For the past year I have been trialing the use of Facebook groups in school, to see if they improved communication with some of our students.
I have finally written a brief report on my findings. These include surveys given to teachers and students, as well as some recommendations for next year.
Click on the link below to download the report.
You may also be interested in more of my posts on Social Networks:
JISC Inform – Social Media, Who Needs It?
E-Safety Presentation for Parents – Part 2: Social Networks
Facebook Privacy Settings – Teach Your Students
Social Networks in Schools: How to Make it Work
mattbritland.com 
Good idea to make groups it help for communication and other knowledge sharing ideas
In the Introductory paragraph it’s says “trailing”…is it meant to say trialing?
Hi! Thanks for that…I have amended.
I don’t know why my iPad felt the need to capitalise the word “introductory.”
Hey Matt – thanks for the report.
I was just wondering about a couple of points:
– Did students find it at all invasive of their ‘personal’ sphere using Facebook Groups for school work?
– Did you get any negative push-back from parents?
– Having mentioned Edmodo in your report, and aside from the fact that students are pretty much all on Facebook, what’s your opinion on the use of Facebook over Edmodo at a school such as yours?
– Lastly – what was the reason that some of the 8 teachers you surveyed decided to go ahead with a profile & group set-up, but then ended up not making any use of their new groups?
Thanks in advance for your time.
Ryan
Hi Ryan, thanks for reading and thanks for your questions.
1. They didn’t mention that it was a problem. It just seemed quite natural for them. Many of the groups felt like ‘theirs’ so they had some ownership over them, even though they were set up by teachers. We even had students requesting groups for clubs and academic subjects.
2. We have not had any negative feedback from parents. None that I was told about, at least.
3. Edmodo is not ‘theirs’ it is set up by us for academic purposes. Although, I do love it. Edmodo works just fine, but I wanted to try how Facebook would work.
I think FB was better for older students, it feels more grown up than Edmodo.
4. One of the problems was that some teachers lost interest or simply forgot to log in or contribute to the group. Some of my recommendations should improve on this.
Have your questions been answered in enough detail?
Thanks.
Thanks very much Matt – very interesting. Are you pushing this further at your school?
I am leaving in January and moving to a new school. I will push it some more this term to make sure that everyone is happy before I leave.
Plus, I want us to start to work on the recommendations.
Thanks.