Alex "I encouraged them to create fake personae for the site" I thought it was well know that Facebook terms mandate 'real names', here is the T&C 4 (http://www.facebook.com/terms.php "Facebook users provide their real names and information") Thus you seem to be encouraging students to breach contract, which I assume is against university policy. ren On 12 Aug 2010, at 22:00, Alex Halavais wrote:
I've used facebook for a course, organizing pretty much everything through the site. This was at a time when the group functionality was not as fleshed out, and I wanted to be able to use RSS feeds into it, so I created fake "people" for the course that could be friended by students. (cf. http://www.flickr.com/photos/halavais/1300239816/ )
While it was sort-of fine for students who already lived much of their lives on Facebook, it was difficult for those who had no interest in the site. I encouraged them to create fake personae for the site, but even with that, I am concerned enough by the privacy implications of requiring (or encouraging) students to use the site that I have abandoned it. And once you go through the pain have having students create "alts" for the site, it becomes a lot less about the course content and a lot more about negotiating issues of privacy on the platform.
- Alex
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