Facebook for Teaching and Communicating

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Facebook for learning and collaboration: engage your students or colleagues

Tony Brett

Head of IT Support Staff Services

OUCS

Wednesday 11 February 2009

Agenda

Quick Facebook Introduction

Privacy and Ownership Concerns

Disciplinary Action

Communicating

Collaborating

Teaching

Practical

Facebook is a social network tool

Framework for information

Complex control of who can see what

Users have a “profile” with a picture* and other personal details as they wish, including limiting what certain people can see

Based on “Networks”

Facebook creates a newsfeed based on what your “friends” are doing

Available to anyone 13 and over

* Picture is important for recognition, especially with common names

Happy 5

th

Birthday!

Started in Harvard University Feb 2004

Later added academic addresses (.edu, .ac.uk etc) making “networks” for “colleges”

 Oxford network has just over 33,000 people in it, out a possible c. 45,000

Regional and Employer networks also exist

 “Regional” anyone can join, but can’t change too often

 “Employer” requires email address in the right domain

Opened to anyone with email in Sep 2006

Facebook has many features!

The Wall

Messages INBOX (and threads) & Chat

Friends

Pokes

Groups

Fan Pages & Adverts

Events

Photos & Videos (with tagging)

Posted items & Notes

Shared items

Applications

There are other Social Networking Sites

Bebo – lots of school children

MySpace – musicians etc.

 Sometimes called “poor man’s facebook”

Friendfinder

Twitter - Microblogging

And other minor sites

Even sites where you can make your own social networks

Friends

The key to networks

Can invite by email or searching

 Can search on your email address book

 Privacy worry?

Mutual consent

Friend lists can be used to control access and send messages

Can be good for keeping up with folks after conferences or other business meetings etc.

I recommend you only make friends with people you actually know (and have preferably met!)

Tagging

Marking a photo, video or other item as containing a person

Can only tag your own friends

Others can tag your photos but need your permission

You can untag yourself if you don’t like a photo or video you are tagged in

 Then nobody can re-tag you

Facebook won’t remove items unless they violate the AUP

What about my privacy?

People worry about revealing their personal lives to the world

Tutors and Students may want to keep things from each other!

 Limiting views to friend groups can help

Identity Theft Risk

 Don’t show DOB and Home Address!

Facebook staff can check profiles (for policy violations)

Things are “cached” on the web so even if you put something up then remove it, it may still be held elsewhere for years!

Controlling Privacy is quite logical

Privacy screen on Facebook

Settings for:

 Account

Name, Contact Email, Password

 Privacy

Profile, Search, News Feed & Wall, Applications

How another user will see your profile

 Applications

Can Control each photo album separately

Ownership Concerns

Facebook T&Cs say that they can use everything you put there, for free!

 You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, nonexclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content

Copyright Policy is strict

 We respect the IP rights of others and we prohibit users from

Posting User Content that violates another party's IP rights.

When we receive a proper claim of IP infringement, we promptly remove or disable access to the allegedly infringing User

Content.

 Facebook will be entitled to the unrestricted use of any such

Submission for any purpose, commercial or otherwise, without acknowledgment or compensation to you.

Disciplinary Action & Prospective

Employers

Don’t name your employer and then defame them or say anything to bring them or their business into disrepute

Don’t put stuff up you don’t want others to see.

Think about future employers etc.

Oxford Students have been disciplined with evidence from Facebook after post-exam

“trashing”

In April 2007, students at a Toronto school were banned from an end-of-the-year trip after disparaging remarks about a teacher were found on Facebook

So why use Facebook for Teaching?

Personal and professional networking only differ in the content, not the tool

Students today grew up with this stuff

There is a divide between the way they learn and the way we teach

We are the digital immigrants!

Teaching students the way they prefer to learn may improve engagement and attainment

Digital Natives vs. Digital Immigrants

Source: http://www.apple.com/au/education/digitalkids/disconnect/landscape.html

Teaching

Have your students in groups?

Have them as Facebook “friends” perhaps in a friend group that you can restrict

 Some students may be outraged that their lecturer ‘be-friended’ them but others may think it’s pretty cool to be able to see a ‘real life’ side of the person who’s teaching them

Post and share URLs

 Weblearn material

 Reading lists

 Other online material

Don’t put your own material on facebook

 just link to it

Photos & Videos (but watch copyright!)

Organise group work with facebook events.

Communicating

Groups

 Discussions

 Photos

 Videos

 Posted items (Weblearn URLs?)

 Group events and invitations

 Groups for tutorial groups?

 Don’t have to be a friend to be in a group with someone

Personal messages & threads

Fan pages can be used for wider advertising via updates

 Maybe for a department or college

 Useful recruitment or alumni tool?

 See Oxford University fan page

Collaborating

Cross-Institution Groups

Subject-specific groups

 Try searches

Groups or Events for specific conferences/meetings

 UCISA is experimenting with this

Easy way to post and share videos and photos

Universal across HE worldwide (almost!)

Don’t forget ownership & privacy issues!

Use “events” to set up meetings

Advertising

Fan pages exist for

 Businesses

 Brands or Products

 Artists, Bands, Public Figures

Easy to create and manage

Can use to send updates and promote discussion

Fans can contribute as they wish

Organisation retains control

Exercises

Make a profile if you don’t already have one – www.facebook.com

 Adjust your privacy settings – hide all or some of DOB

 Join the Oxford network

Make friends with your neighbour

Try tagging a note or some photos

Post a URL of something of interest and share it with a neighbour

Restrict some things your neighbour can see

Search for groups that cover your subject

Make a group and invite your neighbour to it – or join an existing one

Post something relevant to the group

Have a look at the Oxford network page and fan page

Search for some people you know

 Unusual names are easier!

References

► http://www.cit.cornell.edu/policy/memos/facebook.html

 Useful notes from Cornell (April 2006) http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/Facebook20/46324?time

=1234302688

 Thoughts on Facebook 2.0

http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm06/erm0660.asp

 Notes from Educause December 2006 (long) http://www.educause.edu/LIVE0621

 Live presentation: Facing Facebook and other social networking technologies http://blogs.edgehill.ac.uk/webservices/2007/10/30/fear-of-facebook/

 Comments from a UK University http://student.independent.co.uk/university_life/article3068385.ece

 Networking sites: Professors keep out! (October 07) http://www.apple.com/au/education/digitalkids/disconnect/landscape.html

 The “digital disconnect” http://blogs.gartner.com/allen_weiner/2009/01/20/social-media-turns-a-page/

 Social Media Turns a page

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