1. The Educational Uses of Facebook
Amy Brown
Director, eLearning
Guilford Technical Community College, NC
The Educational Uses of Facebook

2. Do you have a Facebook account?
Yes No

3. Does your school use Facebook?
Yes No

4. What is Facebook? Social networking site Started in February 2004
So, what is facebook. Facebook is a social networking site that started in February If you have never used a social networking site before, the concept of being social on the Internet may confuse or scare you. Bear in mind that you cannot compare social face-to-face vs. online. Majority of the interaction that occurs on Facebook is asynchronous meaning I tell you something, log out, you log on and tell me something.
To me, the most important word here is networking. People are using facebook to create their own personal networks and collaborate with others. They are monitoring the activity of others and making comments, suggestions or other remarks. If you are a teacher online and you have introduced a group project to your students, you know how amazing this concept is – your students are willing collaborating for hours online willingly without a grade in sight.
Before you can get a real feel for this tool though, you have to see it’s numbers.

5. Facebook, by numbers More than 110 million active users
4th most trafficked website in the world
Most trafficked social networking site
Fastest growing demographic – 25 years and older
30 million photos uploaded daily
6 million active user groups
Over 24,000 applications built for Facebook
140 new applications added per day
95% users use at least 1 application

6. Peek into Facebook

7. Facebook Features Profile Status Friends News Feed Wall
Discussion Boards
Photo tagging
Applications

8. Facebook Profile

9. Facebook Status

10. Facebook Friends

11. Facebook News Feed

12. Facebook Wall

13. Facebook Discussion Board

14. Facebook Photo Tagging

15. Facebook Application

16. Who is using Facebook?

17. The Presidental Candidates
Barack obama
John mccain

18. Bill Gates

19. Who else?
Churches
Book publishers
Colleges
Students

20. How are students using Facebook?

21. Creative ways of students
School-based book buyback
Clubs
Group work
Applications
Courses

24. What percentage of freshman have a Facebook account?
30%
55%
85%
95%

25. What percentage of college students use the privacy settings?5%
20%
45%
75%

26. What students don’t realize about Facebook?
85% of all college students are on Facebook, but less than 5% use the privacy options. They allow public viewing.
Facebook owns everything that is uploaded.
Students don’t understand the long view.

27. Thank you Facebook

28. Your school Internet traffic is going here.
We can’t control this like we can the information in our LMS.
If you create an account to start monitoring your students, then you can lose what you have to gain by being there.
Our students are not checking the accounts that we give them. Stop aiming for their inbox and aim for their phone and Facebook.

29. Facebook is not going away.
They are engaging our students and making them want to connect better than we can for free.
Students have their own language online.
Students have to renegotiate their social networks every semester.
Facebook has become the third space. Ray Oldenburg, The Great, Good Place – two primary spaces are work and home. People need a third one to feel part of a community. They are finding it on Facebook.

30. Accessible anywhere

31. How can we use Facebook to connect with our students?

32. Teacher account – invite my students to make me their friend.
Encourage students to create content-specific groups to collect data, start discussions, etc.
LMS are trying to find ways to send information to their Facebook account.

34. Content-specific uses
Historical or literary figure
Cultural guides
Thumbnail evaluation
Programming applications
Service learning projects

35. What do faculty need to know before they proceed?

36. Have a separate teacher and personal account.
Use the group feature as a way to keep content clear.
Don’t assume that your students understand how to use this medium effectively.
Use the privacy settings.

37. Which idea is the most important to me right now?
Students are already there.
Students are not experts on the long view.
LMS involvement
Group areas for group projects.
Separate work and personal accounts

38. Sources
(Facebook press room)
Bugeja, Michael J., (2006) Facing by Facebook, The Chnronicle of Higher Education
Open Education, blog, “The Changing Face(Book) of Education”
Stutzmans, Fred, blog Unit Structures, “How Administrators should approach Facebook: Ten Rules” (1/23/06)
Falsani, Cathleen, Chicago Sun-Times, “A Facebook community reminisces and mourns” (May 2008)
Guess, Andy, Inside Higher Ed, “Facebook, Meet Blackboard” (May 2008)
Simon, Mallory, CNN.com, “Online student-teacher friendships can be tricky” (August 2008)

39. Funny video about Facebook
Facebook in Real Life
(Please note that this video is PG-13 due to some adult words.)