Facebook Guide for Educators

This guide, written in collaboration with many organisations including Apps For Good and the Gates Foundation, is “aimed at educators working with young people within schools, colleges, universities, work based learning, formal and informal learning settings.”

“The guide aims to be practical and hands on, but is not exhaustive. Innovative uses of Facebook are being developed all of the time and as such we have created a Facebook for Educators Page run by educators for educators, to share their experiences and recommendations across the UK and beyond.”

By looking at how Facebook is already being used it reports on how it could be used to

• support subject teaching across the curriculum,
• support out of school hours learning,
• encourage informal social learning,
• enable easy communication between students, teachers and parents, and to
• support the development of digital citizenship skills 

The are some good examples from teachers and educators who are already using Facebook, and how they found the process including communicating with parents, language and exchange students, homework tasks, revision and homework support, etc. Some real-world examples from which you can make your own assumptions.

• Facebook Guide for Educators: A tool for teaching and learning

I would also say that one thing the guide does not cover in nearly so much detail (but there is some in the appendices) is the security and privacy of how teachers and students should interact – for this information I would direct you (I have done so before) and anyone to the work of Stephen and Juliette Heppell and their work on Using Facebook in the Classroom.

What do you think about the guide? Does it offer enough guidance for teachers to create and manage a safe and secure digital environment for their students? Are there enough examples for you to understand the full range and scope of what is possible when using Facebook with students? If not, what would you include or change?