Facebook as an “interactive learning resource”?
For those interested in using Facebook with students the following links may be of use:
Here Stephen writes with his daughter Juliette Heppell, herself a teacher at Lampton Academy in London, and this short page outlines the main events on using Facebook with students, and the do/ don’t mentality we all ought to consider. Examples include:
- Do … build a separate teacher page for your “teacher” presence.
- Do … keep your teacher and personal page very separate
- Do … post pictures of school/lessons/trips – even diagrams you put on the board (snap them with your phone and post them) – it reminds students that you are there, generates a pride in the school and reminds them that this is not a vaccuous space!
- Don’t … ‘friend’ students yourself – not even as your “teacher” presence.
- Don’t … accept complete ignorance of Facebook as an excuse for dangerous school policies like blanket bans – instead offer to be an action researcher, and try it out for a year.
The full list covers much more than this, and has a ‘healthy’ caveat of “don’t ever think you can refine and evolve these simple notes without talking to your students – they will know of problems and dangers you are unaware of, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t model safe behavior for them.” A great resource and one you should be mindful of.
While this article is a good summary of art and design use of ‘studio space’ and how Facebook is a better medium than most traditional VLEs, it highlights the basic conflict of internal (owned) vs. external (unregulated) tools while offering a brief insight into how other disciplines ‘could’ use the social network (not for networking purposes). The study found that “the interviewees in this investigation perceive educational benefits based on the communicative potential of Facebook. The diversity in the form and pattern of use posses less of a challenge for not all Facebook activities promote communication and it would be possible to focus on those that do.”
It continues by saying that “in addition, it may not be possible to convince all students who perceive Facebook only as a social space, that there are educational benefits in exploring what this SNS [Social Networking Site] offers in terms of interests groups and other useful information” and that a dedicated student induction (oh, another one?) would help address concerns over how it should be used on a granular level.
Official citation for this article is:
Souleles, N. 2012. Perceptions of undergraduate Graphic Design students on the educational potential of Facebook. Research in Learning Technology 20: 17490. http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v20i0.17490
This article is published in the AJET (Australasian Journal of Educational Technology) and has a good amount of data to support the assumption that students would use Facebook as part of their learning:
- 93% of surveyed students had an active Facebook account.
- 78% anticipated that a Facebook page would facilitate their learning by increased interaction with students and instructors.
- 81% engaged with the Facebook page at some stage during their studies.
- 76% would recommend Facebook for future cohorts courses while only 51% thought that it was effective (effective at what though?).
The question I have is how are the learning materials structured to students who did not have a Facebook account (those who did not want one for various personal reasons) were not unduly restricted in their learning?
The article states that Facebook as a “learning aid suggests that it has the potential to promote collaborative and cooperative learning” but further study is required to investigate how it can enhance the learning outcome.
Official citation for this article is:
Irwin, C., Ball, L., Desbrow, B. & Leveritt, M. (2012). Students’ perceptions of using Facebook as an interactive learning resource at university. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 28(7), 1221-1232. http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet28/irwin.html
- YouTube videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj-XCUIbbcE
YouTube: Using Facebook to Teach
YouTube: Facebook Used in the College Classroom
YouTube: Social networking sites have educational benefits
Another good academic journal article on a study into the “effects of teacher self-disclosure via Facebook on anticipated college student motivation, affective learning, and classroom climate”. The study concludes that “certain forms of face-to-face self-disclosure can have disastrous effects on teacher credibility” (i.e. personal details, photos, etc) and that “teachers can strategically reveal pictures, quotes, and personal information that present them as competent and trustworthy instructors who have the students’ best interests in mind”.
Of course, this isn’t news to most of us – apart from keeping the student-teacher relationship purely professional in a classroom and teaching/learning environment we must replicate this in any online environment, social network, email exchange, IM chat, etc). In saying that some forms of self-disclosure by the teacher could help foster a closer professional relationship it must be argued that some forms of disclosure (the paper does not give examples here but I assume to mean some personal details that students to not need to know as opposed to overtly personal details, bordering on the kind of things that constitutes an employer disciplinary hearing) could harm the relationship: “students reported that teachers should self-disclose appropriate information.”
Official citation for this article is:
Joseph P. Mazer, Richard E. Murphy & Cheri J. Simonds (2007): I’ll See You On “Facebook”: The Effects of Computer-Mediated Teacher Self-Disclosure on Student Motivation, Affective Learning, and Classroom Climate, Communication Education, 56:1, 1-17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03634520601009710
This post is summed up nicely in this quote (but please read the whole post as there is much more here):
“In the main, the Facebook page, which is run by and for the students without tutor involvement, is centred on support for learning and skills development and in every case I saw, answers to problems that emerged from discussions were factually correct. In addition, the students offer one another impressive levels of support and encouragement. From the evidence of their own Facebook group, then, students are not unwilling to work and learn collaboratively.”
But what of the etiquette and/or training the student were given to using these systems? Are they instructed or left to their own devices? Are they given an outline of how it should be used, and when and for what purpose? This then raises the question, for me anyway, should we use Facebook at all, but if we do how at do we go to prescribe what & ow I is used.
“I am left wondering therefore if there is an unspoken etiquette at play here – a set of norms which, in attempting to use social networks for tutor:cohort interaction, we as educators are somehow transgressing?”
Update(s):
This paper is an “attempt to use a Facebook group as a course website, serving as a platform for delivering content and maintaining interactions among the students and between the students and the lecturer.” The paper deals quite strongly in the student experience and student satisfaction of the use of Facebook, but this does not mean that it is an academic success, it just means they liked it. You can’t even look at results from class tests or end of course assessment to see if it’s a success either, there are too many variables to be included to know whether it was a good cohort or the technology applied that made the difference.
The Facebook Groups was “designed in a way that encourages participation and interaction on every single post uploaded to the group” but this in itself does not mean learning has been achieved, does it? The paper does conclude that the learning “environment itself is not solely responsible for the creation of learning dynamics”.
Great resource.
Thanks a lot for compiling this list. For the past year, and still, I am working with Facebook groups in project based learning (highschool). Students I work with are normally dropouts and some of them have very low IT literacy, which practically means that they don’t read their emails. A somewhat better way to communicate with them is through Facebook, also to keep up to date what they do, and since we are applying a highly personalized approach, to get to know them a bit better. I acknowledge the fact that teachers should be careful in their way of approaching the learners (like in real class). An interesting mechanism in FB is the “Like” button, which is very important for most students, as they are normally insecure and want recognition. Liking is a way to recognize their post, their contribution. No liking can really dampen their engagement (at least for some of the students I worked with).
Thanks Thieme – how have the staff approached this, have they been willing participants, and how do the students view the formal learning processes being used in their ‘personal’ and ‘social’ environment of Facebook?
All the best, David
hi David: thanks for your questions.
Staff: Good point. Initially, my wife initially matched me with her manager who was into trying new things at school, so yes, they were very supportive..
Students: In fact, there were hardly any ‘formal learning processes’ in the project. Yes, there was student-teacher interaction, but moreover it was about sharing ideas with teachers, who, in class could reflect on those. That was the big plus: that teachers were better able to personally address and take interest in students interests. On the other hand, when the project was not going well, students became very sceptical about Facebook. Also, there was, at that moment, to little direction to guide the students to use it effectively. It became more of a purpose in itself rather than an instrument to get somewhere. The students perfectly captured that and subsequently were less motivated.
A very clear idea about how FB can be used will help teachers overcome these problems, because there is a lot to be gained with Facebook: many students nowadays use their social networks more than email, and it can be a very effective way to communicate with students.
This morning, we introduced FB as the communication platform for another project with another class with students who speak very little Dutch (migrant kids). The ability to add visuals to the communication enhances it, and the first impressions are positive. This week’s assignment will also be posted on Facebook and I will be giving open feedback and suggestions for the student projects, all on Facebook. (BTW. It is very useful to see who has viewed the posts)
Great article on social media learning. Got a alots of information on how to use facebook for learning. For IT colleges (http://dwit.edu.np/content.php?page=about-dwit) and students social media learning is todays trend.