Why I Use Facebook. (Maybe you should, too.) Elizabeth A. Evans UNC-Chapel Hill ITS Teaching and Learning December 2007

its.unc.edu 2 Scope  Your kids and Facebook/MySpace  Legal, moral, ethical issues of student use  “How to” create, use, configure

its.unc.edu 3 Scope  Features that might be useful…  Issues related to use… … to and for us, to and for our faculty, to and for other campus staff

its.unc.edu 4 You Talk How many of you use Facebook?

its.unc.edu 5 And? Any other social networks?

its.unc.edu 6 You Talk Some More Anybody not have a basic understanding of what Facebook is? This is gonna be hard…

its.unc.edu 7 A Very Short Definition Facebook is a Web-based service that makes it possible for individuals in high schools, universities, corporations, non-profits, the military, and geographic communities (primarily English- speaking ) to interact with each other and to share information.

its.unc.edu 8 And… It’s free for individuals…

its.unc.edu 9 A Very Short History In 2004, a student at Harvard thought it would be cool to develop a way for Harvard students to connect with each other. Now there are millions of Facebook users.

“So, what’s a social gal like you doing in a virtual place like this?” del.icio.us

its.unc.edu 11 How and When I Came to Facebook Fall 2005 (30 minutes) Fall 2006 (Several hours, some people, a couple of groups, some effort)

its.unc.edu 12 How and When I Came to Facebook September 2006 Women's center brown bag: Dangers of online social networks Danah Boyd talk on social networking (On the same day!) I was obviously missing something.

its.unc.edu 13 Your turn When I logged back into Facebook, what was (almost) the first thing I did?

its.unc.edu 14 Back to the Drawing Board (2006)  Created a more complete profile  Searched for campus faculty and staff  Posted some photos (N=8)  Wrote my first note September 29  Posted (and removed) links  Created an event September 26  And more…

its.unc.edu 15 Today  Profiles (very briefly)  Events  Groups & Organizations  Notes  Applications

its.unc.edu Profile

its.unc.edu 21 Why?  Know your colleagues better (the good, the bad, and the ugly?)  Use your weak ties  Subtle communication  Others?

its.unc.edu Events

its.unc.edu 23 Events I’ve Created  Games4Learning symposium  Cyberinfrastructure: A Campus Perspective  Discussion: The (Technology) Tipping Point  From Learning Objects to Learning Impact: An Update on the IMS...  Instructional Uses for Facebook  Immersive Learning Environments  ITS Open Lunch  A Virtual Environment for Education: Second Life  ITS Coffee Klatch  And others…

An example event

Event example, part 1

Event example, part 2

its.unc.edu 27 An Funny Thing Happened… More than 50% of the “Yes” RSVPs were not people I invited. “Instructional Uses for Facebook”

its.unc.edu 28 Another Funny Thing Happened… I invited 48 people. At the time of the event, 95 people were invited. “The (Technology) Tipping Point”

its.unc.edu 29 The Social Networking Piece

its.unc.edu 30 Why?  Publicize events  Find events  Add value to events: links, discussion  Others?

its.unc.edu Groups & Organizations

its.unc.edu 33 Why?  Feeling of community  Networking (students and new alumni, especially?)  Place to post news/info/etc  Place to ask and answer questions  Can be open or with approval  Event sponsorship  Others?

its.unc.edu 34 Disadvantages  Lots of them  Little activity in many of them  Not easy (yet) to see what’s new  Others?

its.unc.edu Notes

its.unc.edu 38 Why?  Share information with your connections  Connect with your weak ties  Others?

its.unc.edu Applications

its.unc.edu A Few Conclusions

its.unc.edu 42 Conclusions  Social networking can be very powerful  Social networking can be a time sink  Social networking can enhance professional relationships  Social networking can be used for marketing  We don’t yet know all the ways we might use social networking professionally…

its.unc.edu Explore. Experiment. Be Open.

its.unc.edu Final Call: Questions? Comments?