Tuesday 29 July 2008

Social Networks

‘Here comes everybody’
Facebook has become a massive part of how students communicate with each other and organize their lives. How much should tutors use it to communicate with students? Would students resent the intrusion?

The findings of a recent JISC study Great Expectations of ICT: how Higher Education Institutions are measuring up (June 2008) found that 91% of students in their survey used social-networking sites regularly, the technology being far more familiar to students than wikis and blogs.

The interviews with the students made it clear that where ‘social networking emerges organically from among the students, it is more successful than social networking systems put in place by the teacher (which can feel overly formal and “fake”)’. Students gave examples of where WebCT discussion boards were ignored, the conversation shifting to Facebook.

Universities have started to engage with Facebook, using it to advertise and promote their functions. Widgets have started to emerge on Facebook, allowing users to search full text databases and catalogues (JSTOR widget, SUNCAT widget). Will Facebook be the main interface through which users access online resources in HE? Or as universities colonize the site, will students leave? As staff and students create their own networks using freely available applications and social networks, what will happen to corporate networks?

And how should you behave on Facebook? Are students aware of how to protect their personal data and manage levels of privacy? If you leave your 'Search' visibility as 'Everyone' on Facebook, everyone can find you and see what you write. Informal Tutor Appreciation societies on Facebook may be just a bit of fun but when does free speech and the right to criticize tutors become cyberbullying? The Times Higher Education Supplement has highlighted a number of cases recently.[1] Anonymity breaks Facebook rules (Terms of Use, User Conduct) and is no protection from prosecution. The High court has just fined someone £22,000 in damages for libel and breach of privacy for posting fake and malicious entries about another party on Facebook.[2] Once an image goes on Facebook, can you remove it? Do you have any control over photos taken by friends? What happens if those photos are ones you wouldn’t want a prospective employer to see? What happens if the press gets hold of them?


Other social networks are emerging that will have an impact on how we communicate and interact: Linked In for professional networking and Ning enabling the creation of customized social networks. Here at UCLan we have Communities at UCLan https://elgg.uclan.ac.uk/ running on the ELGG social network software. Beyond this, social networks are emerging in professional communities of practice, sometimes promoted by commercial publishers (Nature Network from nature.com, BioMedExperts from Collexis Inc) sometimes by professional groups (Pronetos, ResearchGATE Scientific Network, Academici). Whilst the research networking and collaboration application is going to grow in importance, perhaps the real question is what kind of impact are social networking sites going to have on teaching and learning?


University policy on use of social networking sites

[1] Binns, Amy, ‘Staff suffer bullying by students on the web’, THES 2 March 2007
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=208037
Accessed 29 July 2008
[2] Fallon, Amy, ‘Ex-friend’s Facebook revenge costs £22,000 in damages’, The Guardian, 25 July 2008

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