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.”