Post #8 Reflections

I have learned of many social networking systems - some more popular than others, and each with its own following crowd (although many users cross-over plattforms). For my puposes, Facbook, MySpace and Bebo seem to be the tools of choice of many college-age students.

The main puporse for using these tools?: social of course! However, there is an increasing trend on part of the users to "connect" beyond social needs.
Users also want to network and connect with groups who share common academic, professional, and more scholarly interests.

The question still remains:
Is there a convincing use of these tools in education?
The blog Social Networking in Education explains that their (Fb and Ms) early prominence has created a stigma around social networking that the technology itself doesn't deserve. The understandable concerns created by these early and popular networks have overshadowed some amazing changes that are taking place in educational environments when the tools of social networking are being used with students and teachers. http://www.infinitethinking.org/2008/01/social-networking-in-education.html

The author of this blog, Steve Hagardon*, has been trying for some time now to answer this same question by creating his own social network place. A place for teachers to discuss social networks for educational purposes.

He aslo set up a wiki with a list of links social networks used in educational environments, of which some are Facebook-based. http://socialnetworksined.wikispaces.com/?responseToken=9781a1f14de26fb3c30713fd59f88864

(*In December, Classroom 2.0, the social network he started for educators interested in Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies, won the 2007 EduBlog Award for “best use of a social network for educational purposes” and now has nearly 5,000 members.)

I do plan to join his group to get more insight and to obtain a better understanding on how professional in the field are dealing with social networking tools.

Post #7 Reflections

Facebook offers new and innovative opportunities for an instructor to connect to hers/his students. I am having a difficult time deciding wether students in general, embrace or do not accept the idea of their teacher bringing Fb into their classes.

I found a blog where Tony Karrer's blog discusses eLearning and Facebook as a Learning Platform http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2007/10/facebook-as-learning-platform.html


On this blog, he creates an analogy between an old adage and Fb:

Q: "Willie, why do you rob banks?"

A: "Cause that's where the money is." ~ Willie Sutton - Bank Robber


Q: Why are we going to be adopting Facebook?

A: Cause that's where our users are.

However, I ask myself, do the bank tellers appreciate the robber stealing the money? Do students appreciate instructors "invading" their social space?

He mentions that Fb can be used as ...leverage it as a means of getting the word out, as a social networking layer, as a discussion tool, and adds that Fb has other potential possibilities since there is an ability to create applications. Here again leaving the possibility of its instructioanl implementation open-ended.

I believe that at the present time both students and instructors can go "either way" with their acceptance/rejection of Fb as an instructional tool. On the other hand, both groups seem to agree with Fb's power and dominance as a social networking instrument and there is no doubt in either group's mind the Fb continues to evolve/change/improve with new applications being periodically developed and the potential is there for the introduction of Fb in new settings.

I could best summarize my thoughts with the following passages from Sara Stewart's blog (My my, I am finding blogs amazing sources of information!) http://sarah-stewart.blogspot.com/2007/11/using-facebook-in-midwifery-education.html

Student perspective: Sara's daughter Ellen states that ...she was of a mind that Facebook was 'fun' and that she didn't want to mix school/university with fun, which is an interesting idea in itself-can we not have fun at school!? Having said that, she could see it had possibilities for example, it could encourage networking to solve assignment questions. Ellen did feel that if teachers were going to use it for education, the framework of the group should be kept basic and professional.

Teacher's perspective: This blog mentions that Sue Waters a teacher, uses Facebook for interacting with her students. She feels it allows her to get to know her students and visa versa. However she adds: I have mixed feelings about it...and so do many other instructors.

Post #9 The Bottom Line

Is there a bottom line? Not yet, in my opinion.

Nicole Ellison, Dpt of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media at Michigan State University explains the following regarding social networking tools:

There is very little published research.

There are some the potential benefits:

1. They are already integrated into students' daily practices.


2. They could require a higher level of engagement.


3. There is the potential to make identity information more salient during class discussions.


4. They add the social peer-to-peer component.


5. They require digital literacy skills.

She also mentions some concerns with Fb's integration into formal learning:

1. Accountability to the university (privacy, archiving, etc).


2. Exposure to advertising.


3. What about the non-users?


4. Reshaping of instructor-student relationship.


5. Student resistance.

http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ECR0713.pdf

Future considerations:

Perhaps the main concern for educators with social networking is that students may be sitting at their computers in study mode but spending a proportion of their time socialising online instead... Online interaction probably also plays an important social support role, perhaps especially for students who are unconfident with face-to-face communication or have difficulty socialising outside their home due to family responsibilities or mobility problems. Hence, whilst social networking is probably helpful to some students and a time consuming distraction to others, it is not yet clear which is most significant. Hence it may be useful to discuss with students the importance of monitoring and moderating the time spent social networking. Nevertheless, social networking sites are widely used fun computing environments, so can we take advantage and find some useful educational applications?http://newsletter.alt.ac.uk/e_article000993849.cfm

SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, poses some questions about students today and their perceptions on scholarly and academic related work within the context of social networking tools that in my opinion will need to be answered in the near future: Tech-savvy students, who live and breathe information sharing, are critical to changing the way scholarly communication is conducted. Not bound by traditional modes of research exchange, students are using all the technologies at their disposal to engage in scholarly discourse - including blogs, wikis and tagging tools. What will they do next? How do they view the future of scholarly exchange? http://www.arl.org/sparc/

I would like very much to continue researching this topic - which it is obviously still an undiscovered and lightly-researched area. One of the reasons being that faculty themselves are just now starting to discover these tools as potential instructional and pedagogiacl resources.

Research has been conducted to find out how these tools are applied in areas such as business, medical, and social, but little has been documented in terms of how it applies to education. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking

Perhaps I will find that social networking has no room in the classroom, but maybe I will also uncover some benefitial applications.

Post #8 Fb & other Social Networking Tools

http://newsletter.alt.ac.uk/e_article000993849.cfm

Some universities have adopted a more proactive approach and have decided to "test the waters" by integrating several of these tools into their courses:

Reaching Students Through Facebook, YouTube, Digital Storytelling and Second Life: Rice University has undertaken an initiative to start using the things that their students are already using. Students indicated that they don't use email (email is for old people). They use their social networking tools. http://connect.educause.edu/blog/happyharriet/reachingstudentsthroughfa/46250
One of the speakers in this video mentions the importance of taking advantage of the student's "natural enthusiasm" (for social networking tools).

There are many social networks available: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites). I would like to compare the ones that collge-age students seem to use the most:

1. Facebook
2. MySpace
3. Bebo

What do all three have in common?

• Social networking sites are typically free to join.


• Members have their own home page with a funny/cool/passport photograph.


• Some basic personal information (e.g., age, gender, location) and sections where they can write about themselves or make a statement.


• In addition, members of social networking sites generally get a free blog, the most recent entries of which are flagged on the home page.


• Members can register with each other as friends, a status that typically allows them to use certain means of communication and gives access to more private content (e.g., pictures) on each other’s site.


• Each member’s friends are listed on their site, with the pictures of the most important few displayed on the home page.


• It is very common for friends to communicate by writing public messages in the friend’s comments section at the bottom of each home page.
  http://newsletter.alt.ac.uk/e_article000993849.cfm
  

What Fb and MS have in common:

They both aim at creating communities and connecting people with common interests. Registered users on both sites can benefit socially, professionally or romantically due to the availability of information on the large population of users. http://media.www.dennews.com/media/storage/paper309/news/2005/09/09/TheVerge/Facebook.Vs.Myspace.The.Heat.Is.On-979641.shtml

Differences and Similarities between Fb and MS:

Facebook:

Target: High School and College students.

Design: Clean and clear.

Profile information: Well organized. Limited customization.

Privacy: Viewers need to request permission to view your site. Secure community.

Target: Information.

Media:

• Pictures: Well-organized. Can tag people. Can add Flicker.


• Videos: Can upload videos. Flash player.


• Music: Can add music.


• Sharing: Through embedding or feeds.

Community:

• "Friends" are often your real friends.


• Groups: A big feature in Fb.


• Keeping track/updates: Through two feeds (your own and your friends).


• Messaging: Friends can live messages. E-mail system.


• Professional connections: Fb allows you to connect to co-workers/professional liaisons/work networks.

Comments by users: Facebook is more one-dimensional.

MySpace:

Target: Teens to ? (biggest age group: between 30-45) http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2008/01/coming-soon-target-google-adwords-to-myspace-users.html

Design: Many different design layouts.

Profile information: Prompted to post extensive personal information. Very cutomizable.

Privacy: Need to determine level of privacy in the settings.

Target: Music, video, films and entertainment.

Media:

• Pictures: Can add Photobucket.


• Videos: Can upload videos. Flash player.


• Music: Can add music. Most bands have a MS account.


• Sharing: Through embedding (yo can grab embedded media like videos from other profiles to repost on MySpace).

Community:

• Friends can be strangers (there is a sense that the idea is to get the most "friends" you can get.
  
• Groups: Not as prominent as in Fb.


• Keeping track/updates: You need to go "look for changes" on your and people's profiles.


• Messaging: Friends can live messages. E-mail system.


• Professional connections: No features that allow for professional interactions.

Comments by users: MS is more individual.

What about Bebo?

Bebo:

Target: High School and College students (very popular in the UK, Ireland, and New Zeland).

Bebo is the 85th most popular English-language website according to Wikipedia.

Profiles: module based.

Privacy: By default is private.

Media: You can upload pictures, videos.

Music: You can download music from Bebo. Connects to iTunes.

Groups: Viewable to school members.

Mobile: Allows you to receive text alerts, upload photos and update your profile from your cellular phone.

Other networks: You can add IM, Skype and Windows Live Messenger

Comments by users: Essentially, Bebo is MySpace meets Facebook. http://mashable.com/2006/05/07/myspace-alternatives-bebo/

Here is a video that shows the differences between Fb and MS in a parody video similar to the Mac/Pc commercial:
http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9724594-2.html


Sources:

http://www.surfnetkids.com/safety/differences_between_myspace_and_facebook-18960.htm

http://mashable.com/2007/06/10/facebook-hammers-myspace-on-almost-all-key-features/

http://media.www.dennews.com/media/storage/paper309/news/2005/09/09/TheVerge/Facebook.Vs.Myspace.The.Heat.Is.On-979641.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebo

Post #6 Reflections

Fred Stutzman, Ph.D. summarizes some of the main points behind the pedagogical value of Fb:

The most important thing to know about Facebook as a learning tool is what it isn't.

• Facebook isn't Blackboard or any other course management system.
• Facebook is the digital social center of the college campus.
• Students know that staff and instructors are on the Facebook, but they primarily expect that their profiles will be viewed by their peers. Therefore, you must respect (at least in name) student privacy in Facebook.
• Through your news feed you can directly engage with your entire friend group. Your friends will be notified each time you post a link (a share), a blog post (if you've integrated or use the "notes" function), join a group, attend an event, and so on.
• Facebook has a number of services that directly support engagement - photos, shares, notes, groups, events - utilizing these will register directly on your students.
• Groups are a way for students to say they are part of something ("I support Net Neutrality", "Library Fans") as well as get information ("The Library will be closing at 6PM this week").
• Events - Facebook is a great place to promote events.
• Notes - You can integrate a RSS feed into your blog with notes.
• Developing a better understanding of your students perspectives. This may be the most underappreciated aspect of Facebook. Using the Facebook you can get a glimpse into the interests and insight of your students, hopefully reducing some of the generation gap between you two. http://chimprawk.blogspot.com/2006/12/facebook-as-tool-for-learning.html

Post #7 Students' Perspectives

Students seem divided in terms of looking at Fb as an integrated classroom tool. Many welcome it, and many reject it!

The reality is that Facebook is no longer just a fun way for students to keep in touch. It is now essential to the college experience, a fact that faculty and staff are scurrying to catch up with.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1213/p13s01-legn.html

I would like to start by describing first what do students do with Fb:
Note: A user needs to have an “.edu” email address to register.

Engage in online-presentation

Maintain exisiting relationships

Resurrect past relationships

Exchange messages

Tag pictures

Share pictures

Create and join groups

Look for jobs (Brian Krueger, president of CollgeGrad.com makes suggestions to students about what to do in Fb before an interviewhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYHn90zrYUI)

Campaign

Facebook also hosts the bad: sexual and racial harassment, hazing, extortion, and threatshttp://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1213/p13s01-legn.html

I also found other unique/creatives ways students are using Fb:

• UWM Students Use Facebook To Fight Crimehttp://youtube.com/watch?v=vMdWD1eH1RY
• NYU Student on How She Uses Facebook to Organize for Obama
  http://youtube.com/watch?v=5-unvrgrZWc
• Using Facebook to communicate with each other and with upperclassmen at their colleges during the summer months, freshmen are arriving at school with ready-made friendships waiting for them on the first day. http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/09/07/cnnu.facebook/index.html

Secondly, I would like to concentrate on the students' own perspective regarding the use of Fb:

This video from the University of Dayton shows students discussing in their own words how and why they use social networking applications such as Facebook.
http://www.educause.edu/ELIResources/10220?tab=4
Here is the video: mms://lsmedia.udayton.edu/video/UDfacebook.wmv

This student form the University of Michigan says it all: I’m a college student at University of Michigan and Facebook has deactivated my account. I’ve noticed, from reading your blog, you have connections to Facebook’s staff. Can you please forward this email to someone or do something… I just can’t be a college student without Facebook. I did nothing to have my account deactivated… it just happened late Sunday night. I’ve emailed them, but they don’t care. http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/13/i-just-cant-be-a-college-student-without-facebook/

AS stated by Andrew McAfee, a professor at Harvard University: From the teenagers' and college students' perspectives, not using Facebook is a "social liability" http://blog.hbs.edu/faculty/amcafee/index.php/faculty_amcafee_v3/comments/the_teenybopper_network/

Next, I want to state some of the concerns students have with Fb?:

It is alarming to students that An employer may easily run a Facebook profile for a student they plan to interview for an internship or job. Because alumni also have access to the Facebook site, it would be quite easy for many employers to join Facebook and access any student's profile. It worries them that the content they post may come back to haunt them someday. http://media.www.sacredheartspectrum.com/media/storage/paper747/news/2006/04/06/Perspectives/Facebook.Colliding.With.The.Realities.Of.The.Real.World-1784269.shtml

Finally, I would like to describe other repercussions of social networking tools:

Here is an interesting article regarding teens' views on Fb vs. MySpace and the social class divide it has created (certainly a topic for further research!)

Most teens who exclusively use Facebook are familiar with and have an opinion about MySpace. These teens are very aware of MySpace and they often have a negative opinion about it. They see it as gaudy, immature, and “so middle school.” They prefer the “clean” look of Facebook, noting that it is more mature and that MySpace is “so lame.” What hegemonic teens call gaudy can also be labeled as “glitzy” or “bling” or “fly” (or what my generation would call “phat”) by subaltern teens. ...The look and feel of MySpace resonates far better with subaltern communities than it does with the upwardly mobile hegemonic teens. This is even clear in the blogosphere where people talk about how gauche MySpace is while commending Facebook on its aesthetics. I’m sure that a visual analyst would be able to explain how classed aesthetics are, but aesthetics are more than simply the “eye of the beholder” - they are culturally narrated and replicated. That “clean” or “modern” look of Facebook is akin to West Elm or Pottery Barn or any poshy Scandinavian design house (that I admit I’m drawn to) while the more flashy look of MySpace resembles the Las Vegas imagery that attracts millions every year.
http://educationaltechnology.ca/couros/63

Post #6 Faculty perspectives

First, let me start by saying that the developers at Fb appear to be aware that applications that support and enhance teaching/learning need to be developed.

Dave Morin, one of Fb's developers posted the following comment on July 25, 2007:
Education Application Opportunity
Published by Dave Morin
Now is the time to build education applications on Facebook Platform! Facebook will be phasing out its Courses feature in early August, and we wanted to make sure you were the first to know. Collaboration services and applications are a big part of the world of Education. Especially on college campuses, where we first found our roots. Many of you have probably used some kind of collaboration software as a part of your courses. Our courses application was a great way to connect with new friends, and find your classmates. But, we think Facebook Developers can create even more robust ways to create, connect, and collaborate around teaching and learning in the classroom.This is a great business opportunity, with vast distribution potential, and a great way to fundamentally affect an important part of the lives of students worldwide. http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=24

Others are supporting Fb efforts by encouraging people to create their own educational applications:
"Higher Ed Experts' Webinar Series"
Webinar Series - Facebook Applications 101 and Beyond: How to develop Facebook apps to engage students.
http://collegewebeditor.com/blog/index.php/archives/2008/02/06/want-to-learn-what-it-takes-to-build-a-facebook-application-to-engage-students-sign-up-for-facebook-applications-101-and-beyond-a-3-webinar-series-on-march-4-6-2008/


Here is a COURSES application created by non-Fb developers:
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2791815712&b&ref=pd

This application allows you to:

• Add Your Courses and Activities
• Manage and Share Your Weekly Schedule
• Search For Your Classmates
• Create Class Discussions
• Upload and Share Files
• Bring Your Class Together on Facebook.

As these new applications improve and become more functional, I believe that faculty who select to use Fb could benefit from learning about other faculty - who have already used this tool/thinking about using it - feel about it, as well as what are some of its pedagogical implications.

Here are some articles and comments by instrutors on Fb and social network tools in general:

• Online social networking sites can provide teachable moments to talk with students about audience, discourse communities, intellectual property, and the tensions between public and private writing.http://onlinesocialnetworks.blogspot.com/search/label/Michel%20Foucault

• By using social media …, I think teachers are making a more student-centered environment in the classroom. … I learned that because students can generate content, comment on the content, and carry the discussions outside the classroom, they could be more engaged learners in the classroom.http://onelearnersjourney.wordpress.com/category/social-media/

• As an educator, to me, social media is a way to connect our students with others outside the classroom. When we open the doors of the classroom to others, wonderful things can happen. During the past academic year, I started a blog with my students, and we were able to use it to connect with students in Argentina to share movie reviews; we listened to voice recordings of people in various countries talking about their favorite sweets, and we interacted with experts in the fields of graphic design and wedding cake design. http://onelearnersjourney.wordpress.com/category/social-media/

John Dash, a grad student in the Englsih Dpt at the University of Texas also supports the use of Fb over Bb:

• Why use Facebook for course management? One obvious reason for using Facebook as an alternative to Blackboard is that most students already use Facebook or are at least familiar with it to some degree. If an instructor chose to use a free system like Moodle, all of his or her students would have to create accounts at the site and learn how to navigate it and its features... Another reason that Facebook makes an attractive alternative both to proprietary sites like Blackboard and open source sites like Moodle is the popularity of the site. This popularity, combined with the functionality of the Facebook Platform, encourages developers to add more features to the site. http://complexrhetoric.blogspot.com/2007/08/using-facebook-for-course-management-pt.html

• ...Princeton's own English prof Jeff Nunokowa has taken Facebook to the other extreme, using it for educational purposes... All thing's considered, Nunokowa's Facebook page is pretty chill. He writes notes (207, last we checked, all of educational value) ... The best part, though, is that you get to see the Professor's trains of thoughts, as he posts questions to himself on his wall in the "Dear Jeff" format. http://www.collegeotr.com/princeton_university/teachers_on_facebook_3190

Jeff Nunokowa

Bibliography:

H, M. (2008, January 25). Voices And Ears. Retrieved March 2008, from One Learner's Journey: http://onelearnersjourney.wordpress.com/category/social-media/

Jones, J. (2007, August 22). Using Facebook for course management. Retrieved March 2008, from Complex Rhetoric: http://complexrhetoric.blogspot.com/2007/08/using-facebook-for-course-management-pt.html

Morin, D. (2007, julio). Facebbok Developers. Retrieved March 21, 2008, from Facebook: http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=24

Vie, S. (2007, June 30). Rhetorical Practices in MySpace And Facebook. Retrieved March 2008, from Friends: Social Networking Sites for Engaged Library Services: http://onlinesocialnetworks.blogspot.com/search/label/Michel%20Foucault

Joly, K. (2008, February 6). News And Tips for Higher Ed Pros. Retrieved March 2008, from Collegewebeditor.com: http://collegewebeditor.com/blog/index.php/archives/2008/02/06/want-to-learn-what-it-takes-to-build-a-facebook-application-to-engage-students-sign-up-for-facebook-applications-101-and-beyond-a-3-webinar-series-on-march-4-6-2008/

Quinn. (2007, September 4). Facebook Faculty. Retrieved March 2008, from Princeton OTR: http://www.collegeotr.com/princeton_university/teachers_on_facebook_3190

Post #5 Reflections

Well, I must admit this last posting was difficult "to swallow". Here I am trying to find reasons why we should promote/implement Fb in teaching/learning and trying to discover Fb's pedagogical applications, and yet I decided to uncover the "other side of the coin".
I believe that in order to arrive at a decision we need to get the whole picture (the good and the bad).

What I noticed is that Fb is a pretty controvertial topic today. Opinions (by some students and faculty) against using it in education seem to be pretty strong. Opinions to the contrary are still being pondered. Faculty who have started to use Fb in the classroom are still examining its applications and evaluating its effectiveness.

EDUCAUSE, in 7 Things You Should Know About Facebook, summarizes its "downside":

1. Concerns about Facebook center on its being public even though it feels like a private forum.
2. Moreover, there is little assurance that the people behind the profiles are who they represent themselves to be.
3. The number of connections you have is sometimes considered a measure of personal popularity, and the desire to have a cool profile and large groups of friends tempts users to post information or photos that in other contexts they would keep private, such as embarrassing pictures or boasts about drinking.
4. Although some students understand how and when to separate private from public content, many lack the discretion to present themselves—and others—appropriately online.
5. Not only can students find themselves in hot water over pictures and comments about themselves, questions of libel and copyright come into play when users post content created by others or comments about other people.
6. Internet caching exacerbates this problem, making Web content available even after it has been changed or removed from a Web site.
7. Stories of “Facebook addiction” are also common. Many users say that after creating a profile, they found themselves spending hours a day updating their pages, looking for people with shared interests, and reading others’ profiles and looking at their photos—exactly the kinds of activities Facebook facilitates. A seemingly infinite web of connections, however, poses a risk for never-ending wandering, seeing who knows who, who likes what, and how it all fits together, with no particular goal in mind.

However, the article also tries to answer the question What are the implications for teaching and learning? by highlighting its educational benefits:

1. Information literacy—the ability to negotiate the opportunities and risks of the Internet age—is an increasingly important aspect of higher education.
2. Facebook presents students with choices about how to use technology in creative and useful ways while avoiding the pitfalls.
3. Even as a purely social activity, Facebook has the potential to teach students about appropriate citizenship in the online world.
4. Like many emerging Internet applications, Facebook also emphasizes the importance of creating content over simply consuming it.
5. By encouraging students to craft compelling profiles, Facebook allows students to express themselves, communicate, and assemble profiles that highlight their talents and experience.
6. Facebook has struck a chord with millions of college students, drawing them in to an online world where they spend countless hours browsing profiles, meeting new people, and exploring relationships.

Lastly, I fully agree with this last parragraph: Any technology that is able to captivate so many students for so much time not only carries implications for how those students view the world but also offers an opportunity for educators to understand the elements of social networking that students find so compelling and to incorporate those elements into teaching and learning.

Lots more to learn about this social networking tool!

Post #5 Reasons not to use Facebook in the classroom

So far, I have been trying to find reasons why we should use Fb in tecahing/learning. Now I would like to concentrate on a rationale that explains why we should -perhaps- not choose Fb as a instructional resource tool.

According to these comments posted in the blog titled Technology Integration, Facebook has its place in that sense, but there seems to be a lack of any compelling reason to significantly integrate it into distance education. The author states that the services offered through Facebook (e.g. chatting, meeting new classmates, arranging for social/academic meetings) can well be attained using the current technologies in CMSs without the risk of security breaches and other legal matters pervasive in social networking websites.
http://toolsuse.blogspot.com/2007/07/facebook-and-distance-education.html

Another blog, called Didactalab, a blog dedicated to Experiments in didactical design, educational technology and empirical research, the author states that with FaceBook you can post and tag notes, you can import RSS feeds (but it is not meant as an aggregator) and you can share your notes with friends. But he adds that you cannot attach other documents than photos, but today with online office apps this may not a big problem.
The Good: fast, easy.
The Bad: No support for teaching, groupwork or course structure. No support to structure lots of notes besides tags. Users have to micromanage tool if they want to subscribe to the other users tools (only friends). Very basic tool.
Bottom line: This tools is usable for sharing some notes between friends.
http://www.didactalab.de/wp-main/?p=66

This wiki titled LTC (Learning Technologies Centre) explains that ...for most people, Facebook is a social space, used for informal conversations, building and maintaining relationships, and the voyeuristic tendency of profile surfing. The value of Facebook for formal teaching and learning is unclear. While learners will likely use Facebook to create small networks, study groups, or use its communication tools for arranging study times or clarify assignment requirements, formal use in college-level instruction may be too much of a stretch for learners.

However, in the wiki they also add that educators... are not waiting for SNS to mature. Many have begun to integrate Facebook directly into classroom teaching. Some colleges, while not focusing on inclass integration, are using SNS as notification and marketing purposes.

An added concern, according to the author is about Fb's privacy and security. The recent launch of Beacon - Facebook's marketing program that shares data with advertisers and displays purchases and decisions made by users on the activity feed - served as an awakening for many users. http://ltc.umanitoba.ca:83/wiki/Facebook

Another concern that a teacher expresses about its use in an educational setting has to do with the suitability of the posted content ... you would have to keep an eye on usage the entire time, to make sure it was not being used innappropriately. ...how would you be able to monitor or delete inappropriate posts? http://kayc28.wordpress.com/2007/09/29/could-facebook-be-used-in-an-educational-setting/

John Larkin, an educator and instructional designer has a more blunt "line of attack": It really does not require that much thinking. To me it is plain commonsense. Just because it is a “Web 2.0 tool” it does not mean one has to weave it into a teaching and learning programme. As far as I am concerned any attempt to employ MySpace or Facebook in the classroom would be like trying to bash a square peg into a round hole. http://blog.larkin.net.au/2008/01/17/social-network-sites-in-the-classroom/

Some students have began to voice their opinions regarding the use of Fb in the classroom. As part of the research conducted for the story Yada Yada Nada? that appears in the March issue of University Business Students were asked about Facebook. When asked: Do you think it's appropriate for college faculty or administrators to try to use Facebook or MySpace to communicate? This is what they said:

• No. College faculty and administrators are there to be professional and, well, administrative. Facebook and MySpace, to me, are seen more for fun and a way to keep in touch with people that you don't see every day or to find old friends. If our professors need to get in touch with us, they should e-mail us. Plus, we feel differently about our professors than we do our friends. It's somewhat awkward to think about my professors looking at goofy pictures that I took over the weekend and then expect them to still think I am intelligent.
• It depends on circumstance. I don't think it is appropriate for them to try very hard to be buddy-buddy with me, or know my personal business. Funny, reading what I just wrote makes me feel a little foolish for having posted personal information on the most widely accessible media in the universe. Regardless of this fact, Facebook is primarily for me, my friends, and occasionally cruising purposes. It's not for my enemies, it's not for my parents, and when I get on Facebook I don't hope that my logic professor, or the president of the college, saw my status today.
• It depends. For the most part, no. I'd much rather they stay out of it. However, I do have one professor who is known for being fairly hip. He's on Facebook and I have no problem with this because I know he's not going to abuse that position. He won't use Facebook for school stuff unless it's a fun event or something like that. I would not want faculty to use Facebook as an official platform for class topics.
  http://www.universitybusiness.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=724

Bibliography:

Post #4 Reflections

The post about How Facebook is used at William & Mary opened my eyes to several things.

The W&M Fb network is a fairly active network. Many students connect to each via Fb. Several campus organizations invite new members and post their activities and calendar events with this tool. A few academic-related associations and groups also invite new members and post their events via this tool.

What I could not find were “COURSES” (faculty members using FB in their classrooms). At W&M the Fb “bug” has not caught up yet!

There may be several reasons for this:

• Facebook itself – is considered to be primarily, a social tool for college students. Faculty may have ambiguous feelings about “infiltrating” their students’ space. A student at State University of New York says: Facebook was created as a place for students, not for professors. Students should be able to express themselves freely there, he says, without worrying what some professor will think. http://www.sivacracy.net/2007/12/good_article_on_professors_who.html
• I know several faculty members who have started their own Fb accounts but, as stated by this professor, One of the first questions professors face is whether it’s OK to add their students as Facebook friends. http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2584/facebook-not-just-for-students-anymore
• Younger faculty views this venue, not necessarily as a tool that can be implemented for teaching/learning but instead as a way to build their reputations and forging professional networks using Facebook. http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2584/facebook-not-just-for-students-anymore
  
  I have been thinking about ways to introduce our faculty to Facebook. I believe It would be worth the effort to invite them to learn about this tool, and encourage them to find out what other faculty at other institutions are doing:
• Facebook already has a group that deals with this very topic, called Teaching & Learning with Facebook. The group has as of 3/19/08 738 members. Here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2408370557
• Create a campus Focus Group that explores and examines not just Fb but other social networking tools as well.
• Design a Pilot Course where Fb is integrated into the class curriculum: Use it/test its applications/Assess it/Follow up recommendations.
• Design a Best Practices/How To Guide for faculty who would like to learn more about it before making a decision to use it.

Post #4 How is Facebook being used at William & Mary?

The Flat Hat had an article titled Online facebook connects students written by Becca Silverstein, the FLAT HAT senior staff writer, published on September 10, 2004.

The article mentions, among other things, that William & Mary has its own Fb account.:
The WM Facebook was not created by students but by Red Ant Hosting, an independent company which owns similar sites at over 500 colleges and universities.

In this article some students comment on Fb:

• ...many students see them as a way to contact people in their classes about assignments.
• For freshmen like Devan Barber, the WM Facebook was a way to get the lay of the land before starting at the College.

At the time of this article the W&M Fb network had, as of September 7, 2004 2,127 members.

As of March 3, 2008 W&M has 12,882 members.


These are some of the GROUPS I found within the W&M Fb network:

Vote for a Greener William and Mary on March 20th! 666 members
We Will Miss You Gene Nichol 2,090 members
TribeUnited.com 467 members
PLEASE PARTICIPATE IN STUDENT PROJECT: 32,280 members
I Support the List of Demands 192 members
W&M Conservatives 67 members
Ground Floor Audio/Visual Culture Collective 29 members
Swem Media Center 44 members
re.web 62 members
William and Mary Theatre 95 members
William & Mary Supports JENA 6 676 members
WM Remembers Virginia Tech 1,394 members
Activism in the Fight Against AIDS (AAFA)
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance (FMLA)
International Justice Mission (IJM)
One in Four (Description: One in Four is an all-male sexual assault peer education group)
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
Students for Fair Trade (SDS)
Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC)
Tidewater Labor Support Committee (TLSC)
Voices for Planned Parenthood (VOX)
Young Democracts

Note: Everyday I find newly formed groups.

Under the EVENTS tab in the W&M Fb site I found a list of wide-ranging activities:

Tribe Basketball v George Mason CAA CHAMPIONSHIP
Type: Sports - Sporting Event
Attendees: 310

Sperm Whales and Harmony at Homebrew
Hosted by: UCAB and the Sperm Whales
Type: Music/Arts - Concert
Where:
Attendees: 88

Is Diversity a Weakness? A Lecture By Jared Taylor
Hosted by: College of William and Mary
Type: Education - Lecture
Attendees: 59

Hammer No More the Fingers
UCAB kicks off Fridays @ 5 with some sweet off-kilter rock music
Type: Music/Arts - Concert
Attendees: 65

The Vagina Monologues 2008
Have fun raising funds for AVALON!
Type: Causes - Fundraiser
Attendees: 342

Gentlemen and No Strings Attached!
Hosted by: Gentlemen of the College
Type: Music/Arts - Concert
Attendees: 76

PHI TAU St. Patty's Day Live Band/Dance Party/Brett's 21st/Phi Tau's 102nd
W&M doesn't know what's coming...
Hosted by: Phi Kappa Tau
Type: Party - Erotic Party
Attendees: 274

St. Patty's Day Party
the holiday of Green
Type: Party - Holiday Party
Attendees: 30

Annie, Jess, & Talia's BOMBASS BIRTHDAY PARTY
...because they're bombass, and so are you
Hosted by: The women of 711
Type: Party - Night of Mayhem
Attendees: 73

Derby Days in Dublin
They're always after me lucky charms
Hosted by:Sigma Chi
Type: Causes - Fundraiser
Attendees: 45

24 Speed 2008 (Sponsored by The Film Studies Dept. & Swem Library)
Get up to Speed...
Host: Film Studies & Swem Library

Support the Media Center Concert
with the best music on campus
Host: Support the Media Center!
Type: Causes - Rally
Type: Music/Arts - Performance

W&M Middle Eastern Music Ensemble presents A. J. Racy
An evening of classical Arabic music
Hosted by: W&M MEME
Type: Music/Arts - Concert
Attendees: 13

Vagueness and the Revision of Logic
"John's not bald...but he's also not not bald."
Type: Education - Lecture

Tribe'11 Rocks the Vote
No rocks. Just Voting.
Type: Meetings - Convention
Attendees: 279

Bibliography:

Facebook/Networks//William&Mary. (2008, March). Retrieved March 2008, from Facebook networks: http://www.facebook.com/networks/16777293/William__Mary/

Silverstein, B. (2004, September 10). Online facebook connects students. The Flat Hat On Line , vol 95 Issue 4 . Williamsburg, VA, USA.

More later...

Post #3 Reflections

One thing is clear after reading about the use of Facebook in Higher Ed: There is still much to do in terms of discovering how this tool fits in learning/teaching at the Higher Ed level.

Some professors seem to be using the tool itself as a research topic: how do young people communicate/meet today?, how are the features in Fb being used?, what are college-age students doing with Fb?, what about privacy issues?, etc.

A few faculty appear to have integrated Fb into the classroom in innovative ways: using it as a CMS, gathering and analyzing data, and advertising course-related events.

Fb itself is trying to facilitate this integration by developing some relevant applications.
The "Courses" tool, according to its developers, is describrd to Display your courses on your profile for college or high school, find classmates, manage your schedule and assignments, create discussions, post notes, and form exclusive study groups. Welcome to Courses on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/install.phpapi_key=1c1cfdfaac3f4492e0034196de2125ff&canvas=true

I found that many students even though they do not want us to invade their "social space" do not mind attending a class where Fb is the main subject/topic of the course.
Stanford University, for example offered such a course and students could not wait to sign up!
This Youtube video showcases this class: http://youtube.com/watch?v=RwpGcfAV9fQ&feature=related

I tend to agree with Dr. Jennifer Golbeck, an Assistant Professor in the Collge of Information Studies, at the University of Maryland who uses Fb in her teaching and plans to continue using it, when she states:
...anyone considering using Facebook or a virtual environment in their class should use it themselves, actively, for several months before the class starts. It is important to be familiar with all the issues, features, and possibilities of the tool you are using. You also should be sensitive to the learning curve and privacy concerns of students. For example, I would never use Second Life for students, because it requires them to learn a lot of new things that have nothing to do with the course material. Facebook, on the other hand, allows them to put in just their name and nothing else, hide their personal information, and work in a very familiar online environment. Finally, teachers should keep in mind that they are borrowing technology from Facebook or another virtual environment. It is not designed around them, and their interests are secondary to the primary purpose of the site. It should be used for the features it brings by default and not forced to support other needs of the class. That's what course management software is for.
http://www.cte.umd.edu/teaching/newsletter/2007-08/Feb_March_HTML/Facebook.htm

Post #3 How is Facebook being used in Higher Ed?

Teaching a course using Facebook:
Brian Smith, a Penn State Associate Professor of Information Sciences and Technology and Education created a group on facebook.com that includes him, his teaching assistant, and students enrolled in the class, which meets in person each week. Members of the group are able to post assignments and announcements on the board. The group is visible to all facebook.com members, however only members of the group are able to view class discussions. Facebook.com’s mobile feature sends text messages to his cell phone when students send messages through its internal system or post to his “wall.” If there is an emergency, or a student asks an important question, he is able to respond while standing in the middle of the grocery store or an airport security line.
http://www.ed.psu.edu/news/smithfacebook.asp

Facebook to take over Stanford classroom:
The course is called: Create Engaging Web Applications Using Metrics and Learning on Facebook. It is offered in the Computer Science Department. Students build applications for Facebook, then gather and analyze detailed information about how Facebook users actually use them. Students focus on using detailed numerical measurements to guide software iterations, just like developers do on thousands of existing Facebook applications. BJ Fogg, one of the instructors of this course, hopes to use the course to produce a curriculum that other computer science, business and design instructors can model their own classes after.
http://venturebeat.com/2007/09/10/facebook-to-take-over-stanford-classroom/

Faculty research:

1. Scholars at Carnegie Mellon used the site to look at privacy issues.


2. Researchers at the University of Colorado analyzed how Facebook instantly disseminated details about the Virginia Tech shootings in April.


3. Sociology, psychology and political science scholars examine how people, especially young people, are connected to one another, something few data sets offer, the scholars say.


4. Social scientists at Indiana, Northwestern, Pennsylvania State, Tufts, the University of Texas and other institutions are mining Facebook to test traditional theories in their fields about relationships, identity, self-esteem, popularity, collective action, race and political engagement.


5. Eliot R. Smith, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at Indiana University, and a colleague received a grant from the National Science Foundation to study how people meet and learn more about potential romantic partners. “Facebook was attractive to us because it has both those kinds of information,” Professor Smith said.


6. S. Shyam Sundar, a professor and founder of the Media Effects Research Laboratory at Penn State, has led students in several Facebook studies exploring identity. One involved the creation of mock Facebook profiles. Researchers learned that while people perceive someone who has a high number of friends as popular, attractive and self-confident, people who accumulate “too many” friends (about 800 or more) are seen as insecure. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/17/style/17facebook.html?pagewanted=print

Communication and data gathering tool:
"...one instructor uses Facebook as a publicity vehicle for his study-abroad trips (Lemuel 2006). Another uses it as a venue for advertising events and then gives students an assignment asking them to analyze the site (Silver 2006). A third finds it a useful tool for screening potential undergraduate teaching assistants (Mick La Lopa, e-mail to author, November 2, 2006).
Instructors might not yet be embracing social networking sites as teaching or learning tools, but they are using them as communication and information gathering tools.
http://csdtechpd.org/file.php/1/moddata/glossary/4/26/Is_Education_1.0_Ready_for_Web_2.0_Students-.pdf

Team projects: analysis of a website:
David Silver, a professor of Media Studies at the University of San Francisco assigned his students a series of projects using Facebook: "the final project encouraged students to go beyond academic writing and instead build projects -- facebook experiments with identity, facebook experiments with photo albums, facebook experiments with offline events."
"the project was smart. the nine students: a) assembled a list of dream features for facebook, b) asked the rest of us to rank them in terms of what we want to see/use on facebook, and c) designed a detailed print package describing five new features. and then, d) they sent the package to the headquarters of facebook."
http://silverinseattle.blogspot.com/2006/03/folks-at-facebook-seem-pretty-cool.html

Facebook spreads charity:
University of Massachusetts at Amherst freshman Andrew Leavitt has something in common with software creators and advertising professionals - a growing recognition of the marketing power of social networking websites such as Facebook.
more stories like this
A fund-raising veteran of Leavitt discovered last year that Facebook is a far more effective marketing tool for his charitable events than fliers and word of mouth. And his experience is quickly being affirmed by other local youth with social causes.”
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/12/30/facebook_spreads_charity_word/

Young Victoria BC man attempting the impossible?
Dane Low is using the Facebook group "Facebook for Education in Developing Nations" to collaborate and raise $17000 to build a school in Vietnam through Room to Read and the Fundraising site. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FFKUU1LFQE





Nicholas Christakis, a Harvard professor who is using Facebook to study how people form social relationships, said, “Our predecessors could only dream of the kind of data we now have.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/17/style/17facebook.html?bl&ex=1198040400&en=5041e607dad7dce7&ei=5087%20

Biblioghraphy:
Eldon, E. (2007, September 10). Facebook to take over Stanford classroom. Retrieved March 2008, from Venture Beat: http://venturebeat.com/2007/09/10/facebook-to-take-over-stanford-classroom/

Low, D. (2007, November 28). Young Victoria BC man attempting the impossible? Retrieved March 2008, from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FFKUU1LFQE

McGraw, K. (2006, September). Penn State Professor Will Use Facebook.com to Teach Class. Retrieved March 2008, from Penn State: http://www.ed.psu.edu/news/smithfacebook.asp

Rathi, R. (2007, December 30). Facebook spreads charity word. Retrieved March 2008, from Boston.com: http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/12/30/facebook_spreads_charity_word/

Rosenbloom, S. (2007, December 17). On Facebook, Scholars Link Up With Data . Retrieved March 2008, from The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/17/style/17facebook.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

Silver, D. (2006, March 30). The folks at facebook seem pretty cool . Retrieved March 2008, from silverinseattle.blogspot: http://silverinseattle.blogspot.com/2006/03/folks-at-facebook-seem-pretty-cool.html

Thompson, J. (2007, April/May). Is Education 1.0 Ready for Web 2.0 Students? Retrieved March 2008, from Innovate, Journal of Online Education: http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=393

Post #2 Reflections

Post #2 introduces the features that Facebook offers.

COMMUNITY is an important idea within Facebook supported by many of its features. It is without doubt a great tool for building a community.
Facebook allows the creation of communities via many of its features:

• You can find people (contacts)
• You can join a group/course (personal, academic, and professional networks)
• You can post an event (promotion of information and services)
• You can share resources (pictures, audio and video uploads)

COLLABORATION is another notion that seems to be sustained in Facebook. In terms of linking its features to Palloff and Pratt's concepts regarding the development of effective distance learning programs, I believe Facebook accomplishes some of these concepts.

This podcast, http://www.onlineteachingandlearning.com/blog/?p=3 where they interview PP about online courses and collaboration, PP describe some of the elements needed to achieve collaboration:

They mention, among other things, that successful online collaboration reduces isolation, students share knowledge, turns the class into a learner-centered enviroment, promotes small group activities, and real life experiences are shared.

These notions are all possible in Facebook through some of its third party applications such as:

• Email client.
• Status client.
• Groups - which permits 1-to-many messaging, discussion threads, im-like interaction.
• RSS support to import your team’s blogs (Your team isn’t blogging?), wikis, etc
• Calendar / Event app.
• Twitter app.
• Flickr app.
• News feed that tells you what people in your “friends” (your team, in our case) have done differently with their account lately.

"...This is a technology that accounts for a lot of what we might want in collaboration management..." http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/an-unlikely-free-collaboration-management-app.html

Community and collaboration...humm...maybe I am getting somewhere!

Post #1 Reflections

Facebook fits so well within the natural makeup of the net generation (today's student).

It seems to feed right into their needs: social connections (peer search, personal profiles, mood updates, mini-feeds, etc); resource sharing (pictures, interest groups, events, My Questions app.); instant feedback and gratification (gifts, pokes, the wall); job/professional connections (job market, resume posting).

According to Reynol Junco and Jeanna Mastrodicasa (2007) in their book: Connecting to the Net.Generation: What Higher Education Professionals Need to Know About Today's Students, they found that in a survey of 7,705 college students in the US:
97% own a computer
94% own a cell phone
76% use Instant Messaging.
15% of IM users are logged on 24 hours a day/7 days a week
34% use websites as their primary source of news
28% own a blog and 44% read blogs
49% download music using peer-to-peer file sharing
75% of college students have a Facebook account
60% own some type of portable music and/or video device such as an iPod.
http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Generation_Y

The next step would be to determine how/if Facebook features can/do apply to learning and teaching. Should it be left alone (outside of the classroom) as another social networking tool or does it have the potential to become a useful classroom tool?

Mark Zuckerberg himself explains why he developed Facebook:
When I made Facebook two years ago my goal was to help people understand what was going on in their world a little better. I wanted to create an environment where people could share whatever information they wanted, but also have control over whom they shared that information with. I think a lot of the success we've seen is because of these basic principles.
http://kairosnews.org/facebook-furor

I believe his basic premise could be transferred into the pedagogical ideas of collaborative learning and resource sharing.

Post #2 Features

FEATURES:

The Wall
The Wall is a space on each user’s profile page that allows friends to post messages for the user to see. One user’s wall is visible to anyone with the ability to see their full profile, and different users’ wall posts show up in an individual’s News Feed. More private discourse is saved for Messages, which are sent to a person’s Inbox, and are visible only to the sender and recipient(s) of the Message, much like email.In July 2007, Facebook allowed users to post attachments to the wall, whereas previously the wall was limited to textual content only

Photos:
One of the most popular applications on Facebook is the Photos application, where users can upload albums of photos, tag friends, and comment on photos.

Gifts:
Some of Facebook’s gifts, as displayed in the website’s gift shop.In February 2007, Facebook added a new gift feature to the website. Friends could send “gifts” — small icons of novelty items designed by former Apple designer Susan Kare — to each other by selecting one from Facebook’s virtual gift shop and adding a message. Gifts given to a user appear on the recipient’s wall with the giver’s message, unless the giver decided to give the gift privately, in which case the giver’s name and message is not displayed to other users.

Marketplace:
In May 2007, Facebook introduced the Facebook Marketplace allowing users to post free classified ads within the following categories: For Sale, Housing, Jobs, and Other. Ads can be posted in either available or wanted format. The market place is available for all Facebook users and is currently free.

Pokes:
Facebook includes a “poke” feature which allows one user to send a “poke” to another. According to Facebook’s FAQ section on the Poke Feature, “a poke is a way to interact with your friends on Facebook. In principle this is intended to serve as a “nudge” to attract the attention of the other user. However while many Facebook users, as intended, use the feature to attract attention or say hello, some users construe it as a sexual advance. This interpretation of the feature inspired a popular Facebook group titled “Enough with the Poking, Lets Just Have Sex”, which, as of December 2007, has more than 340,000 members.

Status:
The “status” feature allows users to inform their friends and the Facebook community of their current whereabouts and actions. Facebook originally prompted the status update with “User name is…” and Facebook users filled in the rest. However, on December 13, 2007, the requirement to start a status update with “is” was removed, and all status updates read “User name …” Status updates are noted in the “Recently updated” section of a users’ friend list.

Events:
Facebook events are a way for members to let friends know about upcoming events in their community and to organize social gatherings. Events require an event name, tagline, network, host name, event type, start and end time, location & city, and a guest list of friends invited. Events can be open, closed, or secret. When setting up an event the user can choose to allow friends to upload photos, video, and posted items.

Applications:
On May 24, 2007, Facebook launched the Facebook Platform, which provides a framework for developers to create applications that interact with core Facebook features. Even games such as chess and Scrabble are available. As of December 5, 2007, there are more than 10,000 applications. Third-party websites such as Adonomics, which provides application metrics, and blogs such as AppRate, Inside Facebook and Face Reviews have sprung up in response to the clamor for Facebook applications.On July 4, 2007, Altura Ventures announced the “Altura 1 Facebook Investment Fund,” becoming the world’s first Facebook-only venture capital firm. On August 29, 2007, Facebook changed the way in which the popularity of applications is measured, in order to give more attention to the more engaging applications, following criticism that ranking applications only by the number of users was giving an advantage to the highly viral, yet useless applications. Tech blog Valleywag has criticized Facebook Applications, labeling them a “cornucopia of uselessness.” Others have called for limiting third-party applications so the Facebook “user experience” is not degraded. Primarily attempting to create viral applications is a method that has certainly been employed by numerous Facebook application developers. Stanford University even offered a class in the Fall of 2007, entitled, Computer Science (CS) 377W: “Create Engaging Web Applications Using Metrics and Learning on Facebook”. Numerous applications created by the class were highly successful, and ranked amongst the top Facebook applications, with some achieving over 3.5 million users in a month.

FaceBook Video:
During the time that Facebook released its platform, it also released an application of its own for sharing videos on Facebook. Users can add their videos with the service by uploading video, adding video through Facebook Mobile, and using a webcam recording feature. Additionally, users can “tag” their friends in videos they add much like the way users can tag their friends in photos.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook#Site_features


Bibliography:
wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook#Site_features. (2008, March 5). Retrieved March 2008, from wikipedia.org: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_features

Post #1 What is Facebook?

WHAT IS IT?

A social networking website, launched on February 4, 2004. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, a former Harvard student.Initially the membership of Facebook was restricted to students of Harvard College. It was subsequently expanded to MIT, Boston University, Boston College, and all Ivy League schools within two months. Many individual universities were added in rapid succession over the next year. Eventually, people with a university (e.g .edu, .ac.uk, etc.) email address from institutions across the globe were eligible to join. Networks were then initiated for high schools on February 27, 2006 and some large companies. Since September 11, 2006, anyone 13 or older may join. Users can select to join one or more participating networks, such as a school, place of employment, or geographic region. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook

Here is a link to a an interview with the creator of FaceBook, Mark Zuckerberg (he is only 23 years old!)

Part 1- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cEySyEnxvU
Part2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CGF00VIxB8&feature=related


Bibliography:
wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook. ( 2008, March 11). Retrieved March 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia