Facebook

Overview
Facebook is a social networking site that lets people put information about themselves and their interests into an online webpage. People can choose the level of accessibility, they can make it publicly available or only available to friends. As the video above shows it can be very useful in the classroom.

Strength
Easy to access and most students over 13 years of age have already used Facebook and have accounts. It can be used successfully for carefully planned classroom activities.

Weakness
Students need to be over 13 years old to hold a Facebook page. There have been stories in the past of students committing suicide because of what has been written about them on sites like Facebook, so extreme care needs to be taken to ensure no bullying is occurring (on the other side of this argument, teaching students how to use Facebook in a non threatening and safe manner may significantly reduce the chance of this happening).

Opportunity
As shown in the above video there are huge opportunities with Facebook including using it for history and literature subjects. Facebook could also be used for subjects including Home Economics with students having to take photos of creations and uploading them to their Facebook page.

Threat
Cyber-bullying and trying to get schools to see the opportunities of using Facebook in the classroom.

Compatibility to learning styles
Great for Visual, Interpersonal and Linguistic learning styles but due to the nature of Facebook that most students have used it or will use it in their life time it is a skill needed by all students.

What learning theory it is most used for (links to this blog site)
Facebook is based on Social Constructivm.

Meaning to me
Facebook is an interesting program that could be utilised in schools but has had some negative press with students committing suicide due to bullying. Students need to understand the skills to use it effectively, how to use it safely, to block unwanted content and not include information that can cause problems now and later in life.

Burying our heads in the sand and pretending that there is no bullying will not fix the problem, educators are far better off teaching the skills to use programs safely early and giving students coping skills that help to guard against depression and suicide.