Copyright 2008, Elizabeth A. Evans. This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author. To contact the author: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Why I Use Facebook. (And why you should, too.) Elizabeth A. Evans UNC-Chapel Hill ITS Teaching and Learning January 2008

its.unc.edu 3 Scope  Your kids and Facebook/MySpace  Legal, moral, ethical issues of student use  “How to” create, use, configure

its.unc.edu 4 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 5 You Talk How many of you use Facebook?

its.unc.edu 6 And? Any other social networks?

its.unc.edu 7 You Talk Some More Anybody not have a basic understanding of what Facebook is? This is gonna be hard…

its.unc.edu 8 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 9 And… It’s free for individuals…

its.unc.edu 10 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 12 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 13 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 14 Your turn When I logged back into Facebook, what was (almost) the first thing I did?

its.unc.edu 15 Back to the Drawing Board  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 16 Today  Profiles  Events  Groups  Notes  Applications  Mini-Feed

its.unc.edu 17 On Your Own  Everything else :-)

its.unc.edu Your Profile

its.unc.edu 19 Let’s Talk Specifics What can and should go on your profile?

its.unc.edu Events

its.unc.edu 25 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 a few others…

An example event

Event example, part 1

Event example, part 2

Event example, part 3

its.unc.edu 30 A Funny Thing Happened… More than 50% of the “Yes” RSVPs were not people I invited. “Instructional Uses for Facebook”

its.unc.edu 31 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 Groups

Group Example

Group Example, Part 1

Group Example, Part 2

its.unc.edu 37 Groups: Advantages  Feeling of community  Place to post news/info/etc  Can be open or with approval  Event sponsorship  Others?

its.unc.edu 38 Groups: Disadvantages  Lots of them  Little activity in many of them  Not easy (yet) to see what’s new  Others?

its.unc.edu Notes

Go Heels (she said, quietly)

its.unc.edu Applications

its.unc.edu Mini-Feed

its.unc.edu A Few Conclusions

its.unc.edu 48 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 Be thoughtful.

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