Tips for Teachers: Fall 08 - Meeting 4

In our fourth Tips for Teachers of the semester, we read and discussed the article, "Introduction:
Reshaping Campus Communication and Community through Social Network Sites", by Nicole B.
Ellison. It is published by Educause Center for Applied Research, Study 8 2008, in the compiled
readings, Student and Information Technology, 2008. It can also be found online at:

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ers0808/rs/ers08082.pdf

This article discussed the popularity of social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace, and we
talked about how incoming freshmen now, as soon as they are told their room assignment in the
summer before starting college, go on to Facebook and start to find out about and communicate
with not only their future roommate, but also all the students who will be on their floor in the dorm.
This is amazingly different from just a few years ago, when an incoming student, once presented
with the name of the roommate, would at best e-mail or phone this person a couple of times. 

The question then arose as to whether or not professors should go on Facebook. It would seem to
make the student-teacher relationship more informal, but would this be good or bad? It was thought
that it could certainly become awkward if there was a dispute over grades. Also some members
present felt it would be inappropriate for students to know private details of their lives if they went on
Facebook, and did not much welcome the thought of a student wanting to become their “friend’
through this medium. One teacher present thought a better option for being online with students,
while maintaining academic boundaries, is to use the Chat feature of Sakai. 

Another teacher mentioned Steven Johnson’s book, Everything Bad is Good for You, and drew the
analogy that students could use these social network sites to enlarge their social relations network,
which could be beneficial for them. But whereas many of us present saw a potential advantage to
these networks for social reasons, we found it hard to trace any particular academic relevance
beyond such endeavours as reaching out to alumni or other student bodies, and marketing courses.
Possibly they could be used for collaboration, as in peer reviews of student papers, but there would
be such a large potential distraction, such a yawning desire once on Facebook to trace old high
school friends and others, that its costs might outweigh its benefits. And once again, there is
always Sakai for such activities as online peer reviews. 

Some of us had concerns, too, for the real life implications of these social networks. What might
stop someone creating a whole new persona online, as occurred, according to one of the teachers
present, who told us of someone who pretended to have a Ph.D. when, in fact, he had dropped out
of college? And what might the implications be of becoming a “public person” akin to a superstar,
without the reality of actually being a superstar? And what again might be the ultimate impact of
being “friends’ with so many, and does this make some of those friendships inauthentic? 

This lead to a discussion about “bridging” relationships, which are not built on emotional closeness
but instead on common interests, and what one person might possibly be able to offer another in
terms of job opportunities and so on. This seems to be a utilitarian relationship, based on how
useful one person might be to another. One teacher proposed that instead of calling this relationship
a friend, Facebook should introduce other categories, such as “colleague, coworker” and so on. 

We moved on to talk about how it is likely that being online helps shy people to be more
courageous and get to know others who they normally would not have a chance to know. One
teacher even talked of how she created an opportunity for a Facebook dialogue for her 101 class
prior to their final exam, and found that those who participated actually performed better on this
exam than those who relied solely on class discussion. 

But why use Facebook rather than Sakai? We reasoned that Sakai might be better as it is a
defined community of the class members, with authorized access only, rather than the more
amorphous Facebook in which people might get “lost” and not return to the actual collaborative
class discussion. It was proposed that the platform that we use will inform the work that we do. In
Facebook some people discuss their personal values, but some of these might be offensive in a
classroom setting. However, the argument for Facebook as opposed to Sakai is that more young
people are familiar with Facebook, and that this is very much the new way of communicating in
society today. 

One teacher talked of there being a very real need to network, but she wondered if there is almost
an addictive component to much of today’s technology: the need to send text messages, speak on
the cell phone, and so on. Alcohol used to be the source to connect, she said, whereas now people
don’t need to drink to dare to talk to someone else, but can do so online. 

A profound statement was made by one teacher who said, “One hundred years from now, the
notion of the individual will be obsolete.” He was extrapolating from current technology, and how
when we stroll around campus, we see people cut off from others by their headphones or cell
phones. But then we cast our minds back to one hundred years ago, and asked whether there was
networking then, and concluded that indeed there was, albeit on a different and more local scale.
There were clubs, taverns and lodges for the men – and slightly less for the women (such as sewing
circles). Perhaps a possible advantage of the new technology is that it is not selective and does not
preclude anyone on the basis of gender. However, there is still the digital divide, so not all income
groups have equal access to the opportunities that technology can provide. 

And what is the impact on academic prowess of the new technologies? We thought that the
increase of the visual image might not necessarily help students with reading and writing skills, as
watching a film is more passive than reading, and does not need as much imaginative input. 

We also considered the implicit imperative to respond very quickly when receiving an electronic
message, but one teacher thought back to when Oliver Sacks came to campus, and how he said
sometimes ideas need time to percolate for that individual to be truly creative. Perhaps, therefore,
it has less advantage for academic writing, which needs more time for reflection. 

We concluded our meeting with the question that since today’s 13 year olds think differently from us
because of being brought up with technology, will we be ready to teach them effectively? And what
is the best way in which to relate to them?