Facebook: teaching,

communicating and
collaborating
Tony Brett
Head of IT Support Staff Services
OUCS
Tuesday 6 November 2007
 Agenda
• Quick Facebook Introduction
• Privacy and Ownership Concerns
• Disciplinary Action
• Communicating
• Collaborating
• Teaching
• Practical
 What is Facebook?
• A “social networking” site
• 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 “limited profile”
• Based on “Networks”
• Facebook creates a newsfeed based on
what your “friends” are doing

* Picture is important for recognition, especially with common names

 What is Facebook?
• 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
 Facebook features
• The Wall
• Messages INBOX (and threads)
• Pokes
• Groups
• Events
• Photos & Videos (with tagging)
• Posted items (text and URLs)
• Shared items
• Applications
 Other Social Networking Sites
• Bebo – lots of school children
• MySpace – musicians etc.
– Sometimes called “poor man’s facebook”
• Friendfinder
• Twitter
• And other minor sites
 Privacy Concerns
• People worry about revealing their personal lives
to the world
• Tutors and Students may want to keep things
from each other!
– Restricted Profiles 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!
 How to control privacy
• Privacy screen on Facebook
• Settings for:
– Profile
– Search
– News feed
– Poke, message, friend request
– Applications
• Don’t put stuff up you don’t want others to
see. Think about future employers etc.
 Ownership Concerns
• Facebook T&Cs say that they own everything
you put there
– All content on the Site … are the proprietary property
of the Company.
• Copyright Policy is strict
– But don’t put things up you intend to publish or
otherwise claim copyright to!
– You acknowledge and agree that any questions, comments,
suggestions, ideas, feedback or other information about the Site
or the Service ("Submissions"), provided by you to Company are
non-confidential and shall become the sole property of
Company.
 Disciplinary Action
• Don’t name your employer and then defame
them or say anything to bring them into
disrepute
• Oxford Students have been disciplined with
evidence from Facebook after post-exam
“trashing”
• In April, students at a Toronto school were
banned from an end-of-the-year trip after
disparaging remarks about a teacher were found
on Facebook
So why use Facebook for Teaching?

• Personal and professional networking only

differ in the content, not the tool
• Students today are “digitally native”
• 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 attainment
Digital Natives vs. Digital Immigrants

Source: http://www.apple.com/au/education/digitalkids/disconnect/landscape.html
 Teaching
• Have your students in groups?
• Have them as Facebook “friends” perhaps
with limited profile status
• Post and share URLs
– Weblearn material
– Reading lists
– Other online material
• Photos & Videos (but watch copyright!)
 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
 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!
 Exercises
• Make a profile if you don’t already have one
– Adjust your privacy settings
– Join the Oxford network
• Make friends with your neighbour
• Make your neighbour only see your limited profile
• Search for groups that cover your subject
• Make a group and invite your neighbour to it – or join
an existing one
• Have a look at the Oxford network page
• Search for some people you know
– Unusual names are easier!
 References
• http://www.cit.cornell.edu/policy/memos/facebook.html
– Useful notes from Cornell (April 2006)
• 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”