The ‘f’ word in HE: reflecting on the ‘sexing up’ of undergraduate education with Facebook

Anita Bacs, Karen Lipsedge & Tony McNeill | 6th September 2011

The ‘f’ word in HE:

reflecting on the ‘sexing up’ of undergraduate education with Facebook

The ‘f’ word in HE | Anita Bacs, Karen Lipsedge & Tony McNeill | 6th September 2011

The Facebook 'addict'

Anita Bacs

KU undergraduate

2008-2011

KU postgraduate 2011-


The ‘reluctant’ Facebook user

Dr Karen Lipsedge

Principal Lecturer in Media and Communication andSchool of Humanities

Limited interest in any kind of technology.


The ‘professional’ Facebook user

Tony McNeill

Principal Lecturer in Learning Technology

Interest in all sorts of technology – 'school tools' and 'cool tools'.


The ‘f’ word in HE?

Facebook still centre of moral panics

(e.g. “Facebook generation” riots of August 2011)

Facebook as ‘improper’ or inappropriate in HE

(Hughes 2009; Selwyn 2009)


‘Disruptive identity performances’

... Facebook was acting as a ready space for

resistance and the contestation of the asymmetrical

power relationship built into the established offline

positions of university, student and lecturer (Bourdieu

and Passeron 1977). (Selwyn 2009: 172)


‘Identity incongruence’ (1)

... knowledge-related identity incongruence can arise

from incompatibility between identities performed

through personal or everyday knowledge and the

identities associated with knowledge production in

formal learning communities. (Hughes 2009: 301)


‘Identity incongruence’ (2)

... while social software encourages dissemination of

learner-generated content, it does not necessarily

facilitate the challenging and reconstruction of that

content and the identification with new forms of

knowledge. (Hughes 2009: 301)


Technology domains/spheres (1)

personal/social vernacular self-generated bottom-up

study/work imposed mandated top-down


Adapted from Jones & Lea 2008

Technology domains/spheres (2)


Why Facebook?


Aims of pilot

to support induction and pre-induction

to facilitate the transition to HE

to help Level 4 students become an integral part of the M&CS

online community and develop a cohort identity

to ‘assist where people find offline sociality difficult’ (Miller,

2011:183)


Our Facebook group (1)








Problems?

students’ use of Facebook email facility

making transition to StudySpace (proactive weaning

– one colleague described the Facebook group as “a

great big apron string”)

The group’s popularity!


Evaluation

Positive effect in 3 main areas:

students’ preparedness for induction week and lower levels

of anxiety about joining the University;

social integration/making new friends;

students’ perception of the course and of Kingston

University.


Surprises?

students desired tutors’ involvement in group;

Facebook was used to establish new contacts;

most students read content rather than contributed;

students used the group flexibly to create communities within communities and for their own purposes beyond the initial pre-induction/induction period.


3 conclusions


References (1)

Baran, B. (2010). Facebook as a formal instructional environment. British Journal of Educational Technology, 41(6):146-149

Bassford, M. and Ivins, J. (2009). Encouraging formative peer review via social networking sites. British Journal of Educational Technology, 41(5): 67–69

Ellison, N. B. et al. (2007) “The benefits of Facebook ‘friends’: Social capital and college students’ use of online social network sites”, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4) [Online]. Available at:http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/ellison.html (Accesssed: 05 June 2011).

Greenhow, C. and Robelia, E. (2009). Informal learning and identity formation in online social networks. Learning, Media and Technology, 34(2): 119–140.


References (2)

Hughes, G. (2009). Social Software: New Opportunities for Challenging Social Inequalities in Learning? Learning, Media and Technology, 34(4): 291-305

Jones, S. and Lea, M.R. (2008). Digital Literacies in the Lives of Undergraduate Students: Exploring Personal and Curricular Spheres of Practice. The Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 6(3): 207-216. Retrieved 5 September, 2011, from http://www.ejel.org/Volume-6/v6-i3/JonesandLea.pdf

Mason, R. and Rennie, F. (2008). The E-learning Handbook: Social Networking for Higher Education: Resources for Higher Education. New York: Routledge.

Miller, D. (2011). Tales From Facebook. Cambridge: Polity.

Selwyn, N. (2009). Faceworking: exploring students’ education-related use of Facebook. Learning, Media and Technology, 34(2): 157–174.

http://www.ejel.org/Volume-6/v6-i3/JonesandLea.pdf