Facebook Classroom - Education in Social networking

If I ask you that : Do you know Facebook? I must be crazy! It's popular, it's free and easy to use! There are many reasons why I choose Facebook to be an online classroom for my project in Assingment 3. I am trying to ensure students to be more engaged in learning experience. An excellent way to do so is to stretch the communication between students and student-to-teacher. These are just a few ideas to do just that.

1. Create groups. You can create groups for entire classes or for study groups with smaller subsets of students that allow for easy sharing of information and communication, without students even having to friend each other.
2. Schedule events. From beginning of semester mixers to after-finals celebrations, easily schedule events for the entire class using Facebook.
3. Send messages. From unexpected absences to rescheduling exams, it’s easy to send messages through Facebook.
4. Share multimedia. With the ability to post videos, photos, and more, you can share multimedia content easily with the entire class.
5. Post class notes. Post notes after each class period for students to have access for review or in case they were absent.
6. Provide direct communication with instructors. Instructors and students can contact each other through Facebook, providing an opportunity for better sharing of information and promoting better working relationships.
7. Allows shy students a way to communicate. Shy students who may not want to approach their teacher after class or during office hours can use Facebook to communicate.
8. Facilitate classmate connections. When students get to know each other more intimately, they become more involved in the learning experience. This is helpful in both large classes that wouldn’t normally promote such intimacy and in smaller settings that regularly depend on that connection.
9. Make announcements. Instructors can send out reminders about upcoming tests, upcoming due dates, or any classroom news.
10. Brainstorm. Students can have the ability to add their thoughts to the class any time they occur allows for more opportunities for brainstorming off each other.
11. Share interesting websites. Students and instructors alike can post interesting websites that add relevancy to the class.
12. Post homework. Posting homework through Facebook not only provides easy access for students, it also puts in writing specifically what is expected and when it is due.
13. Grassroots movements. Students at University of British Columbia learned that the weight room at their aquatic center was slated for closure, and through Facebook, won to keep it open.

 

This is an example of using the most popular social network as a classroom.
http://169.244.138.14/~terri_dawson/fb_classroom1.pdf

Classroom in Social Networking

My project for the 3^rd assignment is about “Facebook Classroom” which my teammates and I try to make use of this most popular social networking tool for education. How do you think about social networking in education? It’s not trying to force learners to use social networking for their learning but instead it’s a social networking that enhances them to acquire more knowledge and learning materials. From the video in the previous post you can see clearly how social networking and education can be related. Social networking has become a tool for education right now. It could be like an extended classroom discussion. Now for special needs it could have benefits like allowing them to express their knowledge and feelings without feeling that they are different or could not contribute like a regular setting classroom.

In this course, Blackboard is a social networking tool for the online course. It is designed to be easy to use for students and teachers. It doesn’t need special skill to access to Blackboard and use it. This is one of the important basic elements for social networking; it should be easy to use.

Social Networking in Education

From the previous posts I have metioned a lot about the awareness and darkside of social networking. This might make some of you frightened when social networkings are wrongly manipulated. However, that's just one of the sophisticated dimensions of technology.  Another great thing from social networking is it's role in education. It can make learning happenned anywhere: in a classroom, at the dinning room table, on a bus, in front of a science exhibit, at the zoo…anywhere! "Portability is not as important as the ability of the learner to connect, communicate, collaborate, and create using tools that are readily at hand." Thanks for social networking! From this video you can see how social networking and education related.

Social Networking vs Social Awareness

 

I have mentioned about the dark side and the future of social networking. It’s hard to figure out how the new social networking tools would be like in the future. Security concern is one of the main problems of social networking right now. I mentioned, it’s not what or even who you know… it’s who knows you that the security problem would start.  Social networking services such as Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter allow people who share common interests to connect and network with one another on the Internet. However, use of these services can put both personal and company information at risk if the proper precautions are not taken.

Social awareness is one of the big challenges for social networking right now? How do you think about it? Can they get along with each other?

Additional reading:  Privacy and Online Social Networking Websites of Richard Goettke and Joseph Christiana  from http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/cs199r/fp/RichJoe.pdf