Love it or hate it!

For one reason or another I have been consumed by a desire to find out more about the implications of facebook for education this week. No doubt what I have learned in a week still leaves me way behind the field, but it has been fun and I have a few new ideas to pursue. I have been a facebooker for a few years now, but not a really serious one. I am probably only just in double figures for status updates, preferring to follow the lives of others, and my students' friends tallies make me look like a hermit by comparison. This week however has probably been my busiest week on facebook and I think that it has been prompted by hearing the statistic that 1 in 13 people on the planet have a facebook profile and knowing what I do about averages tells me that amongst the people I live and work with this figure is likely to be much, much higher! So, this started me thinking, which started me talking to my students and which has lead to the following two useful ideas related to Maths Studies teaching.

Facebook groups for classes

I have learned that I can create a 'group' for me and my students and I dont have to be 'friends' with them or even 'like' them, to use the apt fb terminolgy! My students are really keen and see it as my best bet for getting their attention. My words can cut into their daily newsfeed fix and suddenly get on their radar with frightening regularity. I am going to resist writing too much about what this could be and resolve to blog again soon about how the project has gone.

Facebook as a data source

David McCandless from 'Information is Beautiful' makes some lovely data visualisations with data he has 'scraped' (his words) from facebook status updates. Hans Rosling's recent documentary, 'The Joy of Stats' also highlights a project designed to conclude the mood of the worlds population by collecting words from status updates and more. Both of these ideas have made me think about the potential data harvesting opportuntities there are with facebook. In fact it prompted one of my students this year to do an Internal Assessment on facebook use, collecting data on friends, photos, likes, ages, status updates etc. and I think this has potential.

I could write more about the reflections I have had on facebook this week, but will quit while I am still talking about Maths Studies and teaching. Truth is though, love it or hate it, its real and its fascinating!