Facebook as a communication tool?
I teach for an online career college, and I have found that one of my bigger challenges is to get the students to engage with each other. I had one class in particular that did a great job with this, and I could see that it made such an improvement on everyone's performance.
I was wondering if anyone had tried to use Facebook as a tool to get classes talking to each other. How did you set it up? How did it work? Would you recommend it?
Thanks!
Katina,
I have used Facebook groups, Twitter announcements and LMS discussion boards and have found that various students grow from various ways of participating and communicating. We have to be flexible. Thanks!
I have one institution that encourages social networking and one that discourages instructors from participating with students. It seems to be all over the board for now, but I have seen a lot of success in classes that have Facebook groups--which means that students/instructors do not have to directly "friend" each other, and don't break and socialization/fraternization rules. This may be a good tool to keep students engaged.
Trang ,
Yes and management is the key. It's like any other communication tool. It needs to work for what you want it to work for and be managed properly.
Thanks for your input.
Facebook can be used as a tool for communication if it is manage well. Having student follow a school site and interaction there seems like an acceptable and approachable way for student communication without falling into issues.
Michael,
I see your point. Thanks for the addition to the conversation and the explanation. Thanks!
Facebook can work in certain situations, but not in the way that it's intended.
In the summers I work Upward Bound, which is a residential program. A lot of instructors start UB-specific profiles --'Instructor Mike,' for instance -- and disseminate class information that way. The unintended use that comes with Facebook is that it can be good for weeding out excuses: younger students sometimes forget their visibility, and post 'OMG I am having SO MUCH FUN DOING _________' statuses.....then pretend they were sick the night before when an assignment isn't due. Again, not the original intent, but useful.
Nate,
I have used Facebook to develop an area private to my class and use it for a discussion board/sharing place. The students that used it loved it, but most students preferred Blackboard. I just had to try it. ;-)
Although Facebook is good for what it was designed to do, I would never use it. I think there needs to be a line drawn with students based solely on proffesionalism; a student instructor relationship. Facebook is too private.
Even if the only people on the group is in the class. There are still several things that classmates might not want to share with other classmatesThey would then have to create a second Facebook account, edit certain material, and/ or other problems.
This is where the classroom lounge comes in. If you highly puch for interaction in the lounge, the students can connect there, all the while still having that sense of privacy. Use the imagination in the lounge. Offer extra credit questions, post important information, or other tings to get the students looking and/or posting things in the lounge.
That's my soapbox issue with Facebook, I won't use it, but I can see benefits. I just think there could be too many cons to it.
Nate
Debra,
It's fun to get new ideas through these classes/forums. Thanks for sharing.
You know, I never really thought of using Facebook for student, creating a "professional account". This is interesting. I like it because student often ask me to stay in touch and honestly, I have a peronsal email account, but do not really answer all that much. This would be a great way to stay in touch.
Jennifer,
Thanks for sharing your experiences. Mixing the fun and education is the Edutainment business - which we are all a part of. Thanks for sharing.
I have used both FB and a wordpress blog to interact with my online students (though it was one or the other I didn't want a million places for them to have to check in).
I love wordpress for the ease of use and set up but I like FB for the privacy setting.
I have found that making it a mix of fun and academic stuff- students get into. It also allows students agency to answer questions and share their experience and knowledge. Because I ask them to post fun stuff too (such as stupid trivia or best misheard song lyric) I find they check in more and when little questions crop up I get them earlier and can problem solve faster.
I do keep myself very professional in that space and because I teach English- there is no FB slang. I think it's a good tool- you just have to be aware that it is a tool and use it as one.
Erin ,
It is the development of that relationship or a sense of community that is essential. Nice job.
I agree with what many have said about "humanizing" the online experience. Students really like to hear a voice, see a picture or just take a moment to be a bit more "loose" in an online setting.
However, I have found that communicating with students can be difficult when Facebook is involved. Personally, *I* like to keep my Facebook presence private. I use it to socialize with my friends and I really don't think it would be appropriate to share that profile with my students. That said, there are other communication tools that can be used to engage students and make the course material more fun and interesting.
My school has a "commons" area on our campus with different clubs related to student interest. The clubs have discussion boards, live chat sessions and sometimes guest lectures. For a time I was the faculty advisor of a Poetry club on our commons. When I taught Literature courses, I could easily promote the Poetry club at the end of a live chat session in order to encourage students to share their interest in the course concepts in a more relaxed and social environment. I found that this involvement in the commons added another level of communication with students that was more relaxed and helped to make me (and the course subject matter) more approachable and interesting. --Erin
Dr. Karina,
There are things you can keep anonymous and other times when you want to know who said what. Thanks for your input.
Melinda,
I agree with your statement. I think that most people want to stay anonymous during online courses process.
Dr. Karina
Linnea,
Great ideas. It's good to see you being creative in your use of social media. Nice job.
I have used FB and Twitter to communicate with classes. In particular, I like to use Twitter to send reminders. In general, I will send one reminder a week about a day or two before important assignments are due. Something that I found really interesting, was that when asked - the students asked me to send MORE tweets! I thought it would be invasive and annoying, but many students like daily tweets whether they be reminders, or information on material important to the course.
Also - for the standard tweets - I find it very useful to use a scheduler. That way, I set up my tweets and forget them - I only need to send "fun" things when I think about it.
Kelly,
True - Coffee Cafe does sound more cool that Discussion Board or "here's my email address." ;-) Some schools do have policies about social media, but I have used it effectively as a group (only those in my class were allowed in) for discussions. YouTube can be set up the same way - private - so only the course participants can see the information. That's nice too. Thanks for your input.
