Examples of Successful Uses of Facebook in the Classroom?
Hi Everyone, For awhile now, I've been toying with trying to incorporate Facebook into my courses as a way for students to talk about statistics they are seeing in the news (I teach statistics courses). My idea is to set up a group in Facebook where students could go to post things they are finding in the media related to statistics and to critique these items and comment on what others have posted. I would likely either set this up as an extra credit assignment (and have other options for students who do not want to use Facebook) or as a required assignment (again with another option for those students who might not want to use Facebook). I'm interested in trying Facebook because (a) I know many of my students use it and I thought this might engage them more, and (b) I like the layout of Facebook and the way you can easily link to things and share videos. I haven't found a blog interface that I like as much as Facebook. I do have some concerns, of course, related to privacy issues, and I would not want students to feel that I am doing this because I want to pry into their personal lives (my goal here is not to "friend" all my students but to get them talking about statistics they see in everyday life and sharing things with each other). So, I'm wondering if anyone on this list has tried to use Facebook and would be willing to share what was done and how it worked, or give some tips on "best practices" for use of Facebook in an educational context. Thank you in advance for anything you might have to share! Sincerely, Michelle Everson -- Michelle Everson, Ph.D. Quantitative Methods in Education Department of Educational Psychology University of Minnesota gaddy001@umn.edu 612-624-0691 http://www.tc.umn.edu/~delma001/CATALST/
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 -- -- // // This email is // [x] assumed public and may be blogged / forwarded. // [ ] assumed to be private, please ask before redistributing. // // Alexander C. Halavais, ciberflâneur // http://alex.halavais.net //
Alex is right to question the ethics of requiring students to join Facebook in order to complete course requirements (or create a Google Account to access Google-hosted content, or similar services). There are the privacy and behavioral tracking issues, and in Alex's particular example, the students are also compelled to violate the service's terms of service by creating fake accounts. The question is, however, what alternatives do we have as educators to best "reach" our students other than the popular social media they already use? Blackboard and D2L are clunky and often poorly supported, so it's understandable to want to find outside sources. Has anyone seen any university policies regarding the use of 3rd party platforms for coursework? -michael. -- Michael Zimmer, PhD Assistant Professor, School of Information Studies (Interim Undergraduate Program Director) Associate, Center for Information Policy Research University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee e: zimmerm@uwm.edu w: www.michaelzimmer.org On Aug 12, 2010, at 4:00 PM, 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
-- -- // // This email is // [x] assumed public and may be blogged / forwarded. // [ ] assumed to be private, please ask before redistributing. // // Alexander C. Halavais, ciberflâneur // http://alex.halavais.net // _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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I agree that Blackboard and such are quite clunky. I can't speak to the issue of university policies, but have a related query. I used a Ning site for the last few semesters with a course I taught on culture and technology and had quite a lot of success with it (part of the course involved discussing the privacy issues that students are already dealing with in their use of social media in their own lives outside of school). Now that Ning is starting to charge hefty fees for anything other than the most basic services I'm wondering if there is anything else out there, other than FB, that people would recommend. cara Cara Wallis Assistant Professor Department of Communication Texas A&M University 979-862-6956 ________________________________________ From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Michael Zimmer [zimmerm@uwm.edu] Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2010 7:46 PM To: AoIR-L Subject: Re: [Air-L] Examples of Successful Uses of Facebook in the Classroom? Alex is right to question the ethics of requiring students to join Facebook in order to complete course requirements (or create a Google Account to access Google-hosted content, or similar services). There are the privacy and behavioral tracking issues, and in Alex's particular example, the students are also compelled to violate the service's terms of service by creating fake accounts. The question is, however, what alternatives do we have as educators to best "reach" our students other than the popular social media they already use? Blackboard and D2L are clunky and often poorly supported, so it's understandable to want to find outside sources. Has anyone seen any university policies regarding the use of 3rd party platforms for coursework? -michael. -- Michael Zimmer, PhD Assistant Professor, School of Information Studies (Interim Undergraduate Program Director) Associate, Center for Information Policy Research University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee e: zimmerm@uwm.edu w: www.michaelzimmer.org On Aug 12, 2010, at 4:00 PM, 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
-- -- // // This email is // [x] assumed public and may be blogged / forwarded. // [ ] assumed to be private, please ask before redistributing. // // Alexander C. Halavais, ciberflâneur // http://alex.halavais.net // _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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_______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
There is an initiative going on through some people at UC Berkeley's School of Information to try to fill this need. You can read more about it here: http://ngtl.ischool.berkeley.edu/initiatives/participatory-media-for-educati... To be honest, I am not quite sure if they have "productized" the technology so that it is easy to just drop into any classroom situation. But my understanding is that this is a goal that they are working towards (at least I hope they are). Perhaps there is an opportunity here for some pilot programs beyond what's been done over the past couple of years here at Berkeley? If anyone wants to contact me off-list, I can put you in touch with the people who are running the new Center. I am not that familiar with what is going on, but I have talked to the people in charge. Dan -------------------------- Dan Perkel PhD Candidate UC Berkeley School of Information, Berkeley Center for New Media http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~dperkel On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 6:04 PM, Wallis, Cara <cwallis@tamu.edu> wrote:
I agree that Blackboard and such are quite clunky. I can't speak to the issue of university policies, but have a related query. I used a Ning site for the last few semesters with a course I taught on culture and technology and had quite a lot of success with it (part of the course involved discussing the privacy issues that students are already dealing with in their use of social media in their own lives outside of school). Now that Ning is starting to charge hefty fees for anything other than the most basic services I'm wondering if there is anything else out there, other than FB, that people would recommend. cara
Cara Wallis Assistant Professor Department of Communication Texas A&M University 979-862-6956 ________________________________________ From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Michael Zimmer [zimmerm@uwm.edu] Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2010 7:46 PM To: AoIR-L Subject: Re: [Air-L] Examples of Successful Uses of Facebook in the Classroom?
Alex is right to question the ethics of requiring students to join Facebook in order to complete course requirements (or create a Google Account to access Google-hosted content, or similar services). There are the privacy and behavioral tracking issues, and in Alex's particular example, the students are also compelled to violate the service's terms of service by creating fake accounts.
The question is, however, what alternatives do we have as educators to best "reach" our students other than the popular social media they already use? Blackboard and D2L are clunky and often poorly supported, so it's understandable to want to find outside sources.
Has anyone seen any university policies regarding the use of 3rd party platforms for coursework?
-michael.
-- Michael Zimmer, PhD Assistant Professor, School of Information Studies (Interim Undergraduate Program Director) Associate, Center for Information Policy Research University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee e: zimmerm@uwm.edu w: www.michaelzimmer.org
On Aug 12, 2010, at 4:00 PM, 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
-- -- // // This email is // [x] assumed public and may be blogged / forwarded. // [ ] assumed to be private, please ask before redistributing. // // Alexander C. Halavais, ciberflâneur // http://alex.halavais.net // _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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With regard to alternatives to FB and Ning, you'll probably need to do a little work, unfortunately. However, BuddyPress (a WordPress plugin) can get you some basic social networking functionality, and I've heard good things about Elgg, though I haven't used it. That said, one of the reasons I went to FB in the first place was to go to where the students already were, and avoid having to spend a lot of time learning about new systems when that wasn't what the course was about. One of my chief complaints about Blackboard is not just that they seem to have clue zero about user experience--I use lots of clunky software--but that students spend a lot of time learning how to use a system that will be of no use to them at all when they graduate. If you are going to learn to use something that is clunky, at least let it be something that is useful to you outside of the university or my own course. All that said, I still don't have a problem with students using commercial systems when they do their work, and drawing on multiple tools--especially when they are already using those tools. In practice, it often raises teachable moments on issues of privacy and intellectual property. I just found Facebook a bit of a bridge too far, especially for students who are not already on the system, and found no good way of tailoring Facebook's privacy model to hold both coursework and personal networks. Best, Alex On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 9:04 PM, Wallis, Cara <cwallis@tamu.edu> wrote:
I agree that Blackboard and such are quite clunky. I can't speak to the issue of university policies, but have a related query. I used a Ning site for the last few semesters with a course I taught on culture and technology and had quite a lot of success with it (part of the course involved discussing the privacy issues that students are already dealing with in their use of social media in their own lives outside of school). Now that Ning is starting to charge hefty fees for anything other than the most basic services I'm wondering if there is anything else out there, other than FB, that people would recommend. cara
Cara Wallis Assistant Professor Department of Communication Texas A&M University 979-862-6956
-- -- // // This email is // [x] assumed public and may be blogged / forwarded. // [ ] assumed to be private, please ask before redistributing. // // Alexander C. Halavais, ciberflâneur // http://alex.halavais.net //
Alex: The privacy modes work fine on FB but the key is how you set up the group from the beginning. I actually began using FB for my dissertation research around 2006 and I have been using it in the classroom for the past three years successfully. I set up the groups as private or secret so that as the administrator I do not have to worry about those features. I think that Blackboard and most university CMS' are equally susceptible to mischief from campus or outside hackers, but you generally do not hear about it in the media. I know because I have a dual career as a media professional and a academic researcher/professional. If you do a quick Google search, you will note that several major universities had serious data breaches where personal identifying information was found by the hackers. I actually received two letters informing me at the time. My major point with my research on edutainment and convergence is that education when done well is a learner-centered (McCombs, 2005)collaboration. Therefore, it is imperative that we utilize the tools that the students are already utilizing on a regular basis to get my message across. In truth, my students are my best advertisements because they often Like one of my FB fan pages or ask to friend me after coming to a class or virtually attending like many students did during the East Coast American blizzards of 2010. We actually had class online in real time and students actually loaded up photo essays, video essays and standard posts on FB. I find Blackboard to be too limiting on the students and my own creativity since I am highly tech savvy. I think FB has a easy learning curve and the students like and I am getting the educational outcomes that I need in courses that usually have students from multi-disciplines. I have been able to teach them how to use FB, Twitter, YouTube, podcasts and blogging in every discipline to assist them with their other classes too. Since I teach communications, PR, video production, speech and education/higher education courses at multiple levels at more than one institution I have been able to use FB and other tools as a bridge to get the learners where they need to be. In fact, the real tests in my courses are the last 4 classes where the students teach the content and I and their fellow students engage in peer evaluation and review (which FB and social media had already enabled us to do for the first 11 weeks). The students loved the "independence" and "innovation" but they love the collaboration. Twitter integration in the classroom was very exciting since we creating Twitter IDs to link course videos to test things in the real world. I had one student experience 10, 000 views with a how to video for example on soccer in preparation for the World Cup. I learned quite a lot, and he ended up creating a successful online series where he had to conduct real research of the rules, South African culture/history, geography and yes the science of soccer (football). Chris A. Heidelberg, Ph.D. Loyola University -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Alex Halavais Sent: Friday, August 13, 2010 9:41 AM To: Wallis, Cara Cc: AoIR-L Subject: Re: [Air-L] Examples of Successful Uses of Facebook in the Classroom? With regard to alternatives to FB and Ning, you'll probably need to do a little work, unfortunately. However, BuddyPress (a WordPress plugin) can get you some basic social networking functionality, and I've heard good things about Elgg, though I haven't used it. That said, one of the reasons I went to FB in the first place was to go to where the students already were, and avoid having to spend a lot of time learning about new systems when that wasn't what the course was about. One of my chief complaints about Blackboard is not just that they seem to have clue zero about user experience--I use lots of clunky software--but that students spend a lot of time learning how to use a system that will be of no use to them at all when they graduate. If you are going to learn to use something that is clunky, at least let it be something that is useful to you outside of the university or my own course. All that said, I still don't have a problem with students using commercial systems when they do their work, and drawing on multiple tools--especially when they are already using those tools. In practice, it often raises teachable moments on issues of privacy and intellectual property. I just found Facebook a bit of a bridge too far, especially for students who are not already on the system, and found no good way of tailoring Facebook's privacy model to hold both coursework and personal networks. Best, Alex On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 9:04 PM, Wallis, Cara <cwallis@tamu.edu> wrote:
I agree that Blackboard and such are quite clunky. I can't speak to the issue of university policies, but have a related query. I used a Ning site for the last few semesters with a course I taught on culture and technology and had quite a lot of success with it (part of the course involved discussing the privacy issues that students are already dealing with in their use of social media in their own lives outside of school). Now that Ning is starting to charge hefty fees for anything other than the most basic services I'm wondering if there is anything else out there, other than FB, that people would recommend. cara
Cara Wallis Assistant Professor Department of Communication Texas A&M University 979-862-6956
-- -- // // This email is // [x] assumed public and may be blogged / forwarded. // [ ] assumed to be private, please ask before redistributing. // // Alexander C. Halavais, ciberflâneur // http://alex.halavais.net // _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
I've used elgg, and one thing i'll say is that it really requires a population for it to really function well. In classes of 12-15, it is sort of pointless and the cost/benefit of learning another interface vs the utility of the interface just didn't come to fruition, but in classes of 300, it could be quite good. It is a different sort of tool though, not quite facebook, not quite ning, just different, very group oriented. The best tool i've found so far has been mediawiki, at least for small classes of advanced students. Jeremy Hunsinger Center for Digital Discourse and Culture Virginia Tech Live without dead time. -graffitti Paris 1968
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
-- -- // // This email is // [x] assumed public and may be blogged / forwarded. // [ ] assumed to be private, please ask before redistributing. // // Alexander C. Halavais, ciberflâneur // http://alex.halavais.net // _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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Hi Michelle-- I read the other posts and understand the concerns with using Facebook. I also agree that Blackboard is clunky--as is the CMS we use which is adapted from Moodle. It works well enough, but a few alternatives you might consider are wikis through PBWorks and WordPress (blogging tool). These tools have far fewer privacy concerns though you may already have considered them. On a side note, I will soon post a CFP to this list for a special issue of the /Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization/. The special issue is on *training,* and we are soliciting both research papers and best practices pieces. I see the potential for many best practices pieces in this discussion and others on the list. Please consider the CFP. I should have an edited version out in the next week. In the meantime, if anyone has questions, please let me know. Best! Pam Dr. Pamela Estes Brewer Assistant Professor Director, Writing and Editing Internships Department of English Appalachian State University Manager, STC Academic Special Interest Group phone 828-262-2351 fax 828-262-2133 email brewerpe@appstate.edu Michelle Everson wrote:
Hi Everyone,
For awhile now, I've been toying with trying to incorporate Facebook into my courses as a way for students to talk about statistics they are seeing in the news (I teach statistics courses). My idea is to set up a group in Facebook where students could go to post things they are finding in the media related to statistics and to critique these items and comment on what others have posted. I would likely either set this up as an extra credit assignment (and have other options for students who do not want to use Facebook) or as a required assignment (again with another option for those students who might not want to use Facebook). I'm interested in trying Facebook because (a) I know many of my students use it and I thought this might engage them more, and (b) I like the layout of Facebook and the way you can easily link to things and share videos. I haven't found a blog interface that I like as much as Facebook.
I do have some concerns, of course, related to privacy issues, and I would not want students to feel that I am doing this because I want to pry into their personal lives (my goal here is not to "friend" all my students but to get them talking about statistics they see in everyday life and sharing things with each other). So, I'm wondering if anyone on this list has tried to use Facebook and would be willing to share what was done and how it worked, or give some tips on "best practices" for use of Facebook in an educational context.
Thank you in advance for anything you might have to share!
Sincerely,
Michelle Everson
Hi all. In the past semester, on an undergrad digital media theory course, I ran a small FB assignment adapted from one shared by David Silver on his blog. It asked students to create an FB group about something that mattered to them and to develop an outreach strategy to reach potential members. The assessed component was a follow-up blog post where they reflected on the process, and on whether/how they'd maintain and develop the group after the course was over. It worked quite well: screenshots of some of their work are in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K95J7b621a8. I'm not sure either I or the students would have been so comfortable with actually assessing them on their FB activity itself, though - I suspect we might all have felt that bringing assessed coursework into that space would have been invasive. I also wouldn't run that particular assignment next year, as FB is downgrading the prominence of groups. Finally, I've also had an FB group for that class running for the past three years - no assessment, just a space where they can share any relevant links: it works well for that. Cheers, graham Dr Graham Meikle ---------------------- Senior Lecturer, Department of Film, Media & Journalism, University of Stirling, FK9 4LA, Scotland. T: +44 (0) 1786 466222 F: +44 (0) 1786 466855 E: <graham.meikle@stir.ac.uk> W: <http://www.fmj.stir.ac.uk/staff/graham-meikle/graham-meikle.php> On 12/08/2010 20:42, "Michelle Everson" <gaddy001@umn.edu> wrote: Hi Everyone, For awhile now, I've been toying with trying to incorporate Facebook into my courses as a way for students to talk about statistics they are seeing in the news (I teach statistics courses). My idea is to set up a group in Facebook where students could go to post things they are finding in the media related to statistics and to critique these items and comment on what others have posted. I would likely either set this up as an extra credit assignment (and have other options for students who do not want to use Facebook) or as a required assignment (again with another option for those students who might not want to use Facebook). I'm interested in trying Facebook because (a) I know many of my students use it and I thought this might engage them more, and (b) I like the layout of Facebook and the way you can easily link to things and share videos. I haven't found a blog interface that I like as much as Facebook. I do have some concerns, of course, related to privacy issues, and I would not want students to feel that I am doing this because I want to pry into their personal lives (my goal here is not to "friend" all my students but to get them talking about statistics they see in everyday life and sharing things with each other). So, I'm wondering if anyone on this list has tried to use Facebook and would be willing to share what was done and how it worked, or give some tips on "best practices" for use of Facebook in an educational context. Thank you in advance for anything you might have to share! Sincerely, Michelle Everson -- Michelle Everson, Ph.D. Quantitative Methods in Education Department of Educational Psychology University of Minnesota gaddy001@umn.edu 612-624-0691 http://www.tc.umn.edu/~delma001/CATALST/ _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/ -- The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010 The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.
All, We just switched from Blackboard to D2L - both suck in unique ways and are (IMO) highly ideological in how they think you should teach and time consuming to work with. Of course, my institution's lack of meaningful tech support and banker's hours are also issues. I just can't rely on it being up and functional 24/7. I have head good things about Moodle, but I can't understand why education LMS is so crappy in that 1997 Microsoft kind of way. U of Washington has its own system that was pretty user friendly which is only great of you work there. As a rule, I use LMS for grades, quizzes, discussion boards (for all online classes), and to post copyrighted materials. I use a combination of pbworks (edu version is ad free and my University did pop for the enhanced version) and Google Groups for the list function (sign-up is on the pbworks page). These are reasonable innocuous, easy to use, and dependable. FB is a good platform for students to use is they choose for research projects or to study as media topic, but I find their privacy policies problematic enough that I would not force students to use it. -TED On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 8:20 AM, Graham Meikle <graham.meikle@stir.ac.uk>wrote:
Hi all. In the past semester, on an undergrad digital media theory course, I ran a small FB assignment adapted from one shared by David Silver on his blog. It asked students to create an FB group about something that mattered to them and to develop an outreach strategy to reach potential members. The assessed component was a follow-up blog post where they reflected on the process, and on whether/how they'd maintain and develop the group after the course was over. It worked quite well: screenshots of some of their work are in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K95J7b621a8. I'm not sure either I or the students would have been so comfortable with actually assessing them on their FB activity itself, though - I suspect we might all have felt that bringing assessed coursework into that space would have been invasive. I also wouldn't run that particular assignment next year, as FB is downgrading the prominence of groups. Finally, I've also had an FB group for that class runn ing for the past three years - no assessment, just a space where they can share any relevant links: it works well for that.
Cheers, graham
Dr Graham Meikle ---------------------- Senior Lecturer, Department of Film, Media & Journalism, University of Stirling, FK9 4LA, Scotland.
T: +44 (0) 1786 466222 F: +44 (0) 1786 466855 E: <graham.meikle@stir.ac.uk> W: <http://www.fmj.stir.ac.uk/staff/graham-meikle/graham-meikle.php>
On 12/08/2010 20:42, "Michelle Everson" <gaddy001@umn.edu> wrote:
Hi Everyone,
For awhile now, I've been toying with trying to incorporate Facebook into my courses as a way for students to talk about statistics they are seeing in the news (I teach statistics courses). My idea is to set up a group in Facebook where students could go to post things they are finding in the media related to statistics and to critique these items and comment on what others have posted. I would likely either set this up as an extra credit assignment (and have other options for students who do not want to use Facebook) or as a required assignment (again with another option for those students who might not want to use Facebook). I'm interested in trying Facebook because (a) I know many of my students use it and I thought this might engage them more, and (b) I like the layout of Facebook and the way you can easily link to things and share videos. I haven't found a blog interface that I like as much as Facebook.
I do have some concerns, of course, related to privacy issues, and I would not want students to feel that I am doing this because I want to pry into their personal lives (my goal here is not to "friend" all my students but to get them talking about statistics they see in everyday life and sharing things with each other). So, I'm wondering if anyone on this list has tried to use Facebook and would be willing to share what was done and how it worked, or give some tips on "best practices" for use of Facebook in an educational context.
Thank you in advance for anything you might have to share!
Sincerely,
Michelle Everson
-- Michelle Everson, Ph.D. Quantitative Methods in Education Department of Educational Psychology University of Minnesota gaddy001@umn.edu 612-624-0691 http://www.tc.umn.edu/~delma001/CATALST/<http://www.tc.umn.edu/%7Edelma001/CATALST/> _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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-- The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010 The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.
_______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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-- Ted M. Coopman Ph.D. Lecturer Department of Communication Studies Department of Television, Radio, Film, & Theatre San Jose State University
Our school uses Moodle, with which I'm generally happy (it's at least a bit better than Blackboard or WebCT), but because Moodle is open source, and there are a variety of different modules floating around, not all Moodle installations are the same. It depends a great deal on what your campus systems administrator chooses to implement. I've found particular frustration as they play around with changing various gradebook modules. So, all Moodles are not created equal. -- Mark D. Johns, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Communication Studies Luther College, Decorah, Iowa USA http://academic.luther.edu/~johnsmar/ ----------------------------------------------- "Get the facts first. You can distort them later." ---Mark Twain On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 11:47 AM, Ted Coopman <ted.coopman@gmail.com> wrote:
All,
We just switched from Blackboard to D2L - both suck in unique ways and are (IMO) highly ideological in how they think you should teach and time consuming to work with. Of course, my institution's lack of meaningful tech support and banker's hours are also issues. I just can't rely on it being up and functional 24/7.
I have head good things about Moodle, but I can't understand why education LMS is so crappy in that 1997 Microsoft kind of way. U of Washington has its own system that was pretty user friendly which is only great of you work there.
As a rule, I use LMS for grades, quizzes, discussion boards (for all online classes), and to post copyrighted materials. I use a combination of pbworks (edu version is ad free and my University did pop for the enhanced version) and Google Groups for the list function (sign-up is on the pbworks page). These are reasonable innocuous, easy to use, and dependable.
FB is a good platform for students to use is they choose for research projects or to study as media topic, but I find their privacy policies problematic enough that I would not force students to use it.
-TED
On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 8:20 AM, Graham Meikle <graham.meikle@stir.ac.uk>wrote:
Hi all. In the past semester, on an undergrad digital media theory course, I ran a small FB assignment adapted from one shared by David Silver on his blog. It asked students to create an FB group about something that mattered to them and to develop an outreach strategy to reach potential members. The assessed component was a follow-up blog post where they reflected on the process, and on whether/how they'd maintain and develop the group after the course was over. It worked quite well: screenshots of some of their work are in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K95J7b621a8. I'm not sure either I or the students would have been so comfortable with actually assessing them on their FB activity itself, though - I suspect we might all have felt that bringing assessed coursework into that space would have been invasive. I also wouldn't run that particular assignment next year, as FB is downgrading the prominence of groups. Finally, I've also had an FB group for that class runn ing for the past three years - no assessment, just a space where they can share any relevant links: it works well for that.
Cheers, graham
Dr Graham Meikle ---------------------- Senior Lecturer, Department of Film, Media & Journalism, University of Stirling, FK9 4LA, Scotland.
T: +44 (0) 1786 466222 F: +44 (0) 1786 466855 E: <graham.meikle@stir.ac.uk> W: <http://www.fmj.stir.ac.uk/staff/graham-meikle/graham-meikle.php>
On 12/08/2010 20:42, "Michelle Everson" <gaddy001@umn.edu> wrote:
Hi Everyone,
For awhile now, I've been toying with trying to incorporate Facebook into my courses as a way for students to talk about statistics they are seeing in the news (I teach statistics courses). My idea is to set up a group in Facebook where students could go to post things they are finding in the media related to statistics and to critique these items and comment on what others have posted. I would likely either set this up as an extra credit assignment (and have other options for students who do not want to use Facebook) or as a required assignment (again with another option for those students who might not want to use Facebook). I'm interested in trying Facebook because (a) I know many of my students use it and I thought this might engage them more, and (b) I like the layout of Facebook and the way you can easily link to things and share videos. I haven't found a blog interface that I like as much as Facebook.
I do have some concerns, of course, related to privacy issues, and I would not want students to feel that I am doing this because I want to pry into their personal lives (my goal here is not to "friend" all my students but to get them talking about statistics they see in everyday life and sharing things with each other). So, I'm wondering if anyone on this list has tried to use Facebook and would be willing to share what was done and how it worked, or give some tips on "best practices" for use of Facebook in an educational context.
Thank you in advance for anything you might have to share!
Sincerely,
Michelle Everson
-- Michelle Everson, Ph.D. Quantitative Methods in Education Department of Educational Psychology University of Minnesota gaddy001@umn.edu 612-624-0691 http://www.tc.umn.edu/~delma001/CATALST/<http://www.tc.umn.edu/%7Edelma001/CATALST/> _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
-- The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010 The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.
_______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
-- Ted M. Coopman Ph.D. Lecturer Department of Communication Studies Department of Television, Radio, Film, & Theatre San Jose State University _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
At Athabasca, an exclusively distance/open university, we use Moodle as our primary learning delivery and management platform. Most of our undergrad courses are individualized so I am unable to make use of the chat and discussion features. However, the blog in Moodle was so poor that I had to change my assignment. Moodle, like most open source software, cannot just be used and adopted easily without a high level of technical expertise. We have teams of IT professionals customizing it before it is ready for student and faculty use. In the future we expect some kind of integration with elgg, as we have one of its main developers on faculty with us from the UK. Rhiannon Dr. Rhiannon Bury Assistant Professor Women's and Gender Studies Athabasca University (Canada's Open University) rbury@athabascau.ca ________________________________ From: Ted Coopman <ted.coopman@gmail.com> To: Graham Meikle <graham.meikle@stir.ac.uk> Cc: "air-l@listserv.aoir.org" <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Sent: Fri, August 13, 2010 10:47:08 AM Subject: Re: [Air-L] Examples of Successful Uses of Facebook in the Classroom? All, We just switched from Blackboard to D2L - both suck in unique ways and are (IMO) highly ideological in how they think you should teach and time consuming to work with. Of course, my institution's lack of meaningful tech support and banker's hours are also issues. I just can't rely on it being up and functional 24/7. I have head good things about Moodle, but I can't understand why education LMS is so crappy in that 1997 Microsoft kind of way. U of Washington has its own system that was pretty user friendly which is only great of you work there. As a rule, I use LMS for grades, quizzes, discussion boards (for all online classes), and to post copyrighted materials. I use a combination of pbworks (edu version is ad free and my University did pop for the enhanced version) and Google Groups for the list function (sign-up is on the pbworks page). These are reasonable innocuous, easy to use, and dependable. FB is a good platform for students to use is they choose for research projects or to study as media topic, but I find their privacy policies problematic enough that I would not force students to use it. -TED
All, There seems to be a lot of money on the table for a good LMS, it is amazing everything is either crappy or complicated. Honestly pbworks + secure gradebook, quizzes, and a discussion board would do it. I would think it would take Google, Apple, or the like a couple of weeks to come up with something better! What really blows my mind is the seeming ignorance about instructional design or the amount of steps it takes to do anything in either BB or D2L. Intuitive they are not. -TED PS. just for the record, having to hit "reply all" still sucks. On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 11:30 AM, Rhiannon Bury <rcbury@rogers.com> wrote:
At Athabasca, an exclusively distance/open university, we use Moodle as our primary learning delivery and management platform. Most of our undergrad courses are individualized so I am unable to make use of the chat and discussion features. However, the blog in Moodle was so poor that I had to change my assignment. Moodle, like most open source software, cannot just be used and adopted easily without a high level of technical expertise. We have teams of IT professionals customizing it before it is ready for student and faculty use. In the future we expect some kind of integration with elgg, as we have one of its main developers on faculty with us from the UK.
Rhiannon
Dr. Rhiannon Bury Assistant Professor Women's and Gender Studies Athabasca University (Canada's Open University) rbury@athabascau.ca
________________________________ From: Ted Coopman <ted.coopman@gmail.com> To: Graham Meikle <graham.meikle@stir.ac.uk> Cc: "air-l@listserv.aoir.org" <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Sent: Fri, August 13, 2010 10:47:08 AM Subject: Re: [Air-L] Examples of Successful Uses of Facebook in the Classroom?
All,
We just switched from Blackboard to D2L - both suck in unique ways and are (IMO) highly ideological in how they think you should teach and time consuming to work with. Of course, my institution's lack of meaningful tech support and banker's hours are also issues. I just can't rely on it being up and functional 24/7.
I have head good things about Moodle, but I can't understand why education LMS is so crappy in that 1997 Microsoft kind of way. U of Washington has its own system that was pretty user friendly which is only great of you work there.
As a rule, I use LMS for grades, quizzes, discussion boards (for all online classes), and to post copyrighted materials. I use a combination of pbworks (edu version is ad free and my University did pop for the enhanced version) and Google Groups for the list function (sign-up is on the pbworks page). These are reasonable innocuous, easy to use, and dependable.
FB is a good platform for students to use is they choose for research projects or to study as media topic, but I find their privacy policies problematic enough that I would not force students to use it.
-TED _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
-- Ted M. Coopman Ph.D. Lecturer Department of Communication Studies Department of Television, Radio, Film, & Theatre San Jose State University
Hi Michelle, As far as I know the project Facebook and the postuniversity recently published in a book, could be useful for you iniciative. The project is about analysis of new ways of acquiring knowledge beyond the traditional process of teaching and learning, in which the teacher is the repository of information transmitted to a passive student. The framework aims ta exploring the construction of knowledge by the students themselves through the activity conducted over networks, from creating a text, a software program, a design to the creation and management of communities, is a way for learning and for the modeling of individual thought. The intention to use this line of work based social software to encourage development of creative ability, the ability to create products, while promoting digital literacy of students. Teachers must be trained to contribute and participate and it must know the tools that is available and know unfold with them. I Will be happy to put you in direct contact with the project director, Alejandro Piscitelli. The book in pdf format is avaible at: http://www.fundacion.telefonica.com/debateyconocimiento/eventos/eventos/2010... ********************************************************* Ruth Martínez, Phd in course http://www.*elearning3d.es <http://www.elearning3d.es/> * e-mail: ruth.martinez@elearning3d.es skype: ruth_martinez móvil: +34 654 83 94 25 twitter: @aureamemotech SL Avatar: AureA Memotech ********************************************************** On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 9:42 PM, Michelle Everson <gaddy001@umn.edu> wrote:
Hi Everyone,
For awhile now, I've been toying with trying to incorporate Facebook into my courses as a way for students to talk about statistics they are seeing in the news (I teach statistics courses). My idea is to set up a group in Facebook where students could go to post things they are finding in the media related to statistics and to critique these items and comment on what others have posted. I would likely either set this up as an extra credit assignment (and have other options for students who do not want to use Facebook) or as a required assignment (again with another option for those students who might not want to use Facebook). I'm interested in trying Facebook because (a) I know many of my students use it and I thought this might engage them more, and (b) I like the layout of Facebook and the way you can easily link to things and share videos. I haven't found a blog interface that I like as much as Facebook.
I do have some concerns, of course, related to privacy issues, and I would not want students to feel that I am doing this because I want to pry into their personal lives (my goal here is not to "friend" all my students but to get them talking about statistics they see in everyday life and sharing things with each other). So, I'm wondering if anyone on this list has tried to use Facebook and would be willing to share what was done and how it worked, or give some tips on "best practices" for use of Facebook in an educational context.
Thank you in advance for anything you might have to share!
Sincerely,
Michelle Everson
-- Michelle Everson, Ph.D. Quantitative Methods in Education Department of Educational Psychology University of Minnesota gaddy001@umn.edu 612-624-0691 http://www.tc.umn.edu/~delma001/CATALST/ _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
participants (14)
-
Alex Halavais -
Dan Perkel -
Graham Meikle -
Heidelberg, Chris -
jeremy hunsinger -
Mark D. Johns -
Michael Zimmer -
Michelle Everson -
Pam Brewer -
Ren Reynolds -
Rhiannon Bury -
Ruth Martínez. Consultoría y formación Entornos Virt uales 3D, Web 2.0, Mashups -
Ted Coopman -
Wallis, Cara