FACEBOOK - Classroom

Facebook. Everyone is on it. Ok, maybe not everyone, but over 22,000,000 college-aged students are accessing Facebook to meet their friends, post their current status, network with those who share the same interests, play online games with other facebook members, cultivate farmlands in a social utility game, share messages. In fact, students spend so much time on Facebook that one study done in 2008 claims that students who use Facebook have lower GPAs than those they don't. The study claims this is because students spend the time that they should be studying on this social networking tool.

Is there a place for Facebook in the college classroom? I believe there is. Consider this - If students are spending time on this social networking tool anyway, instructors would be wise to use this to their advantage. Instead of letting Facebook become a distraction, college instructors could use this social network as a study tool to reach out to their students and engage them in their courses. Here are a few tools on Facebook that would enhance classroom learning:

1. Groups and Status Updates. The following presentation given at the Center for Teaching and Learning Advancement at Elon University, offers instructors step-by-step instructions on how to create a group for students to join and tips on how to best use basic Facebook tools, such as status updates, events, etc.

2. Coursefeed Application. Facebook has actually created a Facebook learning community called Coursefeed. To access Coursefeed, you need to log into Facebook and start the application. Coursefeed allows instructors to sync their Blackboard courses with Facebook so students do not have to login to a separate Blackboard account, to access any open education courses that are available and allows educators to create their own course space where students can form study groups and the class can upload and share files.

3. Courses Application. This application was created by a former high-school teacher and is meant to act like a course management system similar to Blackboard. Instructors can upload and share files, have class discussions and manage a course calendar. Though many universities have a course management system already in place, this tool would be great for other learning institutions that do not have this tool available. *NOTE: I attempted to try this application out and it is apparently having some bugs in it. I think the idea is great, though, and I hope the creators can figure out the problems soon.

All of these tools that are available to classroom instructors just emphasize the idea technology and social networking tools can be a positive motivation to learning.

My advice to classroom instructors - give it a try. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain!