The Facebook Education Plan: Social Networking Becoming More Than Friends

Source: http://blogs.educationau.edu.au/ksmith/2009/05/12/facebook-collaboration-for-educators/

This article is a post on someone’s blog.  They are in education and they are curious how Facebook is being used for education.  They provide a few links to other sites that talk about how Facebook is being used for way to communicate with students. Overall, this article didn’t really supply any information rather it prompted an interesting thought – if Facebook could be used for educators.  I never really thought about Facebook other than people using it to catch up with lost friends or  a place for simple communication. But as I get more wrapped up into different social networking sites, I’m beginning to find other uses for them.

Facebook provides great tools to communicate, share, and inform.  It can do so much more than say "hi" to a friend.  You can make events.  You share documents, images, and videos.  You can create a place for a group to meet online.  There’s so many things Facebook can do to allow two or more people to interact virtually.

This being said, Facebook could be a place where educators look to communicate, share, and inform students.  Facebook could easily become an education resource.  Educators would be smart to use it; it’s likely that all of their students already belong to Facebook. 

I’m not sure how well Facebook would be adopted as a tool for education but I think it has a great chance of having some use.  I think education institutes will likely be wary to try using Facebook but I think it would be worth a try.  I think it would provide a familiar tool for students to use.  If my instructor wanted to use it I wouldn’t be opposed.

I think it could benefit non-technical students.  I know from experience that students have difficulty using big name education tools at times, to name one – Blackboard.  Using a popular site like Facebook, where most of the students would be familiar with the interface could really open up possibilities.  More online interaction in a class would definitely happen and I think it’ll help students be more engaged outside of the classroom.  Best of all, Facebook is free compared to tools like Blackboard. 

Education institutes have nothing to loss when trying to implement using tools like Facebook.  I hope some institutes are successful doing so.

I’d like to know what others think about this.  Do you think social networking could be a tool for virtual classes?  How much potential does Facebook have in providing tools for education or other domains?