Information
We are The Facebook Papers.
Friends
Jon 
Corey
Ellen Porter
The Facebook Papers
March 14, 2011
The Facebook Papers has posted a note.
The Facebook Papers Structure
To experience this webtext, read this note last.
March 11, 2011
The Facebook Papers has posted a note.
Conclusion
The purpose of this project was to explore and document one approach for integrating social media--Facebook, really--into freshman writing. The assignment using Facebook was first given in 2006 and twice more through 2009. The assignment seemed to help students effectively...
June 30, 2010
Evelyn Lauer has posted a note.
Student Technology Survey
I saw that you mentioned the technology survey I used with my first year writing students, and now use with my high school students. Here is the prompt:...
July 20, 2010
The Facebook Papers has posted a note.
Observations
When we asked students to write about the ethos of a self as mediated through Facebook and to put that into a cultural context, we were not sure what we would find. We knew we were at an important sociotechnical moment. Across the three years of first-year writing students were asked to examine another person's online identity...
April 9, 2009
These students identify ways students described each other during the past three years.
April 9, 2009
Darrel is friendly (p. 1), interested in women (p. 3), and has a passion for football (p. 3).
April 9, 2009
One student drinks most days of the week (to protect the student's identity, I include neither the author nor the subject of study).
April 9, 2009
"I found Beth to be an optimistic young woman who appears to be going through something profound" (p. 3).
April 9, 2009
I'm interested in reading further to find out more about Beth's situation.
June 1, 2009
I'm a little surprised that there were only three student Facebook profiles that mentioned partying.
June 10, 2009
You are not the first to respond that way. We focus heavily on audience, purpose, effect, and situation--rhetorical contexts: It becomes the authors' responsibility to describe their peer in a way that retains that person's integrity in public conversations. Of course, if you put that together with the concerns they express about how they could be perceived, it provides another explanation for why their claims could seem superficial.
June 3, 2009
While such claims may seem superficial to us, they may be informative from the perspectives of the students. This may speak to the level of detail at which students examine Facebook pages, the level it takes for them to decide about a person, and how they determine whether or not to connect.
It may also be that they know that the rhetorical task of the assignment was to maintain the integrity of their peers and, so, they provided safe answers in order to do so. It may also be that students identified enough with the assignment to adequately complete it but that they prioritized social connections over their academic identity.
March 31, 2009
By the time they do in-class peer reviews for this assignment, they have already done them several times during the semester. At first students strongly resisted and even groaned. They don't want to share their work, they are not sure they have anything to say about another person's work, they didn't buy their book yet and, so, could not complete the assignment. The in-class feedback is generally quick and students make only a few comments. I'd like them to make more; however, their approach is likely better, as they already conducted thorough peer reviews as homework assignments.
March 31, 2009
Students see more papers and, thus, more ways of thinking and more ways to approach the assignment. Perhaps they can more quickly synthesize to notice patterns of normal discourse.
April 3, 2009
So it actually seems like the comments aren't so much lessened, but more directed. What is the response to this difference?
April 6, 2009
At first students make fewer comments and those are not very directed. They write, "I liked it" and "good job." Even though they complain that other people give them vague or "not very helpful" feedback, they try to continue to comment in ways that support social more so than academic connections. In part, it is likely because providing peer feedback is new and, so, they do not have models from which to begin to engage in such academic discussions. As students have many conversations about APES, the unit topics, and elements of effective writing, and as they participate in more conversations, their peer reviews and conversations in class and their writing become more directed, and they become more engaged.
April 6, 2010
Students usually read and evaluate at different paces. Have you ever had anyone who needed extra time?
April 6, 2009
Yes. However, they do not need it for this task, which is another reason the approach the students take is beneficial (thank you for pointing that out). Quantity does not matter but engagement does. Students pass along papers clockwise. If they already have a paper when they get a paper, they pass it to someone who is without a paper or someone about to finish a paper. This activity is done for a specific amount (often about 40 minutes) of time rather than for a specific number of papers. No one realizes how many papers others have read.
March 31, 2009
The Facebook assignment came in today. They took them seriously, which I could tell from their drafts and careful attention to peer reviews. Often a number of students skip peer reviews. This time, only two people did not do them, one of which was absent on the day they exchanged paper drafts.
March 4, 2009
You don't need to have a Facebook account in order to do this assignment.
March 4, 2009
I don't want this to be peer pressure. You do not have to get an account.
March 4, 2009
Just gave the Facebook papers assignment to first-year writing. For the most part, class conversation resembled those from previous semesters. More students use privacy features now, but students generally have fewer concerns about friending a classmate. Here is one interesting exchange.
September 12, 2008
We received helpful feedback from Kairos editors and reviewers. While they made many suggestions, two points need close attention. First, the fact that we found student papers to be boring seemed uninteresting and, perhaps, myopic. Second, they want to be clear that we followed our IRB guidelines.
September 12, 2008
We didn't say the papers were boring. Well, we sort of said that but that was not the main point. If the main point did not come across, we clearly need to do some work.
September 12, 2008
The revision should not use the word "boring," or other such evaluative statements, unless students described them in that way.
September 12, 2008
The revision needs to clarify that what is of interest about the claims made in the student papers is that they did not seem to match the analytical depth or skill that the same students demonstrated through their arguments in the same paper or that the class as a whole demonstrated during discussions. The revision needs to explain why that observation is of interest.
September 12, 2008
We have worked through the IRB issues. As you know, that is what we spent this year doing. As we discussed last year, we only asked and will only ask for participation and informed consent after grades have been released. We are going to use pseudonyms and stock photos for student subjects. As researchers, we will not examine the students' actual Facebook sites.
Because we had to propose a new study, some of the data that we had could not be used. Some of the data could be used if we could find specific students and they agree to sign the new informed consent forms, but we have been unable to find some of them. With the new study, we have the opportunity to look at the assignment being used this year and next year.
September 15, 2008
But I wanted my information, here! My name and my profile pic. My Facebook is public and I have more than 1000 photos and almost 1000 friends. I signed that agreement that said you would use it.
September 12, 2008
Kym, I apologize that we are unable to use your information as you had hoped.
September 12, 2008
This may be in your best interest. It is the job of the IRB to look out for your interests. Let's talk more about this when you come by the office.
August 1, 2007
ARRRGG!! The director of the IRB committee called me at home on Friday afternoon. We need to go back through the IRB process.
August 1, 2007
IRB rules and, well, Facebook has changed and because our research is not yet published we need to--and should--adjust our methods and submit a new proposal to the IRB.
August 1, 2007
That makes sense. It used to be that most of what was published on the internet was considered public, but posts to the internet were not and are not all public. The research community needed more complex ways of looking at mediated, networked communications.
August 1, 2007
That isn't so clear. It started with "You cannot use Facebook" and ended with him muttering under his breath, "This is why we do not do research with students." Between the two statements were about an hour of questions and answers. Mostly, I asked questions and the IRB responded with, "that is a grey area." While the IRB had some concerns about studying uses of Facebook, their primary concerns were about using students, particularly current students, as subjects, which is complicated when introducing the variables that come along with studying Facebook.
I'm going to talk with them again. As of now, even if students gave written informed consent and even if they want us to use their names and photos, we cannot use them. We are not allowed to ask for student permission to use their papers or discussions until after course grades have been submitted. There is some information we can use in aggregate.
March 6, 2007
I'm proud of the class today. They engaged in debates about privacy, social networking, and parameters of their assignment. All but one person talked, and even she seemed engaged, sitting forward in her chair and watching people talk. Usually she watches her shoes from behind the bill of her cap. Today she wore her cap backwards. Even Angie talked today. She almost never talks. Putting the responsibility for learning on the students can be powerful.
March 6, 2007
You are now analysts. You will examine the assigned Facebook profile and determine three to five defining characteristics of that person. Part of your rhetorical task is to capture and maintain the character of your peer and then convey your findings to a public audience that is mostly peers but also includes people in positions to evaluate the person. In completing this assignment, as you have done with your previous papers, you will make claims, provide support, and explain the warrants. This assignment develops your research, analytical, and argument skills.
What do you think? What questions do you have?
March 7, 2007
Oh, you still have to read. Reading is integral. You'll read from your textbook, and, like the previous paper, you will have reading assignments for each class period. You will read your peers' papers.
March 7, 2007
*notices them packing up in hopes that no one asks questions--they don't want to stay for the last two minutes*
March 6, 2007
When doing this assignment, you are not judging each other as in being judgmental. You are drawing conclusions based on data available at the assigned site or links posted there. All claims must emerge from data and in the papers all claims must be supported with evidence. For the assignment, a person could not successfully judge you as being a [fill in the blank] based just on wall posts or just because of photos. Authors must consider the range of data and then make observations.
March 6, 2007
If you stop posting, people can analyze what is already there. The fact that you stopped posting would be part of of the data.
March 6, 2007
*sees class members shake their heads*
*realizes this is not a "no," that it is a realization that everyone on campus might actually look at their profiles*
March 6, 2007
So if you do not have your profile set to private, and people on campus can already see your profile, wouldn't this assignment be asking you and others to do what they can already do?
March 6, 2007
Dara, do you mind if someone in class friends you? Otherwise, instead of analyzing your page for the assignment the person assigned to you can analyze mine, or we can do something different.
March 7, 2007
I wanted to ask about how they use or how other people use social networking sites.
March 23, 2009
There were power relationships at play. Even though Deb said students did not have to use Facebook or MySpace, the students were not aware of other options, such as opting for another assignment. It wasn't as though students were presented two options and then were allowed to choose one. Because Deb has the power to assign grades, because students have learned long before this class that that their role as a student is to follow the instructor, because only one option was presented, and because selecting an option different than their peers does not seem like a choice, students may not have believed there was really a choice--even if from Deb's perspective there was an alternate.
March 23, 2009
All true. I could have made it more explicit that my questions were designed as catalysts for thoughts and discussions about uses of technology and not to coerce students into using Facebook. Intellectually and emotionally, telling students that I plan to confront their ideas and then doing so is different from confronting them without warning.
In the first scenario, students play out a script that seems to demonstrate their intellect and they can do so in detached ways: I say something, teacher asks a question from a different perspective, I show that I understand by adjusting my response even if I do not believe what I am saying.
In the second scenario, the confrontation is unexpected and, thus, there is at least a fraction of time from which the speaker (student or teacher) reacts with heightened emotion, and that reaction gives rise not to canned answers but a need to examine the more primal response. Therefore, while a different approach might have helped students understand the purpose of the assignment better or at a much earlier stage, it also might have sacrificed the spontaneity and honesty of those initial conversations. Each approach can be used for different needs.
March 23, 2009
Our, or, errr, my comments are getting long. I'm between textual worlds.
May 20, 2010
It will be important for an instructor considering this assignment to plan for a student who doesn't wish to allow others to view his/her account, for privacy or personal reasons. While Deb's plan is to have that student evaluate her own account, power structures in the classroom could make such an arrangement problematic.
June 1, 2010
Good point, Jonathan. I'll have to also consider additional changes based on changes up until that semester. Perhaps I will also have to consider if Facebook is the place to examine reading, writing, and identification.
March 6, 2007
So three of you are going to analyze MySpace pages. Sammy, you said you would do mine. You are all okay with this? You are not required to use any of these.
March 6, 2007
So you are good with this? Great. If you two exchange MySpace accounts, that would be good, and here is my MySpace Page.
March 6, 2007
Do you look at just one of these parts of Facebook when deciding if you want to be that person's friend?
March 6, 2007
We look at all of it, maybe starting with photos but "about me" and status. Oh, and friends, too.
March 6, 2007
What about just photos? Would just the photos tell you about that person?
March 6, 2007
So what do you do to learn about someone you just met or someone you are determining if you would like to meet?
March 6, 2007
This is good. Right now, you are all conducting analyses. This is the kind of "work" people will ask of you in your classes, for example. You will be asked to look at something in total, piece by piece, and in terms of its patterns or relationships. You'll be asked to describe it and those patterns in ways that help others recognize them (or, in many classes, to demonstrate that you understand them). You'll likely be asked to discuss what those patterns or observations might mean.
Our discussion tells me that most of you already know how to do this, and that is what you are doing in your papers. In this paper, you will look at patterns of what you see on a profile, make some claims about what you noticed, tell us those claims, show us the evidence of those claims (the details you gathered from the wall, status updates, photos, and the like), and help us see how those fit together based on what you saw (why the claims are warranted based on the provided support).
March 6, 2007
It may seem irrelevant or irreverent to include in this webtext that a student was banned from Facebook; however, instructors need to be aware of this as a possibility if they plan to use social networking sites in the classroom.
March 6, 2007
I've given this assignment three times, now. Two of the three times there was at least one student banned from Facebook.
March 6, 2007
When students indicate that they do not have Facebook accounts, they might be embarrassed if the instructor asks if they are willing to open an account. They may have had an account that they are now banned from using.
February 12, 2009
There are a number of ways to be completely or partially banned from Facebook, including the use of offensive language or posts. If a user sends too many messages or conducts too many chats within a short amount of time, that feature might be disabled for an hour or up to three days, longer depending upon the circumstances.
March 6, 2007
You are not required to use Facebook or MySpace to do this assignment. We can do something else.
March 6, 2007
When you meet someone new and see their Facebook profile for the first time, how do you determine who they are?
March 6, 2007
They aren't groups. It's not like people do something. They don't talk there. It's just to have that on your profile, to say you like that.
March 6, 2007
Friends. Not always to tell about that person but to see if anyone you know, knows them. Then you can see if you want to be friends with them.
April 12, 2010
Everyone talked about the groups feature and how users joined groups in order to associate with them, but only two students used groups as supporting evidence for claims about their peers.
April 12, 2010
The students effectively analyzed uses of the "groups" feature within Facebook. Most group sites were not places to engage; rather, they were "worn" like a t-shirt. Facebook later distinguished between active groups from their newly added "Fan" pages, sites that users "like" in order to wear that page. When users click an "I like this" button, they announce to all of their friends and anyone with access to their wall that they like that page.
March 6, 2007
By talking about the assignment the class begins to meet assignment objectives: Students are thinking about uses of social networking, especially their own.
March 6, 2007
*hears "yeah's" with an intonation that makes them seem more like questions that need answers*
*sees some girls sit back and cross their arms*
March 6, 2007
So people can currently see your relationship status, photos, and posts. People can already decide that you are a lesbian because you are female and your relationship status indicates that you are in a relationship with someone that appears to be female. People can already look at your photos and see that, at least from body language and the captions, you are interested in men. Correct?
March 6, 2007
What difference does it make, then, to have a classmate "friend" you for three weeks?
March 6, 2007
You may be talking just to your friends, but your campus can see and hear you. Is it possible for people, including faculty and staff, to draw such conclusions now?
March 6, 2007
Or they might think some girls are sluts, even if they're not sleeping around.
March 6, 2007
You may not think of your posts as talking in public, but aren't your posts public?
March 6, 2007
Does having pictures with different guys or of you at different parties mean that you are a "slut?"
March 6, 2007
Just gave students their assignment to analyze a classmate's Facebook site and write a paper about that person based on their findings and to do so in a way that speculates about uses of technology in our culture.
March 6, 2007
*thinks students seem surprised and look around at each other with smiles*
March 1, 2007
Deb Balzhiser has posted a note.
Apparatus, Peer Review & Self Evaluation
Two activities have been integral to learning in this freshman writing course: peer reviews and self evaluations. Each serves to enhance learning...
February 28, 2007
Deb Balzhiser has posted a note.
The Facebook Papers Unit Prompt
Here is the paper prompt for the Facebook paper unit...
February 28, 2007
Deb Balzhiser has posted a note.
Context for The Facebook Papers Unit
Before looking at the paper prompt and unit schedule, it may be useful to understand where The Facebook Papers unit fits within the course...
February 28, 2007
The Facebook Papers has posted a note.
Course Description, Objectives, & Standards
The department has a common syllabus for first year writing which includes a course description, objectives, and grading standards that all instructors must follow, including Deb in the course in which the Facebook assignment was given...
February 28, 2007
The Facebook Papers has posted a note.
A Focus on Learning
Learning classrooms can look different than teaching classrooms. To demonstrate this point, Robert B. Barr and John Tagg (1995) shared an experience of a faculty member who was about to be observed...
February 8, 2007
I approach freshman writing from within a learning paradigm. To understand an assignment in a learning paradigm means to understand how opportunities for learning are structured within the course and the assignment. To provide context for what students have begun calling "the Facebook paper," The Facebook Papers and I will discuss learning, the courses in which the assignment was given, and the assignment in a couple of notes: A Focus on Learning; Course Description, Objectives, & Standards; and The Facebook Papers Unit Prompt.
February 8, 2007
In hopes of connecting the social and academic selves more explicitly and quickly, I've incorporated Facebook into my first-year writing class and will talk about that, here.
November 16, 2006
The Facebook Papers has posted a note.
What is a Residential College?
Because Deb lived in a freshman residence hall and because two of the three classes in which she administered the assignment were for Residential College, it may help to understand Residential College. At her institution, ResColl is designed in part to help students develop academic identities...
November 6, 2006
Because I'm now a Faculty in Residence (and Interim Faculty Coordinator) for our Residential College program and because I live with them, I see students transition socially and academically. It seems that they need to establish themselves socially before they are comfortable fully focusing on academics.
October 13, 2006
Deb Balzhiser has posted a note.
Writing, Culture, & Technology
I wanted to immerse in the writing spaces of Facebook before I ever saw it. After talking with Evelyn, I wanted to connect—identify—with others through the site and I wanted to connect— conceptualize—social networking within the history of print and cultural change...
October 13, 2006
If students are that engaged with Facebook, I'm pretty sure I need to learn about it. If people are that invested in a writing technology, I know I want to better understand it. I'm going to post a note.
April 15, 2006
The Facebook Papers has posted a note.
Kenneth Burke on Unity/Identity.
This is the last note from Evelyn regarding her initial interest in this project. In short, Burke (1950) believed that people are born apart from each other and are, therefore, divided by biology and then by social class and hierarchies...
April 15, 2006
The Facebook Papers has posted a note.
On Facebook & Friends
This is Evelyn's note. Facebook is an online community that used to limit membership to college students, then to high school students, then to those with company emails, but currently, "anyone can join..."
April 15, 2006
The Facebook Papers has posted a note.
When MySpace becomes OurSpace: Student Identity & Facebook
This is Evelyn's note. "Facebook improved my social life," said Kelly, who went on to explain how excited she gets when people "request" to be her friend...
April 8, 2006
From her surveys and discussion with students, Evelyn notices that these technologies seem to be more than tools: They seem to be part of students' identities.
March 4, 2006
Since our conversation, we are both still interested in freshman writers and their uses of social networking, so Evelyn and I want to explore ways it may be affecting our composition classrooms generally. More specifically, in this project we want to explore ways that social networking sites might be integrated into writing assignments. We want to focus particularly on assignments to be crafted within traditional courses or within those with common syllabi, such as those that emphasize essay and argumentative structures.
June 30, 2009
I'm a high school teacher. I worried about old students tracking me down, and I didn't really get it--at all.
March 2, 2006
Deb and Evelyn realized that somehow the student relationships to this technology were different, and they became interested in finding out how such obsessions with this technology could be used in a classroom.
March 3, 2008
At about the time Evelyn and Deb began their project, administrators in higher education realized that they would have to adapt to serve a new population.
March 3, 2008
Our campus began staff development sessions about the new students. Our Liberal Arts Council based their talks on the seven core traits of millennials identified in Millennials Go to College (Howe & Strauss, 2007): special, sheltered, confident, team-oriented, conventional, pressured, and achieving.
April 9, 2010
Can you give me an example of how administrators have had to change to meet these needs?
April 21, 2010
Our campus has been adjusting to new values, behaviors, and expectations. With increasing frequency, parents come to advising or other campus offices with and sometimes for students to which administrators responded by creating release forms students can sign so parents can legally take part in discussions that involve educational records.
April 21, 2010
In Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives (2008), Palfrey and Gasser used the term "digital natives" to describe those people who were born into a world of fast-growing social technologies. Educators and administrators, who are primarily "digital immigrants," now have to understand that digital natives not only act in new ways, they think in new ways as well.
April 21, 2010
These new values, behaviors, and expectations are likely primarily a result of the so-called Millennial generation arriving full force in the academy. Paid employment among such teens has fallen from those of previous years, and recall that this is a generation that has grown up in an era that placed a high value on children. The idea that rules might have to be altered in order to allow for parents to attend if not outright lead counseling sessions with parents shouldn't surprise us; the Millennial generation is closer to their parents than Baby Boomers or Generation X were to theirs.
April 21, 2010
Educational records are protected by The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). If the student is 18 years of age or older, an institution cannot release information about educational records without consent from the student, not even to parents who pay the tuition. If students want to involve parents, they need to give permission. Each institution interprets the act for its campus. Our institution has release forms; other institutions forego signatures and assume that by students bringing parents to the meetings that students already grant access. More information on FERPA can currently be found at the website for the US Department of Education.
March 2, 2006
Deb first began to realize how obsessed students were with Facebook when she met Evelyn during a hallway conversation.
March 2, 2006
Evelyn began informal discussions with her students about their uses of digital technology. Student responses led her to a more formal survey that she gives to her students at the beginning of each term. The survey was designed to address topics such as how often students check their email, social networking sites, and their text messages.
March 12, 2008
Responses from this survey were used only in aggregate based on three years of data. We did not compare answers by year.
March 2, 2006
Evelyn first learned of Facebook--and other social networking sites such as MySpace--when she asked her first-year composition students to analyze the use of technology in the United States by examining their own technological habits.