This is a draft article written in 2011 intended for the Scottish Further Education publication Broadcast. It was never published and is included here only for reference purposes.
I have been working my way through a presentation on the JISC RSC website listing the top 100 Learning Tools from across the internet. This has been compiled by Jane Hart of the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies and is a compilation based on submissions from 545 learning professionsl from across the globe, who provided Jane Hart with a list of their top 10 Learning tools. http://scottish-rscs.org.uk/newsfeed/?p=10299
At number 5, a strikingly high placement, is Facebook. If popularlity with students were the measure then it would probably have been number 1 but from a lecturer point of view the importance of Facebook as a learning tool can be more difficult to see.
Facebook elicits strong feelings in both staff and students. Many lecturers have a Facebook account, but the tension between Facebook and the curriculum is a theme commonly discussed in the workroom, with the former generally being considered to the detriment of the latter.
My attention was recently drawn to a video on You Tube which was making gentle fun of Facebook. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UouP8cRYZ8 A young man holds a bundle of placards each with a pithy, sometimes humorous observation about the ubiquitous social networking site. Against the backdrop of a street scene and a haunting musical theme he casts aside the placards in sequence to build a witty and challenging case built around the theme of the video: “You must get off Facebook.”
The video contains mildly adult content but, I decided, nothing that would remotely shock my Intermediate 2 IT class. The group are heavy duty users of Facebook. Indeed I sometimes think It is their lifeblood such is my own struggle to compete. They watched the video with fairly stony faces, but notably with absolute attention. At the end of this blast of the Curriculum for Excellence, there were no comments and I hardly dared ask them what they thought about it.
I sent a link to the video to an old school friend who uses Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family spread across the globe. In a detailed email response I thought I detected a little irritation with the implied criticism.
I looked over the shoulder of a student logged into Facebook recently to observe a dense written communication which she was energetically developing at that moment. It was written in a langauge barely recognisable as English, full of text abbreviations, but perhaps more strikingly, full of broad Scots. In the modern era I have come to expect the Scots language to be written by a rarifed literatti composed of poets and Scots language revivalists. Here though were young people at the bottom of the educational scale communicating freely in this langauge.
Before the age of Facebook, email and texting, young people of a similar educational and social status would have used the written word to communicate only when absolutely required to do so and otherwise not at all. It is a striking fact that these young people are using the written word to communicate spontaneously, regularly, and on a basis that is clearly important to them.
But what about the quality of this rich mixture of scots, text abbreviations, freestyle spelling and diy grammar? All interactive communication by its nature is self correcting and has a tendency to evolve through time and become more rule based and sophisticated. When communication is important to people they seek clarification for what is not understood and work hard at being understood. The net effect is that these young people are developing their communication skills through their activity on Facebook. Out of the unpromising soup of their online conversation may perhaps develop a new variant of the English language
But what about spelling, syntax and grammar? Will the skills being exercised by this activity transferable to more orthodox English language contexts?
Like myself,many lecturers will have observed inappropriate use of text spellings in work submitted by students. It is my perception however that this use of text betrays a failure of real commitment to study. When something really matters to a student, they are likely to make more considered judgements about what is appropriate, modelling their written work on the magazines, newspapers and websites they are reading. For all their stylistic failings, and use of cliche, these ubiquitous influences are built on a framework of very orthodox spelling and grammar. Even the Sun newspaper, for all its Gotcha headlines has a conventional style book that few teachers of Communication could object to.
If the case I am making in favour of Facebook has validity, it has to be admitted that benefit to written communciation skills is an unintended consequence of its use. For Facebook to justify its high placement as a learning tool, lecturers and teachers must be seeing constructive and interesting ways of using it in their teaching. Perhaps having read this article you may be moved to share your use of Facebook in your teaching practice, perhaps as a comment on the discussion forum at the conclusion of this article. I will continue to have doubts about the relevance of Facebook to my own social networking needs but in an educational context this is a medium which must be taken seriously.
About Stephen Shellard
I am a retired College lecturer, having worked originally in supported programmes but latterly having taught social science subjects, Psychology and Politics, though my degree was in Sociology. I am from Newry in Northern Ireland, but now live in Dumfries in South West Scotland. https://carruchan.blog/about/
Facebook —A Medium Which Must be Taken Seriously
This is a draft article written in 2011 intended for the Scottish Further Education publication Broadcast. It was never published and is included here only for reference purposes.
I have been working my way through a presentation on the JISC RSC website listing the top 100 Learning Tools from across the internet. This has been compiled by Jane Hart of the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies and is a compilation based on submissions from 545 learning professionsl from across the globe, who provided Jane Hart with a list of their top 10 Learning tools. http://scottish-rscs.org.uk/newsfeed/?p=10299
At number 5, a strikingly high placement, is Facebook. If popularlity with students were the measure then it would probably have been number 1 but from a lecturer point of view the importance of Facebook as a learning tool can be more difficult to see.
Facebook elicits strong feelings in both staff and students. Many lecturers have a Facebook account, but the tension between Facebook and the curriculum is a theme commonly discussed in the workroom, with the former generally being considered to the detriment of the latter.
My attention was recently drawn to a video on You Tube which was making gentle fun of Facebook. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UouP8cRYZ8 A young man holds a bundle of placards each with a pithy, sometimes humorous observation about the ubiquitous social networking site. Against the backdrop of a street scene and a haunting musical theme he casts aside the placards in sequence to build a witty and challenging case built around the theme of the video: “You must get off Facebook.”
The video contains mildly adult content but, I decided, nothing that would remotely shock my Intermediate 2 IT class. The group are heavy duty users of Facebook. Indeed I sometimes think It is their lifeblood such is my own struggle to compete. They watched the video with fairly stony faces, but notably with absolute attention. At the end of this blast of the Curriculum for Excellence, there were no comments and I hardly dared ask them what they thought about it.
I sent a link to the video to an old school friend who uses Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family spread across the globe. In a detailed email response I thought I detected a little irritation with the implied criticism.
I looked over the shoulder of a student logged into Facebook recently to observe a dense written communication which she was energetically developing at that moment. It was written in a langauge barely recognisable as English, full of text abbreviations, but perhaps more strikingly, full of broad Scots. In the modern era I have come to expect the Scots language to be written by a rarifed literatti composed of poets and Scots language revivalists. Here though were young people at the bottom of the educational scale communicating freely in this langauge.
Before the age of Facebook, email and texting, young people of a similar educational and social status would have used the written word to communicate only when absolutely required to do so and otherwise not at all. It is a striking fact that these young people are using the written word to communicate spontaneously, regularly, and on a basis that is clearly important to them.
But what about the quality of this rich mixture of scots, text abbreviations, freestyle spelling and diy grammar? All interactive communication by its nature is self correcting and has a tendency to evolve through time and become more rule based and sophisticated. When communication is important to people they seek clarification for what is not understood and work hard at being understood. The net effect is that these young people are developing their communication skills through their activity on Facebook. Out of the unpromising soup of their online conversation may perhaps develop a new variant of the English language
But what about spelling, syntax and grammar? Will the skills being exercised by this activity transferable to more orthodox English language contexts?
Like myself,many lecturers will have observed inappropriate use of text spellings in work submitted by students. It is my perception however that this use of text betrays a failure of real commitment to study. When something really matters to a student, they are likely to make more considered judgements about what is appropriate, modelling their written work on the magazines, newspapers and websites they are reading. For all their stylistic failings, and use of cliche, these ubiquitous influences are built on a framework of very orthodox spelling and grammar. Even the Sun newspaper, for all its Gotcha headlines has a conventional style book that few teachers of Communication could object to.
If the case I am making in favour of Facebook has validity, it has to be admitted that benefit to written communciation skills is an unintended consequence of its use. For Facebook to justify its high placement as a learning tool, lecturers and teachers must be seeing constructive and interesting ways of using it in their teaching. Perhaps having read this article you may be moved to share your use of Facebook in your teaching practice, perhaps as a comment on the discussion forum at the conclusion of this article. I will continue to have doubts about the relevance of Facebook to my own social networking needs but in an educational context this is a medium which must be taken seriously.
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About Stephen Shellard
I am a retired College lecturer, having worked originally in supported programmes but latterly having taught social science subjects, Psychology and Politics, though my degree was in Sociology. I am from Newry in Northern Ireland, but now live in Dumfries in South West Scotland. https://carruchan.blog/about/