Facebook as a Tool for ImprovingStudent Outcomes

A briefing paper

IntroductionThe continuing growth of ‘the cyberspace era’ has brought with it a permanent change in the way that students interact and socialise. A major part of this change is the advent of social networking sites on the Internet, which have evolved to become virtual communities where people communicate, share information and, importantly, build and maintainongoing relationships. Online social networking communities such as Facebook have become part of the daily life of many teenagers, with a potentially far-reaching impact on the way that they study and learn. Indeed, as the South West Grid for Learning’s (SWGfL) ‘Facebook Advice’ document (2010) states:

“Facebook is a global social networking site used by 10% of the population on the planet. Its phenomenal popularity has been defined by the opportunities it gives its users to communicate, collaborate and share in a way that has never been possible before.”

SWGfL go on to posit that today’s young Facebook users have grown up immersed in this technology and inhabit it in the same way as any other space in their lives. Teachersand tutors have embraced the self same technology and as a result find themselves increasingly in the same space as the children or young people with whom they work. There may be advantages for this in providing an additional educational environment, but there are also many pitfalls. For example,it would not be wise to assume that students in their teens automatically have a handle on digital operations purely as

a consequence of their age without expressing some of the reservations inherent in the research.

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that whilst they enjoy a superficial familiarity and certainly manifest no fear in utilising new technology, what The Joint Systems Information Committee ( JISC) among others refers to as “The Google Generation” are not necessarily inculcated with sufficient deeper level skills to utilise the web in a truly effective manner, or necessarily understand the implications of improper usefor both their own safety and/or future prospects. There is still a role and training requirement for 16-19 educators in this regard.

The purpose of this briefing paper is to explore the benefits and address the concerns of using Facebook with students aged 16-19, to look at how Facebook pages and groups can be used within teaching and learning, to provide informationregarding one particular ‘hot potato’ – namely the befriending of students - and to examine learners’ attitudes towards using Facebook. Case studies featuring local examples of Facebook use will further contextualise the information contained inthe briefing paper. An appendix has been added to provide leadership teams in schools, 6th Form Centres and Further Education institutions with an exemplar institutional policy for the use of Facebook with 16-19 learners, providing a starting point for their own policy which relates to their own circumstances.

Benefits of UsingFacebook inTeaching and Learning

According to research carried out by Ashton Sixth Form College (2010), there are many benefits to using Facebook with learners:

• It is their preferred method of communication• It is accessible from any Internet enabled computer• It is accessible from learners’ own mobile devices• It is easy to use• Learners are familiar with the format; therefore there

are no training needs

The college’s research concentrated on the pedagogical benefits of using social networking software. However, there are benefits to ‘soft’ skills, including the broadening of learners’ social circles and the honing of their social skills. Facebook is already one of the places studentsturn for real-time homework help, with school and college students utilising Facebook’s ‘chat’ facility, along with other real-time communication tools to work together on homework assignments and collaborative projects. However, “working together” isn’t something that is relegated just to homework help and after-school projects.

Collaboration is one of the cornerstones of the “21stCentury skills” that many schools are teaching, and more

and more in-class assignments involve students working together with technology in the classroom.

Greenhow (2008), for example, claims that students using social networking sites are actually practicing the kinds of21st century skills teachers want them to develop to be successful in today’s digital world as well as developing a positive attitude towards using technology systems, editing and customising content and thinking about online design and layout. They are also sharing creative original work such as creative writing and film and practicing safe and responsible use of information and technology. She goes on to state that the Internet offerstremendous educational potential in more general terms.

Levinson (2009) gives a specific example of the successful use of Facebook, telling the story of one talented teacher who cooked up an entire 20th-century China project on Facebook. Students went on to adopt the personalitiesof Sun Yat-sen, Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek and created and updated Facebook pages and profiles, replete with photos and wall postings. In the words of the teacher in question: “This project changed the classroom. Students were so motivated and put far more hours into their research than they would have done with a traditional project.”

Drawbacks to UsingFacebook inTeaching and Learning

Ashton College does go on to point out the dangers of using social networking sites. These include issues such as the ability for staff and students’ personal information to be compromised, staff and students becoming subjected to inappropriate behaviour from either party, the possibility of students feeling that ‘their technology’ is being improperly used by teachers and concerns that using Facebook in teaching and learning could becometime consuming when the time would be better spent on more productive activities.

As long as personal and group or page settings have the relevant privacy levels set, there should be no reason for information to be compromised. The official Facebook Safety Centre’s ‘Safety for Educators’ page (2011) contains a wealth of advice and guidance pertaining to concerns regarding inappropriate behaviour, and has pages relating specifically to the following issues:

• How can my students report abuse on Facebook?• If a student discloses abuse on Facebook to me, can

I file a report on his or her behalf?• I’m receiving unwanted messages. What should I do?• I’m receiving unwanted wall posts. What should I do?• What can I tell my students about preventing or

addressing cyber bullying?

• What do I do if someone is harassing me on the site or through my inbox?

• What do I do if someone is attacking me inFacebook chat?

• What do I do if someone is attacking me in apublic forum

• Where else can I report inappropriate or objectionable actions that have been taken against children?

• What should I do if I am aware of abuse on Facebook involving students?

Any member of staff wishing to use Facebook as part of their practice must be aware of Facebook’s habit of arbitrarily altering privacy and other defaults without necessarily fully advising users of the ramifications. Therefore factoring in some routine check of these permissions on the part of users (and particularly Administrators), or ensuring someone has responsibility to keep a watching brief on this is probably an advisable “fail-safe”.

At this point is must also be noted that anything placed on Facebook (that is photos, documents and suchlike) belongs to Facebook , theoretically in perpetuity. Facebook is a free service because it sells data about usertrends to advertisers and marketing groups. However, it is surprising how many users do not realise that they do not own the data within Facebook (which is retained even on deletion) or how this data is sold and used by Facebook and its associates. In his article on popular website“TechCrunch” (2009), Schonfeld quotes Facebook founderMark Zuckerberg, who states:

“When you share your data with someone else, whether it be an email or a photo, it becomes their data as well. You cannot normally rescind data you share with other people in an e-mail. So why should a social network be any different?”

Concerns regarding students’ attitudes to teachers using Facebook and teachers’ own concerns about teaching and learning becoming time consuming both require something of a mindset shift. If teachers are seen to make ‘good’ use of Facebook in the eyes of the students, and students school experience is improved as a direct result of using social networking in a school settingthen this shift can happen. It is heartening to knowthat the majority of learners are more than happy to letFacebook become a part of their Personalised Learning

Environments (PLE): they are already ‘there’ so they feel comfortable with the technology and in many cases, they don’t need to remember separate account or separate log in details for an institution-driven platform. Accessible,‘hands-on’ staff training gives teachers the skills and knowledge they need to be able to make use of Facebook to enhance their own practice (and personal IT skills),and this gaining of skills could, in many cases, deplete negative attitudes.

Facebook Pages andFacebook GroupsFacebook offers users the opportunity to set up pages based around local businesses, companies, organisations or institutions, brands or products, artists, bands or publicfigures, entertainment or causes. Content cannot be amended, deleted or added to by anyone other than the administratoror administrators of the page. They make great ‘virtual notice boards’ or ‘information posts’ where teachers can, for example, post homework tasks, assignments, links to noteworthy websites, relevant images or film clips or share presentations and notes with students. Links to existing Internet-based applications such as Slideshare and Prezi can point fans of the page to other web-based repositories of lesson content – and in the spirit of sharing best practice, allow others to benefit from peers’ hard work! Anyone can become a fan of a pageon Facebook and people who choose to become a fan willsee updates on their profile page. Pages are free, teachers can control them through their Facebook profile and, importantly, they keep teachers’ profile separate from their learners.

As mentioned previously, social networking sites are a very good way for communities to manage work or share ideas to work on. Facebook groups make it easy for members of a community to connect, share or collaborate on a given topic or idea and provide a shared space where memberscan participate in communal activities like group chat, email lists, document sharing and group photo-tagging. Groups are

closed by default but their settings can be changed so as to be public, thereby making both the membership list and the contents of the group accessible to anyone.

The content of closed groups is private but the membership list is public (thereby making it possible to search for). Group settings can also be changed to make the group secret, sothe member list, the contents and the existence of the group are secret to anyone other than the people in the group. One feature that can be utilised within groups but not pages is the ability for members to participate in back-and-forth Instant Message (IM) conversations with everyone in the group at the same time. As a result, many teachers have started holding regular ‘office’ hours on Facebook and making themselves available to answer students’ questions. It is worth noting however, that within Facebook’s Chat Log Instant Messages cannot be archived (that is, saved as a chat log for later reference). The ability to do this is often an advantage in retrospectively identifying actions. Such archives may also be valuable in the event of arguments or allegations arising from online discussions.

Facebook can also be used as a platform from which to find other teachers and exchange ideas, best practices, share educational information and join other, relevant educational groups.

To Friend or not to Friend?An article written by Jane Wakefield (2011) for BBC News throws up an interesting argument. It has long been an ‘unwritten law’ of sorts that teachers, under any circumstance, should refuse any friend requests from students (particularly those under the age of 18).However, Wakefield, quoting Professor Stephen Heppell, writes:

“He (Heppell) thinks that teachers should also set up Facebook profiles, an account which should be quite separate from any personal Facebook pages. ‘ They can call themselves something related to the subject they teach such as ‘Geography Steve’ or use another form of Miss such as ‘Missy’ as Facebook doesn’t allow Mr or Mrs titles’, he said. Although Facebook generally frowns on users creating two accounts, it has actively encouraged teachers who have wanted to do it, according to Prof Heppell.

Teachers setting up Facebook accounts should not befriend pupils, rather allow the children to take the initiative, Prof Heppell advises. They should not read their pupils’ Facebook pages and should never chat via instant message. But for giving children reminders about such things as impending exams, offering a space for informal chats outside of the traditional school environment and allowing parents and children to keep up with schoolnews at a time and place that suits them, Facebook is invaluable, thinks Prof Heppell.”

The Official Facebook in Education group suggest on their Safety for Educators page that teachers create a group or page specifically for interacting with students, parents or colleagues and that the user creates friends lists to control what parts of their profile students are able to access. Friends lists create different privacy levels for different groups of friends. This allows the user to selectively open more of their profile to selected friends. Jesse Dywer, contributing to the official Facebook team’s blog says:

“You can sort your friends into lists, without them even knowing it. For instance, if you’re a teacher, you can create a Friend List called “students” and adjust your privacy settings to control what people in that list see. You then could allow students to see basic information about you and maybe your photo albums from a recent trip youtook, but not photos in which you’ve been tagged. You can create a named list to organize your relationships in whichever way works best for you: close friends, family, acquaintances, colleagues, students, among others. Just select the “Create a List” link on the left-hand side of the home page or create a new list from your Friends Page. Each time you receive a friend request, you’ll have the option to add that person to the appropriate list as you accept them.”

Dwyer goes on to urge teachers not to be afraid to severely restrict what certain people can see. She offers the following analogy: if you’re a teacher, you may not invite a student to a dinner party with friends and thesame goes for your boss or other people you don’t interact with in those types of social settings. She urges users touse their Facebook privacy settings to reflect the types of relationships they have. This would appear to be good advice for all users, regardless of profession – and certainly does give what was once a black and white notion - that teachers should never befriend their students – several shades of grey. Advice then is to discuss at an institutional level what you feel to be acceptable and make this an explicit part of your guidelines for acceptable use.

While popular social networking tools have clearly become intertwined with the personal and social lives of students, it is clear that many of the underlying capabilities behind these tools have a future role in learning. Tools such as real-time access to instructional media, the potential to share opinions and ratings, andthe ability to communicate interactively with peer groups are likely to have a continued growing impact on the classroom experience. More important, the use of these tools is changing student attitudes towards learning itself, from a one-way transfer of knowledge to a much more interactive and group-orientated environment.

Student Outcomes and Learners’ Attitudes to using FacebookA case study produced by the JISC Regional Support Centre for the South West on behalf of the Excellence Gateway (2010) examines how a team of music teachers at City of Bath College utilised Facebook (and other ‘Web2.0’ applications such as YouTube) to enhance the learner experience. The teaching team noticed that a whole communities of musicians existed on Facebook, and that these communities were networking extensively. They also found that they had some difficulty contacting their students using mobile phones and emails, and wanted to find another way to improve communications for their students. As the case study goes on to say:

“The College decided to conduct usability research into student online trends focusing on the technology they liked to access and use. The study determined that around99% of their students used Facebook, with some 70% using internet-enabled mobile devices. The research results prompted the music team to try and facilitate the development of an online presence through Facebook and YouTube, which culminated in the music department requesting a trial period at the College to evaluate whether it would be embraced by students. This has had a direct and positive impact on e-learning and has been so popular with the students that the College has seen a100% success rate for assignments completed. This is the

first time the College has seen such a high success rate for its music courses. All courses have now moved to a grade 1 and 2 for Ofsted inspection results and their use of Web 2.0 applications (e.g. Google Docs, Facebook and YouTube) has enabled a real collaborative community, which is constantly thriving and seeing real success.”

Comments from the teachers behind the case study are wholly positive, with one member of staff claiming that Facebook has drawn some students back into the music course after they had been withdrawn because of the supportive and collaborative environment the social networking site enabled. The same member of staff goes on to mention how one of his students was givena contract to help a company with their promotion of online events, highlighting the transferable and ‘soft’ skills that use of Facebook - and other Web 2.0 technologies - hones.

ReferencesDwyer, J, (2009), Back to School:Tips for Teachers on Facebook, located at: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=137948147130, Accessed: 14/02/2011

Facebook, (2011), Safety for Educators,located at:http://www.facebook.com/help/?safety#!/help/?safety=educators, Accessed: 14/02/2011

Greenhow, C, (2008), Educational Benefits of SocialNetworking Sites Uncovered,located at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080620133907.htm, Accessed: 11/02/2011

JISC, (2007), Google Generation,located at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/resourcediscovery/googlegen.aspx,Accessed 23/02/2011

JISCLegal (2010), Legal Guidance for ICT Use in Education, Research and External Engagement,located at: http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/ManageContent/ ViewDetail/tabid/243/ID/1751/Should-Colleges-and- Universities-Use-Facebook.aspx, Accessed: 2/02/2011

Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS), (2010), City of Bath College: Using YouTube and Facebook to Deliver Exceptional E-learning for Music Students,located at: http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=299885, Accessed: 17/02/2011

Levinson, M, (2009), Schools and Facebook: Moving TooFast, or Not Fast Enough?,located at: http://teachers.net/gazette/MAY09/levinson/, Accessed: 11/02/2011

Schonfeld, E, (2009), Zuckerberg on who owns user Data on Facebook: it’s Complicated,located at: http://techcrunch.com/2009/02/16/zuckerberg-on- who-owns-user-data-on-facebook-its-complicated/, Accessed:23/02/2011

South West Grid for Learning, (2010), SWGfL Facebook Advice,located at: http://www.swgfl.org.uk/Staying-Safe/For-Schools/Resources?page=4, Accessed: 14/02/2011

Taylor, S, (2010), Ashton Sixth Form College Protocol for use ofFacebook Groups, Ashton College

Wakefield, J, (2011), Profile Update: Your Teacher has now joined Facebook,located at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12193773?print=true, Accessed: 14/02/2011

Many thanks to the teaching staff who contributed to this document.

Bex FerridayCornwall College, March 2011

Case Study 1 - Sport and Public Servicesat Cornwall College St Austell

Kym O’Mara, a Sport and Public Services lecturer based at Cornwall College’s St Austell campus is one of the administrators of a page on Facebook set up specifically to communicate with learners. She says:

“The primary use of our Facebook fan page was to communicate with Cornwall College students and in particular, sports students about sports fixtures and events. The page is linked directly to our Sport Google site and updates appear on the fan page via a social RSS feed. The secondary benefit is the updates appearing on the “News Feed Wall” of our fans, which friends of fans will see this then acts as a marketing tool.

As we have created a ‘Fan Page’ and not a group or anew profile we are not befriending students, giving them access to any of our personal profiles or displaying any photos other than those we have control over uploading. We monitor the page on a regular basis to oversee whatis being posted and by whom, anything inappropriate is immediately deleted.

We can assess through Google Analytics that the days of peak traffic for our website (Weds/Thurs) coincide with the Facebook updates being posted with traffic being redirected from the fan page to our website, thus proving it working for the purpose intended.”

Joshua Manfredi and Sam Bennetts are regular users of the page. They say:

“The Facebook page is a great thing to have. We can look at pictures from events and fixtures, check sports results, and as we spend a fair bit of time on Facebook anyway, page updates instantly appear on our Facebook pages and via RSS feeds. It’s really easy to use and a good way to talk to other course members and our tutors.”

Case Study 2 - Animal Scienceat Cornwall College Newquay

Hazel Selley and Sarah Galley work at Cornwall College’s Newquay campus and teach, among other things, Animal Science, Diversity, Classification and Evolution and Genetics and Reproduction in Aquatic Organisms. They started using Facebook when they realised that their learners were far more likely to respond to them via the social networking site as opposed to via email, realising the need to go to where their learners were. Hazel and Sarah use the Cornwall College Diversity, Classification and Evolution page on Facebook as a ‘virtual information point’ or notice board, posting information about room changes, course changes, lecture dates, and any othercourse-based reminders that, usually, would be emailed to her learners. They also add links to websites of interest and have uploaded a wealth of films from the BBC that link explicitly to the page’s subject area. Importantly, Hazeland Sarah also use the page to expand upon the content covered in lessons. Other members of the department have signposted their own students to the page and have expressed an interest in setting up their own qualification themed areas on Facebook.

When asked about the content Sarah says:

“This is a subject that is rapidly changing: new species are constantly being discovered, and we need to be ‘on topof this’. The BBC films we upload to the page help keep students up to date with the subject.”

Regarding the impact the page has made on students, Sarah continues:

“Content and information from these BBC films has been referred to explicitly in students’ essays and exam papers.”

Case Study 3 – Facebookat Mounts Bay School

“When you are on a long plane journey, you turn off your phone - and, to an extent, switch off your life - for 8 hours. As soon as those hours are over and you have left the plane, you can switch your life back on again. For many children, school is the place where they turn their life off for eight hours every day.” (Date and source unknown)

This quote, paraphrased from an American student, had real resonance for Tony Bird, Director of Communications and Simon Elliot, Director of Digital Technology from Mount’s Bay School in Penzance. Through a number of observations: amongst them that students have Facebook installed on their mobile phones, yet Internet access to the social networking site is blocked in many schools, and that younger people just don’t engage with email - so the need is to communicate with and engage students “where they are at”, as opposed to assuming that they will come toyou. “Use the skills they already have - don’t fight against them”, says Simon. Tony echoes this sentiment: “Stop banning ‘stuff ’ - we need to go to where the learners are!”

As a result of their observations, Simon and Tony decided to set up a page for the school on Facebook. As Tony says,

“It felt like something we needed to do.” The page is used as a virtual notice board and a place to share the school’s successes, announcements and day-to-day images and information regarding ‘what’s going on’. The intended audience are both students and, importantly, their parents who both Tony and Simon feel should be as informed about the daily running of the school as the students and teachers.

Mount’s Bay School aren’t using Facebook as a Virtual Learning Environment, but as a way of breaking down barriers between learning and interaction - making learning more of a two-way process. The school hasn’t carried out any formal research into the effectiveness of the page as this is still very much the start of their journey into using Facebook. However, anecdotal evidence does more than suggest that there is in improvement in learner engagement.

Finally, addressing fears of misuse, Tony asks the simple question: “How can you teach students the rules of IT appropriacy if you don’t let them experiment?”

Case Study 4 – Facebook at Saltash.netCommunity School

Dan Roberts is Deputy Headteacher at Saltash.net Community School in Cornwall; he believes the key to using tools such as Facebook effectively is to encourage children to work independently, giving them time to explore and decide what would be appropriate.He realised that many students, whilst at home, maybe chatting on Facebook, listening to and downloading music on iTunes and browsing content on YouTube whilst completing two or three different pieces of homework at once. He decided to explore how a school could embrace such technologies and use them to develop the learning that takes place in school.

“We gave them time to explore a range of Web 2.0 tools and decide what would be appropriate” he said. The uses they picked up included working collaboratively online and creating resources such as podcasts to help with revision. Science proved to be a profitable area, with, for example, pupils using an animation program to illustrate cell division. The use then quickly spread to the rest of the school.

One of the courses making extensive use of Facebook is Psychology. Subject co-ordinator Laura Wilkinson has run a Facebook group for students for several years (Psychology @ Saltash.net) and although some year groups have chosen to use it more than others,

it really comes into its own at revision time, especially in the summer when the students are on study leave. Laura ensures that her security settings are such that the students cannot actually access her profile and she encourages the students to do the same. One of themembers of the leadership group is also a member of the group for safety and monitoring reasons.

Its main purpose is for students to ask questions and geta rapid response (at revision time Laura checks the group at least daily). Students sometimes answer each other’s questions and post links to useful revision websites or interesting ways of remembering things; this seems to have engaged the students more effectively than the discussion forums she has tried.

Dan says the development stems from the philosophy that pupils should be responsible for their own learning. “We produced a framework to keep them safe and we created acceptable use policies,” he says. The school set up a rigorous, effective E-safety policy, created by students, staff, parents and governors, which is both transparentand consistently applied.

Case Study 4 – Facebook at Saltash.netCommunity School

The approach at Saltash.net has been that in economically unstable times schools, teachers and students must become more creative in their approaches to learning.Dan Roberts’ assertion is that schools should embrace the use of new technologies such as social networking instead of banning them as they are a free and valuable resource that can make a positive impact on the achievement and life opportunities of students. “It is actually about giving pupils the opportunity to create their own curriculum.”

These documents

were produced by Cornwall College and Cornwall Learning as part of a Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) Improving Teaching and Learning Through Technology project completed in Cornwall between January and June 2011. The project set out to identify, promote and provide guidance on the safe and effective use of Facebook as a tool for improving student outcomes in the 16 - 19 phase.