Facebook for learning, teaching, and studying?

As a student in Norway and teacher in my home country, I have used facebook not only as a social network but as an educational resource. I decided to talk about it because almost everyone is using it on a daily basis and we can take advantage of it’s features in an learning context.

Facebook Groups can be the first step. It is very effective if you need to send information to your students or class mates. Since it has different privacy options, you can decide between an open, closed or secret group. These are great to share articles, videos, news and information between it’s members. I have started a group for my master programme here at UiA, and we have been exchanging articles and videos relevant for all. It is so effective because almost everyone checks facebook several times a day.

Starting a facebook page for your classroom is another alternative to keep every one posted on the news for your course or school. Facebook pages are open so anyone can «Like» it, but if you want to promote a study centre or a specific activity and engage many people, this is the right choice for you. Here’s a Norwegian example.

I started to envolve my students in a more enthusiastic online activity by trying Webquests (Check this video). These are research projects based on the internet, resulting in all sort of projects; from online-radio stations to student news papers and blogs. I have used them to make course news papers, music review magazines/blogs, student radio stations based on podcasts, live streaming and student news tv channels using facebook to spread the results and promote their work.

The idea is to get creative, so here is a great example of how to use facebook for teaching using a webquest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj-XCUIbbcE

I hope you can give it a try as well.