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I am going to explore Facebook and its potential to be used as an educational tool. First some background about my experiences with Facebook. http://www.businessinsider.com/its-facebooks-scale-stupid-2010-2 ). I have never had a Facebook account until I signed up for one about 2 weeks as part of my research for this paper The emphasis seems to be networking….I had not had a profile 15 min when 10 different people I have vaguely known at some time in the past appeared on my suggested friends list. And that was when I had set the privacy as limited as I knew how. Since, I have learned a bit more about how to limit access to my profile. I don’t know how the program works to link people you might know, but it is very effective at doing just that. Its speed and accuracy was a bit eerie. Facebook is a public networking site. Participation requires members to put some personal information out there for public consumption. And the Facebook site uses that information to suggest groups, friends and so on that it determines you might have an interest in.
I have discovered from my reading that there is not really a consensus about whether or not Facebook is suitable or effective as an educational tool. There is also a lot of controversy about ‘appropriate’ ways to use Facebook. A user of Facebook must be at least 13 to have an account, and Facebook itself strongly suggests that teens over the age of 13 have a parents’ permission to have a Facebook account.
The potential for misuse of the site is real. A student at Ryerson University faced academic dishonesty charges and was threatened with expulsion for organizing a Facebook group for students in one of his classes where students could discuss homework problems. University officials say he crossed the line when he opened a discussion that started with ‘post solutions here’. An article about the case is available at http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2008/03/11/a-facebook-cheater/ . There are numerous cases of teachers being reprimanded or even fired on the grounds that they had posted revealing personal information in a public venue.
I did find documentation of some small scale research that shows that Facebook, used as an addition to an existing college level class, can increase engagement with the course material. The complete paper, "Facebook groups as an e-learning component in higher education courses: one successful case study" is available at http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p376624_index.html . In this study a graduate assistant for a college level course developed a Facebook page where additional resources and links were posted to extend the discussions in the face to face class setting. The material posted was novel and had never before been incorporated into the class because of a lack of time. Qualitative and quantative questions on a survey at the end of the course found that most students did access the supplementary material, although no students participated in discussions or added classmates to their Facebook friends as a function of this course. A few people did join the group that were not taking the course because of a common interest in the material posted. A byproduct of having the Facebook page was that students who missed class did have a quick and convenient way to see what content they had missed, and there were some requests for notes for the missed classes. The professor did announce the existence and support of the page, but never directly posted material to the page, nor did he interact with students on the page. Most students who had not utilized the supplementary materials stated that they understood the site to be in addition to the course content and not a requirement, which was correct.
Many students also express opposition to the idea of Facebook becoming educational. They feel that it is solely a social site and that there are other applications, such as blackboard, that meet their educational needs adequately without ‘corrupting’ the social nature of Facebook.
There are many issues that must be considered before deciding to use Facebook for educational purposes. What are the risks to the instructor/faculty in having a Facebook presence? Is there concern about being visible to the student population? Also, what is the risk of asking the students to join Facebook? If you are in the High School setting, will you notify parents of the plan and purpose of the Facebook interaction? Will there be an opportunity to opt out, and will there be alternative activities or assignments for students who choose not to join Facebook? If a group is created on Facebook, who will be given administrative privileges?
I think that if one wants to use Facebook as part of a class, there must be some decisions made about the purpose and intention of its use. First of all, is the Facebook page going to be teacher driven, or a venue for student interaction? What kind of accountability for the content does the instructor want? Will students be posting content they have authored? In the study cited earlier, only the graduate assistant could post any material, to assure the integrity of what was available to all students.
If the group is to be student led, then what is its function? Are students expected to work collaboratively on assignments? Will there be a moderator to guide the interactions?
If the group is going to be teacher directed, what is its function? Is the teacher going provide homework help? Will the teacher provide instruction to individuals? Will there be group discussion?