At the college I currently attend and at the one I transfered out of, there is a system in place called BlackBoard. BlackBoard is supposed to be a content management system for students and teachers allowing for streamlining of grading, presentation/submition of homework, and other interaction outside of the classroom. Ultimately BlackBoard is a failure because it doesn’t get the student involved. There are many other social networks and content management systems out there right now, that would do a better job than BlackBoard.
The other day I was approached by one of my friends about using Facebook as a replacement for BlackBoard. I immediatley liked his idea and agreed to talk with him about it for a survey/project he was doing. In the interview we discussed how Facebook could be used instead of BlackBoard. Already, Facebook has a huge following by college students–so it wouldn’t be that hard to get the laggards on board. Teachers would then just have to sign up and start a group for their students to follow. Then the communications could begin.
The thing that makes Facebook better than BlackBoard is its ability for interaction. The BlackBoard system is unintuitive and just plain hard to use. Facebook is more natural and straight forward. Plus, when you aren’t using it for educational purposes, you would be using it for its primary purpose–social networking/making friends–and therefore practicing moving through its heirachy in a fun manner while still learning how to use it. BlackBoard offers no reward for the suffering you take on while learning its interface.
Besides Facebook, students would be better off if a teacher just ran their own website. It would be easier to assign things via a WordPress or a Tumblr blog than for students to log into a system and fight through menus to get to content that really doesn’t need to be password protected.
I like the idea of using Facebook to run a class and share information, but ulitmately feel a new, global educational social network needs to be made–not just the sharing of library resources and research amoungst eliet. But that is another post.
Video of interview with my friend in QuickTime or on Viddler:
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COMMENTS / 2 COMMENTS
Alex Hillman added these pithy words on Oct 28 08 at 1:25 pmGreat post Seth. We talked about facebook quite a bit at HeroCamp, and along with the reasons you listed, one of the biggest is: the students area already there.
I know you’re really interested in this, so I’m going to put the ball in your court: can you find any conclusive studies about the difference between bringing the students to the “classroom” versus the “classroom” to the students?
Seth Nenstiel added these pithy words on Oct 28 08 at 2:03 pmAlex,
I don’t have a lot of time right now, but I did some quick research about online learning and online classrooms. My research was done by searching google and through EBSCOhost which is online texts that can be accessed through POWER Library if you have a library card.
Skimming through the sites/online texts, I saw that there are a variety of opinions and studies more or less about students in the classroom or bringing the “classroom” to students.
One article supports students being in a physical classroom, giving the argument that learning is more immediate verbally. There is interaction directly with teachers and peers to share ideas and grow. But other articles, where the writer talks to the students who are participating in online learning, make the argument that the students feel more comfortable in an environment that they control.
My opinion is that learning should be a continuous process and should be reinforced as much as possible. I think it shouldn’t happen only online, but obviously that is working for some people. However, I do think that being in the classroom can later be reinforced with online work/interaction. The online work, however, shouldn’t just be busy work–it should promote discussion and require interaction with peers.
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