Facebook for learning and collaboration: engage your students or colleagues

1. Facebook for learning and collaboration: engage your students or colleagues Tony Brett Head of IT Support Staff Services OUCS Wednesday 11 February 2009

2. Agenda • Quick Facebook Introduction • Privacy and Ownership Concerns • Disciplinary Action • Communicating • Collaborating • Teaching • Practical

3. Facebook is a social network tool • Framework for information • Complex control of who can see what • Users have a “profile” with a picture* and other personal details as they wish, including limiting what certain people can see • Based on “Networks” • Facebook creates a newsfeed based on what your “friends” are doing • Available to anyone 13 and over * Picture is important for recognition, especially with common names

4. Happy 5th Birthday! • Started in Harvard University Feb 2004 • Later added academic addresses (.edu, .ac.uk etc) making “networks” for “colleges” • Oxford network has just over 33,000 people in it, out a possible c. 45,000 • Regional and Employer networks also exist • “Regional” anyone can join, but can’t change too often • “Employer” requires email address in the right domain • Opened to anyone with email in Sep 2006

5. Facebook has many features! • The Wall • Messages INBOX (and threads) & Chat • Friends • Pokes • Groups • Fan Pages & Adverts • Events • Photos & Videos (with tagging) • Posted items & Notes • Shared items • Applications

6. There are other Social Networking Sites • Bebo – lots of school children • MySpace – musicians etc. • Sometimes called “poor man’s facebook” • Friendfinder • Twitter - Microblogging • And other minor sites • Even sites where you can make your own social networks

7. Friends • The key to networks • Can invite by email or searching • Can search on your email address book • Privacy worry? • Mutual consent • Friend lists can be used to control access and send messages • Can be good for keeping up with folks after conferences or other business meetings etc. • I recommend you only make friends with people you actually know (and have preferably met!)

8. Tagging • Marking a photo, video or other item as containing a person • Can only tag your own friends • Others can tag your photos but need your permission • You can untag yourself if you don’t like a photo or video you are tagged in • Then nobody can re-tag you • Facebook won’t remove items unless they violate the AUP

9. What about my privacy? • People worry about revealing their personal lives to the world • Tutors and Students may want to keep things from each other! • Limiting views to friend groups can help • Identity Theft Risk • Don’t show DOB and Home Address! • Facebook staff can check profiles (for policy violations) • Things are “cached” on the web so even if you put something up then remove it, it may still be held elsewhere for years!

10. Controlling Privacy is quite logical • Privacy screen on Facebook • Settings for: • Account • Name, Contact Email, Password • Privacy • Profile, Search, News Feed & Wall, Applications • How another user will see your profile • Applications • Can Control each photo album separately

11. Ownership Concerns • Facebook T&Cs say that they can use everything you put there, for free! • You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content • Copyright Policy is strict • We respect the IP rights of others and we prohibit users from Posting User Content that violates another party's IP rights. When we receive a proper claim of IP infringement, we promptly remove or disable access to the allegedly infringing User Content. • Facebook will be entitled to the unrestricted use of any such Submission for any purpose, commercial or otherwise, without acknowledgment or compensation to you.

12. Disciplinary Action & Prospective Employers • Don’t name your employer and then defame them or say anything to bring them or their business into disrepute • Don’t put stuff up you don’t want others to see. Think about future employers etc. • Oxford Students have been disciplined with evidence from Facebook after post-exam “trashing” • In April 2007, students at a Toronto school were banned from an end-of-the-year trip after disparaging remarks about a teacher were found on Facebook

13. So why use Facebook for Teaching? • Personal and professional networking only differ in the content, not the tool • Students today grew up with this stuff • There is a divide between the way they learn and the way we teach • We are the digital immigrants! • Teaching students the way they prefer to learn may improve engagement and attainment

14. Digital Natives vs. Digital Immigrants Source: http://www.apple.com/au/education/digitalkids/disconnect/landscape.html

15. Teaching • Have your students in groups? • Have them as Facebook “friends” perhaps in a friend group that you can restrict • Some students may be outraged that their lecturer ‘be-friended’ them but others may think it’s pretty cool to be able to see a ‘real life’ side of the person who’s teaching them • Post and share URLs • Weblearn material • Reading lists • Other online material • Don’t put your own material on facebook • just link to it • Photos & Videos (but watch copyright!) • Organise group work with facebook events.

16. Communicating • Groups • Discussions • Photos • Videos • Posted items (Weblearn URLs?) • Group events and invitations • Groups for tutorial groups? • Don’t have to be a friend to be in a group with someone • Personal messages & threads • Fan pages can be used for wider advertising via updates • Maybe for a department or college • Useful recruitment or alumni tool? • See Oxford University fan page

17. Collaborating • Cross-Institution Groups • Subject-specific groups • Try searches • Groups or Events for specific conferences/meetings • UCISA is experimenting with this • Easy way to post and share videos and photos • Universal across HE worldwide (almost!) • Don’t forget ownership & privacy issues! • Use “events” to set up meetings

18. Advertising • Fan pages exist for • Businesses • Brands or Products • Artists, Bands, Public Figures • Easy to create and manage • Can use to send updates and promote discussion • Fans can contribute as they wish • Organisation retains control

19. Exercises • Make a profile if you don’t already have one – www.facebook.com • Adjust your privacy settings – hide all or some of DOB • Join the Oxford network • Make friends with your neighbour • Try tagging a note or some photos • Post a URL of something of interest and share it with a neighbour • Restrict some things your neighbour can see • Search for groups that cover your subject • Make a group and invite your neighbour to it – or join an existing one • Post something relevant to the group • Have a look at the Oxford network page and fan page • Search for some people you know • Unusual names are easier!

20. References • http://www.cit.cornell.edu/policy/memos/facebook.html • Useful notes from Cornell (April 2006) • http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/Facebook20/46324?time=1234302688 • Thoughts on Facebook 2.0 • http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm06/erm0660.asp • Notes from Educause December 2006 (long) • http://www.educause.edu/LIVE0621 • Live presentation: Facing Facebook and other social networking technologies • http://blogs.edgehill.ac.uk/webservices/2007/10/30/fear-of-facebook/ • Comments from a UK University • http://student.independent.co.uk/university_life/article3068385.ece • Networking sites: Professors keep out! (October 07) • http://www.apple.com/au/education/digitalkids/disconnect/landscape.html • The “digital disconnect” • http://blogs.gartner.com/allen_weiner/2009/01/20/social-media-turns-a-page/ • Social Media Turns a page