want to keep universities out of the social networking sites, they also like "instant communication with tutors or feedback on essays (via Skype or Facebook)". The research concludes that universities need to find more responsible ways that does not "interfere with students' use of web 2.0 to organise their social lives." (Cited in
Education Guardian, Monday 5 November 2007). {DIV}
Sarah Carmel makes a very good point about the modelling of safe online behaviour in schools. Many schools block access to the broader internet, especially social networking tools like Facebook, on the grounds of safety. But as Carmel notes if children aren't exposed to the safe use of these tools in school then they will simply discover them without guidance when they login from home. A bit of 'stranger danger' training for the online world must be a good thing.
Interestingly, I've found many education specialists and government policy advisors are very much in favour of the idea of opening up school access to the internet. Perhaps when more children learn to use Facebook as part of their primary school education, they won't feel so 'hijacked' when they get to university and use it for educational purposes?
Luke Watson
Cool Activity for Students
Taken from "Can We Be Friends? Watching Your Electronic Step" by Stuart Foxman
This activity explores the public nature of the Internet by building a mock-Facebook wall.
a) Teacher divides a wall up so each student has their own space.
b) Students stick images, thoughts, stories, etc. on their space
c) Students peruse the mock-Facebook pages of fellow students.
d) Teacher concludes by explaining the public nature of the Internet.
This is an activity I tried in my PSE class - and it illustrated the point very well!
For photos of this in action visit
http://www.baker-evans.com/knowledgegarden/tiki-editpage.php
For Instructors
Benefits for Instructors
Social networking sites such as Facebook allow education professionals and academic researchers to form their own interest groups and stay connected to the latest developments in their field.
According to
Learner Experience Project, "Learners do not readily transfer ICT practices from personal or social contexts to study or work". (
Learning Literacies in a Digital Age (LLiDA) - presentation at the Experts Meeting, 8th July 2009)
This poses a challenge as well as an opportunity for instructors. By integrating Facebook in teaching and learning activities, instructors can capitalises on the skills students already have and help them to bring these skills to their learning contexts.
Moreover, Facebook can be seen as a "learning ecology" or as a tool for creating an ecology defined as "an environment that fosters and supports the creation of communities" (Siemens, 2003, p. 3).
Facebook is of benefit to teachers who are interesetd in experimenting with extending their classrooms by supporting creation of learning communities. Facebook is rich in tools or applications that allow creation of rich communities. Teachers have many tools and 'spaces' available to become effective "garderners" (Siemens, 2003, p.4).
Siemens (2003, p. 4) identifies the following 'spaces':
- A space for connecting teachers and students - Facebook is a place where most students and increasing number of teachers already occupy
- A space for self-expression - Facebook platform brings together a wide variety of internal and external web 2.0 tools that are already being used for self-expression, such as video sharing, notes, and blogs, photo albums, and Bookshelf. The platform allows learners and teachers choose the tools they want to use instead of the ones available through the school servers or the teachers' favourites. For example, blog posts may be created in WorldPress or BlogSpot and imported to Facebook as a centralised space.
- A space for dialogue and debate - Discussion boards, walls, and comments are some of the tools available in Facebook that allow dialogue and discussion right from one's profile page.
- A space to search archived knowledge - Teacher and students can share 'links' to useful webistes.
- A space to learn in a structured manner - Facebook applications such as file sharing and CourseFeed allow creation or use of structured courses in Facebook.
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Challenges Facing Instructors
Luke Watson
The issue of teachers and future employers was address in "Can We Be Friends? Watching Your Electronic Step" by Stuart Foxman and outline some genuine concerns and asks "How does your online presence reflect on your professionalism?"
Some points:
- You must assume that everything on the Internet is public.
- Private electronic communications can be easily misdirected or redirected.
- "We have an electronic footprint and no matter what their privacy settings or how hard they try to delete material, it will exist somewhere,” says John Lundy, Director of Laurentian University’s School of Education.
- At Nipissing University, Ron Wideman, Dean of Education, recommends “Don’t post anything that you would not want your principal to see.”
- Consider what students and their parents, colleagues, and both current and potential employers can see - In one Missouri school district, a superintendent has been known to ask teaching candidates if they have a Facebook or MySpace page. If the answer is yes, the superintendent says, “I’ve got my computer up right now – let’s take a look.”
- “As educators, we must protect our privacy, both online and off,” says Wendy Hirschegger of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation. “Don’t post anything that you would not want your principal to see.” Collette Dowhaniuk of the Ontario Principals’ Council agrees. “If you are posting pictures showing how you partied hard on the weekend,” she says, “it’s out there for everyone to see. Teachers must be aware that their behaviour can make it appear that they should not be trusted with the development of young people.”
- Hirschegger concludes, “Never invite a student to be your Facebook friend and never accept an invitation to be a student’s friend.”
Retrieved on 8th September from
http://www.oct.ca/publications/professionally_speaking/june_2009/online_friends.asp
For Institutions
Online social networking technologies expand and enhance opportunities in education. These have been increasingly used in
educational contexts. However, in many cases, there are still discrepancies between acknowledging their educational potential, and implementing facilitative institutional policies.
There are mixed reactions to Facebook in the education field. Research on
social networking and education conducted by the National Schools Board Association in the US finds that most schools are skeptical about the education value of social networking and have placed restrictions on the use of social networking tools and sites. The report recommends that educators need to find a balance between protecting learners and providing them an education for the 21 century by exploring the educational value of such tools (Good, R., 2007b).
Carmel I have not used Facebook with students. (although I love Facebook and use it on a personal level) The organisation that I work for operates in a restrictive way....they would say it is about student protection. Basically we would not be permitted to use Facebook for education. We are provided with eLearning tools (LMS, tools for synchronous and asynchronous communication and various other resources which we are 'obliged' to use. My opinion is that we need to be using tools such as Facebook as this is what students are using. I believe that, as educators, we need to use these tools with students and model their safe use.
Jan To further expand on what Carmel has said, the bottom line is we have a duty of care to provide a safe environment for our students to work. This safety is paramount to our organization and they are unwilling to take risk. They feel they provide us with Content Management Systems (Blackboard and Janison) and this should be sufficient. Up to a certain age this is probably true. However the reality is most secondary students have a Facebook account with or without their parent's consent. I feel that an environment that is too secure is not providing students with the required knowledge, understanding and skills to deal with the negative impacts that social networking sites are noted for in the media. I believe that the use of a controlled social networking site like the wordpress Edublogs idea could be a stepping stone in the right direction. It offers students the ability to use a social networking tool and share content between other students and provides the opportunity for teachers to address and teach internet security.
Katayoun The report by the Nation Schools Board Association which I have referred to on this page, mentions that schools are actually open to the idea of social networking in schools, but would like to see more concrete educational uses of it. The more we explore this area, the more likely that we come up with interesting case studies of such uses. Of course, the safety and the ethical and legal issues mentioned by Andy and Luke below are still an important consideration and need to be dealt with creatively.
Benefits for Institutions
Educational institutions of higher education have to cope with providing educational services to more and more diverse students while facing reductions in public funding and competition from other institutions for a share in the global market. Social networking services can help these institutions in several ways. Educational institutions are starting to see the benefits of social networking for promotion and marketing. In addition, use of platforms such as Facebook in courses reduces the cost of providing in-house services.
Harvard Kennedy School of Government is a good example of an educational institution embracing social media. It has a
Youtube account, a
Facebook account, a
Twitter account, and a
Linkedin account. Each faculty or program also has a blog. These are all brought together in Facebook using Facebook platform.
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Negative Impact on Institutions
Michael Bugeja's (2006) article
Facing the Facebook argues that Facebook and social networking in general have affected the academe in negative ways:
- universities spend more on technology than tenure positions to increase enrollment
- students make improper use of technology
- technology distracts students who 'play' on Facebook in class
- Facebook may teach multitasking but not critical thinking
- Facebook makes people express themselves as a 'product' and indulge in 'egocasting'
- students are exposed to surveillance by marketers, parents, and university officials
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Facebook alternatives
There are many
social Networking sites used in education. Some of these allow for creation of private social network sites. For example, you can start your own social network or join existing ones using
Ning or the open source social networking platform,
Elgg.
Jan
Userpage:janclewett
I have been interested in using Edublogs to create Vocational Education and Training (VET) students ePortfolio. Edublogs uses Wordpress social networking software, installed on their Edublogs website. I wanted to ensure student ownership and portability of their ePortfolio, while supporting a smooth transition between school and the workplace. Students would take the necessary steps to add online security to personal digital verifiable information. This would prepare them for the real world and the need for business internet security.
Similar to Facebook Wordpress has numerous plugins and extensions that can create a learning hub. Educators can install wordpress onto the school server, or use Edublogs campus to create an inschool, inclass social networking site. Within my workplace many social networking sites are banned. I am bound by the rules and regulations of my employer and as a teacher need to ensure that I am protecting the safety of my students at all time. Both
Edublogs campus or installing wordpress multi user software on the school website could be adapted to create that security. Whats more, my students could actively be involved in constructing and safeguarding that security.
In the cases above the teacher and student would become co administrator of each students website. There would be a teacher website that becomes the hub that each students site connects to. These websites would cater for the students changing needs over the two year period of their course. This method of performance tracking would provide evidence of student’s competencies acquired at school, externally and in workplace training. It would offer students the ability to showcase their work, compliment the competency based assessment process used in the VET sector and would allow students to take full advantage of RPL. This would allow the opportunity to fast track their career while at school and would teach them the skills to continue to do so in the future.
Katayoun
Userpage:Katayoun Jan, this sounds really useful in meeting your demands of portability and security. Students who do have Facebook accounts can add their WordPress blogs to their Facebook profiles later on if they wish. I feel that Facebook is probably more useful for adult learners as many schools have restrictions on social networking sites and most school children network only with their schoolmates any way, and as such, an in-house social networking software would suffice.
Carmel
Userpage:Carmel Jan and Katayoun, Edublogs are great! I have my own Edublog and am an Edublogs supporter. As an edublogs supporter, for around about $50 a year, you have 5GB of storage space and can create as many student blogs as you like. The support from Edublogs is excellent, as I experienced last year when I needed some support. It was all done and fixed within two hours. The support is from within Australia, which is another reason that I like Edublogs. The Edublogger (Sue Waters from Perth) has some great ideas for eLearning and Web 2, mobile learning etc. on her site which is here.
http://theedublogger.edublogs.org/ Like Jan, I also have investigated using Edublogs for student ePortfolios. As I teach Vocational and Work Education certificate courses, Edublogs is perfect for my students. When I investigated it last year however, I find that my organisation requires that all student work is hosted on a departmental server, rather than on Edublogs. The way around this is to install Edublogs campus edition on the school server which is an area I am presently investigating.
The good news is that Edublogs now supports the latest version of WordPress....more themes and more cool plugins such as the NextGen image gallery. Very nice. I am sure students would love choosing from the many themes and plugins available through Edublogs. The link to Edublogs Campus edition is here
http://edublogs.org/campus/?utm_source=edublogger&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=internal I think Edublogs is also a great tool for teachers to create their own website. Numerous educational possibilities with Edublogs. I believe that in Victoria school students use Edublogs. Edublogs is secure and safe as teachers can be administrators of student blogs which is a very good feature of the system.
Wikispaces as an alternative to Facebook I also have a wiki on wikispaces but have not explored it too much at this stage. It looks very good though and is another possibility for using in a classroom as an alternative to Facebook. It is a wiki, so pages can be edited by users.
http://www.wikispaces.com/
There are many
advantages in using these as they offer full control to creators and ensure privacy of users/learners. However, usefulness of
participatory media technologies is related to the number of participants (
Metcalfe's law). Public social networking sites, such as Facebook, seem to be where the learners are. But are educators there with them?
Ethical and Legal Issues in using Facebook for Education
- Legal and ethical issues when employers check applicants’ social networking sites
February 22, 2008 by Les Potter
Employers are looking at the Facebook, MySpace, and blogs of prospective employees, even internship applicants, in order to make hiring decisions. Is this legal? Ethical?
There is not a lot of case law yet regarding social media. Many situations simply have not been tested in court, so there is little in the way of guidance at present. But we do know a few things.
Can an employer legally decide not to hire you based on a review of the contents your Facebook or MySpace page? The truth is, yes they can, as long as employers do not violate federal or state discrimination laws in using social networking sites in making hiring decisions. For example, an employer cannot legally screen out applicants based on race or ethnicity.
Is it an invasion of privacy for an employer to gain access to your profile or photos? What is posted on the Internet has a lower “expectation of privacy” than, say, a private home telephone conversation. Once it is posted on Facebook or MySpace or your blog, the information is available to the public. Therefore, viewing it does not constitute an invasion of privacy.
Facebook is designed to limit the availability of your profile to your friends and only those in your other networks via the privacy settings. If you use the privacy features and believe that some employers got into your information unauthorized, then you might have a case.
However, use of Facebook by potential employers is not addressed the Terms of Use for Facebook. The Terms of Use does say that its use is restricted to personal and non-commercial uses. ”Non-commercial” use means posting information for personal gain, like ads, which is prohibited. However, it does not mean an employer cannot access your information for commercial purposes, like research to make a hiring decision.
What about using social networking sites after you are hired? It is important to remember that when you go to work, you often have to sign an agreement that governs the use of company computer equipment that waives your right to privacy. Such agreements usually state that use will be monitored.
The message is clear: on the job using company equipment, simply do not post things that are potentially embarrassing or damaging to your career.
What about right now, while you are a student? Make your Facebook or MySpace pages and your blog more professional in tone and content and more career oriented. Employers may use social networking sites to look for potential candidates who have specific qualifications, education, experience, or interests. Redesign your Facebook and MySpace pages and your blog into marketing tools.
Retrieved on 16th August from
http://lespotter001.wordpress.com/2008/02/22/legal-and-ethical-issues-with-employers-checking-social-networking-sites/
lukewatson
?
I discovered an excellent article entitled 'Can We Be Friends? Watching Your Electronic Step' by Stuart Foxman and wish to highlight some sections that deal with Ethical and Legal Issues in using Facebook for Education.
Foxman listed some cases from across North America that have recently made headlines:
- After a parent complained, a Calgary teacher was reprimanded for posting comments about drug-using mothers on her Facebook page.
- At a North Carolina school, several teachers were disciplined when the board learned of their Facebook pages. The postings included photos of female teachers in suggestive poses and the comment, “I hate my students.”
- In BC, a school principal was temporarily removed from his position after a parent stumbled on a nude photo of him on his personal web site. It turned out the photo was taken by the principal’s wife while the couple was on a beach holiday. The local school board chairman called the posting a “stupid” mistake.
- A Virginia woman who teaches students with learning disabilities used the word “retard” on her Facebook page and posted a photo of herself holding a bottle of tequila between her head and shoulder.
Retrieved on 8th September, 2009 from
http://www.oct.ca/publications/professionally_speaking/june_2009/online_friends.asp
Katayoun
Userpage:Katayoun This is very interesting Luke. One has no privacy when the boundaries between personal and professional become blurry. I wonder how these teachers were discovered. Is this because they gave their personal profile to students and workmates? I am exploring use of Facebook for learning without having to use ones personal profile (teachers or students).
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