Part I: Caveats What Facebook is and isn't.

(Online dating with MySpace and Facebook)

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. It isn't a wiki, or a blog, or any sort of silver bullet tool. Facebook is the digital social center of the college campus. It is a social tool; its use is primarily the management of the social life at college. Of course, college life is geared around academics, so inherently the social worlds of college students intersect with academics - but only to a certain extent. Knowing Facebook's limitations and target uses - they are primarily social - will help you contextualize your use of Facebook as a learning tool.

The expectation of privacy. Facebook has unique boundaries when it comes to privacy. 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. What does this mean? You must let your students friend you. You must not cross privacy contexts first. You must reciprocate disclosure and be an equal player. I will explore all of these in greater depth.

Non-participants. A good deal of Facebook users do not allow faculty, staff or other persons of power to be part of their social life. Therefore, there should be no expectation that Facebook will allow engagement with all students. We can only respect the student's decision in this matter.

Facebook as a Tool for Learning Engagement

Posted 12/20/2006 08:34:00 AM by Fred Stutzman who is a Ph.D. student and teaching fellow at UNC?s School of Information and Library Science.

I often receive questions from educators about how to effectively use Facebook as a learning tool. With Facebook use rates hovering around 95 percent, it only makes sense that forward-thinking educators will use this tool as a method of engagement with students. However, with the intersection of privacy concerns and instructor non-familiarity with social networking sites, it takes a little effort to use Facebook properly. I've written the following post with the goal of providing instructors a roadmap for leveraging Facebook effectively as a learning tool. Some of this may be a little general and obvious to experienced FB users, so feel free to skip around.

(In the following articles you will see the development of this article)

Cassandra: Do you want to be my friend? (Facebook)

From The Sunday Times
November 30, 2008

Great article by Ariel Leve at TimesOnline about the ups and downs of life as a Facebook user.

I know most people see Facebook as a positive thing and an opportunity to make new friendships, but I’m worried. It’s opened up a whole new world of paranoia. I always knew I had the potential to alienate people in real life but now I can drive away thousands of people in cyber space too?

I joined Facebook because I was told to I had to. “You’re missing out,” Sophie said. I enjoy missing out. There’s plenty to be gained from it. Whenever I’ve panicked about missing out and then forced myself to go somewhere, I’ve invariably returned home thinking: I wasn’t missing much at all. But missing out on what’s going on with my friends is different. The disparate nature of peoples’ lives means I feel like I’m always in catch-up mode even with close friends.

So Facebook is a tool for staying in touch. For most of my friends it has replaced e-mail. Now even texting and phone calls have become a chore. I’ll get through to Barack Obama before I’ll get through to Liza. Plus, I’ve always wondered what my friends are up to when they’re not available to meet. Now I know. Facebook means I can get status updates and as soon as I joined, one instantly appeared on my screen. “Liza is folding laundry.” I felt so included. God only knows what else I’ve been missing.

The messages poured in congratulating me on joining. One said, “I can’t believe it!” and another: “I’m so happy for you.” Then the phone rang. It was Sophie. “I’m so excited!” She said, “Finally!” You’d think I’d gotten engaged.

In real life, my friends are disinterested and distracted. But in cyber life people are very excited (!!!) about everything!!! The levels of emotion are off the charts. Everyone is so effusive. And curious. People I’ve never met before and have no interest in meeting are asking me questions about what I think and how I feel. My new fake friends have raised the bar. A lot of people who have become friends with me have no idea who I am. Which suits me fine. These are great friends to have. I’ve also enjoyed reconnecting with people I haven’t been in touch with for 20 years and catching up in two sentences. Does it get any better? Essentially we’re saying: “Hi, not dead”.

The only thing better than having a social life without ever leaving the house is having no obligations or responsibilities for maintaining this beyond an occasional click of a button. You can’t get mad at a friend on Facebook for not getting back to you and I’ve found that disappointment and rejection that would normally upset me is non-existent in cyber life.

All of which has led to a startling discovery: I’m so much better as a virtual friend than I am as a real friend. The question is, how to carry it over.

Thanks to the status update I can read about what everyone is doing if they choose to post it. Once you’ve agreed to be friends with someone this update comes automatically. I thought about posting my own status update but figured “"I just woke up - going back to bed - may snore” wouldn’t be of much interest. I was wrong. There’s no minutia too small to report.Nancy is tired. Karen is eating cereal. Then people can comment on these updates. I try not to waste time but it's hard to overlook comments like: "What kind of cereal? Bran? I love Bran!"

I wish I had that much enthusiasm about something. Then there is information about my friends that is slightly unnerving. For instance, I’m waiting for Jessica to get back to me and a week has passed. Suddenly, a status update appears. “Jessica has just spent 8 hours doing nothing and is incredibly bored.” Now what? I’d like to think I haven’t heard back from her because she’s busy with work or family commitments. But apparently doing nothing is preferable to talking to me. I don’t want to know that.

I don't mind the status updates when people are blowing their nose. I feel productive when I read those. But the ones like “Mike is thrilled with his new multi-million dollar deal” are trying. It’s a constant struggle not to get depressed. And I don’t even know who Mike is.

But the saddest thing of all is the people I used to be friends with, with whom I still share mutual friends. Facebook will voluntarily suggest the rejected friends as new friends. This means their photo pops up on my screen whether I want it to or not. This includes ex boyfriends. And they’re always smiling.

And what about the people I regard as friends in real life who haven’t approved me yet? Are they ignoring me? There's no way to know. If run into them in real life, do I pretend we don’t know the truth? No one will ever say, "Yes, I'm ignoring you" in person. My friend Jon hasn't gotten back to me yet and I went to his page. He has 2,000 friends. But I’m not worthy?
Conversely, the opposite isn’t any better. I was approved by Rocco DeSpirito, the famous chef who I met once. That’s sweet, I thought, he remembers. Until I discovered Rocco has nearly 5,000 friends. Now I don’t feel so special.

I predict it will all end badly. Sophie is annoyed because I'm not using the status updates. “That’s the best part!” Other friends have wondered why I haven't been in touch. I'll end up losing my real friends because I don't have enough time for them thanks to keeping up with new people I'll never see or speak to. It's a lot of pressure.