KairosWikis | CCCCReviews / 2008CC3Rodrigo

The Social Network as CMS: Using facebook to Power Communication
By Shelley Rodrigo
rrodrigo@mail.mc.maricopa.edu

John Jones

Jones outlined some of the current problems with Learning Management Systems (LMSs) like Blackboard (Bb) and Desire2Learn and proposed how using a social networking platform like Facebook possibly solves some of those issues.

Benefits of an LMS	Drawbacks of an LMS
Top down control Automatic student loading Content in one place Easy for instructors Full featured	Closed system Hierarchical Unfamiliar interface Difficult to navigate Institution Biased (only those people) Course Biased (only those students)

Systems like Bb facilitate temporary learning communities that are forced together based on enrollment and only last a short period of time. What if the virtual learning communities were structured to last longer? Might they be more beneficial?

Benefits of using Facebook	Drawbacks of using Facebook
Familiar to most students (even social networks in general) Long-term (learning) community Open—can integrate other web-services	Top-down privacy controls (no grades) Application fatigue –still have to walk students through Student relationships (becoming “friends”)

Jones claims the benefits outweigh the potential problems! He claims that it is worth the time to give them web experience, teaching them to use tools they’ll actually use again. He also claims the need to make boundaries then forces a healthy discussion in class about boundaries.

Jones gives some suggestions on how you might use Facebook based on the common features used in a LMS:

Static content: Start groups in Facebook, there is only a low barrier to use and there are already course applications within the facebook application options (Course Feed and Courses 2.0).
Course communication: Communicate through groups, course applications, and aggregation feeds; if the institution allows access to the appropriate code, it is possible to import a Bb account into Course Feed; all the group pages and course applications have discussion board functions.
File sharing: Obviously you can not share grades or things with a grade posted on it and would then need to share those types of materials through applications like email and Google docs; both Course Feed and Courses 2.0 allow the uploading of documents.

Jones also mentioned how facebook also allows companies to start “pages” that have individual walls and add applications (which groups can not currently do). If you could start a page for a course you could then integrate a lot of applications into the course page instead of instructor pages.

The exciting thing is that concept and course content are now the walls around the virtual course, not restrictions of enrollment and period of the term. Although obviously students will still conclude the work of the semester, there is also potential for post-course carryover.

Obviously there is and would be administrative nervousness. There are issues related to privacy as well as economics. However, Jones would like to see us make the scholarly case for social networking as well as continue to work with the technology, like making group pages private, as a way to work with privacy and other legal issues.

Whooo hooo! I taught a contemporary film course in MySpace during the spring 2007 semester. I am really excited about playing with the Course Feed and Courses 2.0 applications. Mostly, I am very excited about Jones idea of creating learning communities that can extend beyond the space and term of a regular course. Maybe, like I do with wikis, these virtual learning communities can also build upon one another, term after term, as well.