Why I Use Facebook. (And why you should, too.)

Why I Use Facebook.(And why you should,

too.)Elizabeth A. Evans

UNC-Chapel HillITS Teaching and Learning

December 2007

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Scope

Your kids and Facebook/MySpace Legal, moral, ethical issues of

student use “How to” create, use, configure

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Scope

Features that might be useful… Issues related to use…… to and for us, to and for our faculty,

to and for other campus staff

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You Talk

How many of you use Facebook?

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And?

Any other social networks?

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You Talk Some More

Anybody not have a basic understanding of

what Facebook is?

This is gonna be hard…

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A Very Short Definition

Facebook is a Web-based service that makes it possible for individuals in high schools, universities, corporations, non-profits, the military, and geographic communities (primarily English-speaking ) to interact with each other and to share information.

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And…

It’s free for individuals…

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A Very Short History

In 2004, a student at Harvard thought it would be cool to develop a way for Harvard students to connect with each other. Now there are millions of Facebook users.

“So, what’s a social gal like you doing in a virtual place like this?”

del.icio.us

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How and When I Came to Facebook

Fall 2005(30 minutes)

Fall 2006(Several hours,some people, a couple of groups,some effort)

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How and When I Came to Facebook

September 2006

Women's center brown bag: Dangers of online social networks

Danah Boyd talk on social networking(On the same day!)

I was obviously missing something.

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Your turn

When I logged back into Facebook, what was (almost) the first thing I did?

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Back to the Drawing Board

Created a more complete profile Searched for campus faculty and staff Posted some photos (N=8) Wrote my first note September 29 Posted (and removed) links Created an event September 26 And more…

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Today

Profiles Events Groups Notes Applications “Fan of…” Mini-Feed

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On Your Own

Everything else :-)

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Your Profile

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Let’s Talk Specifics

What can and should go on your profile?

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Events

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Events I’ve Created

Games4Learning symposium Cyberinfrastructure: A Campus Perspective Discussion: The (Technology) Tipping Point From Learning Objects to Learning Impact: An Update on the IMS... Instructional Uses for Facebook Immersive Learning Environments ITS Open Lunch A Virtual Environment for Education: Second Life ITS Coffee Klatch And a few others…

An example event

Event example, part 1

Event example, part 2

Event example, part 3

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An Funny Thing Happened…

More than 50% of the “Yes” RSVPs were not people I invited.

“Instructional Uses for Facebook”

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Another Funny Thing Happened…

I invited 48 people. At the time of the event, 95 people were invited.

“The (Technology) Tipping Point”

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Groups

Group Example

Group Example, Part 1

Group Example, Part 2

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Groups: Advantages

Feeling of community Place to post news/info/etc Can be open or with approval Event sponsorship Others?

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Groups: Disadvantages

Lots of them Little activity in many of them Not easy (yet) to see what’s new Others?

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Notes

Go Heels (she said, quietly)

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Applications

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Mini-Feed

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A Few Conclusions

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Conclusions

Social networking can be very powerful Social networking can be a time sink Social networking can enhance

professional relationships Social networking can be used for

marketing We don’t yet know all the ways we

might use social networking professionally…

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Explore.Experiment.

Be Open.

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Final Call: Questions? Comments?