* If you are either an avid or a first time user, what surprised or continues to surprise you about the experience?
Well, I am amazed at how addicted some of the people at my school are to facebook. For real. I have personally born witness to people spending literally hours virtually farming and chatting about literally nothing. Seriously.
Me? This is the second year I will use facebook to run my u18 rugby team with the Burlington Centaurs Rugby Club. Most of the guys are already on it; I seem to be the only adult some are friends with, and certainly very few coaches that seem to use Facebook to help.
* What potential can you see in social networks for education?
For education... hmm.. well, if you can get the students chatting about something relevant, that is a good thing, I guess. "Literacy across the curriculum" or something like that. I have joined a few groups (and prompt quit them) that appeared to be teacher run discussions of novels I like to teach. In the end, the groups were dead (ie no longer functioning) or just places where students got together to complain. That may change, I'm not sure.
I have taken a few online courses in the past; I have not tried to contact my fellow students outside the University websites. Perhaps I might try to contact fellow online students through facebook at the end of the month, as that is when I start my Spec Ed III. I'm thinking University aged students might make better use of Facebook than the high school students around me. Then again, I'm sure Uni students can make better use of a library than HS students, too...
* What are some of the potential concerns?
Privacy, of course. I mean, you never stop being a teacher and that is the legal fact. If you do something really stupid, like drinking and driving, even if it is July or on Christmas vacation, the headlines will read "Teacher caught." You never stop being a teacher, and that includes all the online stuff we (I) do.
Who wants to be embarassed in their own classroom with a silly picture of themselves? (A personal nightmare I almost lived ... the silliest pic that the student could get from my FB profile was on his laptop screen in my class. It was a pic of me doing Movember; I had a beard. I changed my privacy settings while he laughed. He was showing other students, clicked to advance to the next pic and was shut out of my profile. I'm on double super secret probation type of security settings on facebook.
On a more sinister note, students are devious, as are people who are, quite frankly, out to get you fired. Someone might, without your permission, take a picture off of facebook, doctor it and upload it somewhere else. Something awful, which I am sure has already happened. Think of your professional reputation. What recourse would you have except suing them?
* Will you continue to use Facebook after our tour is over? Why or why not?
Yes: I keep in touch with my rugby players, my nieces, various friends and people I know from my university days. Besides, how can I have anything in common with my students if I don't know where they spend their spare time?
* Would you answer these questions differently if you were discussing your child's or parent's profile? Why or why not?
No. My child might be introduced to Club Penguin this summer; but they are fairly happy with the time they get on WebKinz at the moment. I cranked up the privacy settings there, too. I live in fear that they will someday know more about the wireless network in my house than I do, but that day is a long way off at the moment.
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