Does anyone have Facebook pages for their courses or schools?

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Permalink Reply by James Jordan on August 12, 2009 at 9:51am

I'm eager to know about this, too.

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Permalink Reply by Terri Browning on August 12, 2009 at 5:34pm

We're a small district so it's pretty easy for us to implement things. We're going to try a Facebook page this year; ironic since students aren't allowed to access it at school but it should be great for parents and community members or even students outside the school day. We're looking at it for announcements, coming events, etc. No plans for homework at this point. However, another teacher (social studies) and I (LA) co-teach a class. We're going to use several Facebook apps for an Econ unit where students can establish and run their own business using Farmville, My Zoo, Restaurant City, or My City.

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Permalink Reply by Sue Palmer on August 14, 2009 at 7:07am

Thanks Terri~

Are you setting up an organization page? Who is the profile you will link to-- an admin or teacher? I have set one up but it seems that you must have an individual profile to link to.

Thanks for the info and I would love to know how it all works out. I really can see the use of this if we can figure out the best way to set it up.

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Permalink Reply by Terri Browning on August 14, 2009 at 12:54pm

Not sure yet where we'll attach it....I already have a profile, and I'm the one in the district that always jumps in and tries "weird" things. Ask anyone! It may have to be an admin, but I'm guessing we'll have 2 with access to keep it updates. I'd like to have simply a 9-12 page, or 7-12 since that's how our building is set up, but we'll see. We don't start school until the 8/31 (teachers). I'll let you know how that goes!

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Permalink Reply by Mary Hricko on August 14, 2009 at 9:57pm

I use ning instead of Facebook because Ning offers better security and privacy features. My students do not want me to "invade" their social networking app--so they actually would prefer I teach in Ning. Also, Facebook has a tendency to "take down" accounts for "terms of use violations. I had a friend who lost his entire site because his students were selling their textbooks to one another on it.

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Permalink Reply by Sue Palmer on August 15, 2009 at 5:24am

I totally see the benefit of Ning and have used it with my students as well. The reason we are interested in Facebook is because the kids are on it. The bottom line is we are going to the audience and they are pretty much ALL there.

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Permalink Reply by Tracy Matozzo on August 15, 2009 at 5:32am

Yes! I created a FB page for AP Literature and Composition. I made sure to create a one page FAQ sheet for parents; I made sure I changed the privacy settings and I also created some guidelines for students, many of whom use abbreviations when typing and to ensure that my students wrote appropriate comments (just to be safe). I did not make the FB mandatory, but 29/31 students used the site daily. I provided links; You Tube vidoes; I used many of the chain letter formats to create assignments that the kids loved and their ability to check homework and chat with one another really made a difference.

I must admit that the idea came from my students when a group created a paper version of FB! Our AP Psych teacher did the same thing and with the new year approaching, I am excited to use the resource again.

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Permalink Reply by Sue Palmer on August 17, 2009 at 5:04am

Who could see the page? Did you have the students be Fans or friends? Thanks for the info. Did you have any parents complain?

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Permalink Reply by Tracy Matozzo on August 15, 2009 at 5:33am

Twitter for parents is an interesting idea...

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Permalink Reply by Betsye Sargent on August 15, 2009 at 7:50am

Nice use of your facebook page. I became a fan -- hope you don't mind.

The big question for us as educators seems to be do we or don't we? Somehow we have to figure it out as our kids are already there. Currently my school has an official school site http://www.tinyurl.com/onqxu9 and a twitter page www.twitter.com/phoenixschool. Both of these we use to get the word out about our school, sharing things we are doing. Kids in grades 2-4 twitter with several classes in Wisconsin last year and LOVED it.. We now are moving further afield through flat classroom and ePals. I think it's great to use it among adults, but do think we need to get kids involved in a safe and responsible way. Seems to me this has to be one of our primary goals -- I'm talking here about elementary and middle school kids.

Didn't exactly answer your question, but I guess I'm thinking that facebook is just one option of many.
We also have an official alum site PHOENIX SCHOOL ALUMNAE which doesn't work so well because for some reason there is no comment section to go along with the posts???
Right now we are gearing up to tackle Web 2.0 tools and global collaboration directly. We will learn with the kids as we go along because none of us are experts yet. Right now all of our parents are not part of our facebook or twitter pages so it has made it hard to use them as a tool for communication, but we hope to change this in the fall.

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Permalink Reply by Sue Palmer on August 17, 2009 at 5:10am

Thanks Betsye~

I teach high school social studies so my audience is high school kids who are on facebook. It will be interesting to see if they use Twitter as I see that as more of an adult tool. I have been on it for a few years now. I see Twitter as targeting the parents, but we shall see. My district is worried that parents may complain that I am "introducing" their kids to these things. I can't see it as these things are EVERYWHERE. I think the parents are just not aware.

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Permalink Reply by Donnie Smith on August 15, 2009 at 1:00pm

We use Facebook to connect with students. We have a group to connect students, instructors, and industry. It is not my school specific. It more a way for students to network with other students and the industry. It has not been very interactive yet. I do most of the posting. I plan to work with it more this school year. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=43853912894

Thanks,

Donnie Smith
Butler Community College
DonnieSmith.org

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