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!