Strategies for the Classroom
flickr photo by pshab
by kevin lim - teaching & learning center
22nd February 2008
Lots of people using it Lots of people using it daily...daily...
So much written about So much written about it...it...
Everyone’s building Everyone’s building around it...around it...
Heck, people are cloning Heck, people are cloning it!it!
What is Facebook?
History
Who’s Using It
Things you can do Personal Profile
Messaging
Groups
Events
Applications
Media Sharing
News Feed
For the
Classroom
1. Opportunities
Promotes conversation
It’s Spontaneous
Integrate your stuff (RSS)
Reputation as Motivator
2. Challenges Application Spam
Getting Informal?
What Privacy?
Walled Garden
3. Questions
Workshop Agenda
• Facebook is a social networking site
• Reinforces & expands your real-world social connections
• Fosters communities of people who share interests and activities
• Economical way to keep your friends updated
•Discover new interests and friends
image source: http://lifegoingdigital.blogspot.com/2007/11/blog-post_27.html
What is Facebook?
• February 2004 Facebook created by Mark Zuckerberg and four others
• Initially for Ivy League universities, then to international colleges and high schools (.edu)
•Sept 2006 Opened for anyone to join Facebook’s social network
•May 2007 Facebook Platform launches for user applications
image source: http://lifegoingdigital.blogspot.com/2007/11/blog-post_27.html Source: Facebook Timeline
Facebook History
•More than 65 million active users
•Over 6 million active user groups
•85% market share of U.S. university students
•Over half of users return daily
•Users spend an average of 20mins per day on Facebook
image source: http://lifegoingdigital.blogspot.com/2007/11/blog-post_27.html
Source: Facebook Press Room
Who’s Using Facebook?
Things you can do...
Personal Profile, Messaging, Groups, Events, Applications, Media Sharing, News Feed
Personal Profile
Messaging: Inbox
Messaging: Notifications
Messaging: Pages Update
Messaging: The Wall
Messaging: Poking
Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups
Facebook Events
Facebook Events
Facebook Applications
Not exactly long tail, but short head. Only a few apps rule, with 87% of usage going to only 84 apps!Source: O’Reilly
Facebook Applications
Facebook Photos
Facebook Videos
Facebook News Feed
OpportunitiesAdvantages of using Facebook for class
Promotes Conversations
It’s Spontaneous• The Third Place: Being a shared
space not owned by neither faculty nor students may mean equal standing in power.
• This motivates the user by choice (self-interest), rather than coercion.
• Informality: Informal channels allow for more spontaneous interaction.
•Distinguishing motivation for using Blackboard vs. FacebookImage Source: http://mchabib.com/2006/10/05/digital-library-as-third-
place/
Integrate your stuff• You can easily integrate your
resources into Facebook
• Posting Links, Notes, Photos, Video
• Automated posting via RSS-based applications (e.g. FriendFeed)
• You can even write your own Facebook platform application!
Reputation Motivation
•Reputation: The willingness to help others can all work to increase one's prestige in a community.
• “Applying Games Mechanics To Functional Software” by Amy Jo Kim
• Five Game Mechanics1. Collecting2. Earning Points3. Feedback4. Exchanges5. Customization
ChallengesDangers of using Facebook for class
Application Spam
• Plenty of Facebook applications trick users into send invitations to their friends to “unlock” features.
•When a friend adds such an app, the cycle continues.
• Competition between application developers to get larger user base.
• Finally, Facebook decides to stop it (21st Feb 2008).
•Users can block specific apps, and clear all pending requests.
Getting Informal?• Leisa Reichelt coined the term
“ambient intimacy”
•Refers to the constant sense of closeness users feel with their circle of friends through technologies that informally reveal us to each other.
•Cory Doctorow called out Boyd’s Law where “Adding more users to a social network increases the probability that it will put you in an awkward social circumstance”.
What Privacy?• The original News Feed scared
Facebook users
•Under users pressure, Facebook finally let users adjust what appeared in public
• Facebook Beacon makes you endorse what your purchase
•Not everyone aware they have to opt-out; change privacy options
• The Wall vs. Personal Message
Walled Gardens
• A social network service focuses on the building and verifying of online social networks for communities of people who share interests and activities
•Most traditional social networking sites are “walled gardens” (e.g. Facebook)
• Trap user content to derive ad revenue
• Can’t leave? Loss of coordination.
Takeawaysthoughts on participation
Benefits of Participation
•collective intelligence - collaborative
•transparent - instant gratification
•non-hierarchical - democratic
•potential for passion - ownership
•open to public - reputation
•permanence - searchable resource
Questionslet’s discuss
Kevin LimKevin Lim““Jack of all trades, Master of some.”Jack of all trades, Master of some.”