What has Facebook Become?

 
2004

I was a freshman in college when Facebook first came around. I remember my friend Cory (she attended Susquehanna University in PA) telling me that my school had Facebook. She was so excited and I was very confused. What in the world was Facebook? I signed up for it anyway, and as I started browsing and experimenting, I learned that it was a place to see profiles of old (and recent) friends while also sharing my own. It was a great way to get back in contact with people I hadn't seen since high school. At the time, Facebook was only open to college students (and not all schools yet had access). 

As time went on, Facebook evolved into something much different. It soon became open to high school students, and now ANYONE can join! Its whole appearance has evolved a lot, too. I remember what it used to look like when it first came out. It was a simple page and you could write on someone's wall and that was about it. Soon, it began to implement features such as adding photos, videos, links, people could "share" things on other people's walls, and now there is a news feed on everyone's home page. Very different from its original appearance. 

Richardson mentions that there are ways to create groups (private) and implement Facebook into the classroom. This raised a big red flag in my mind. Facebook is very much a place for personal information and for personal use. People use it to connect with friends and family. I am very hesitant about using Facebook with students because it would be a mixing of a personal life with a professional one. I can be open minded and see the benefits that Richardson talks about, but I'm not quite convinced to take that leap yet.

 I think Edmodo is a safer alternative to use in schools. What's cool about it is that it looks like Facebook and has many similar features. I learned about this last year in my "Technology for Learning" class. One of the teachers at my school uses this program with her fifth grade students and it has been working very well. Last year I worked in a high school and the teacher I worked with was doing a unit on The Hunger Games. She followed a set of lessons created by another teacher and one of the activities was to have students create Facebook profiles for one of the characters and add updates to that character's wall. This was done via paper/pencil, but I can see great benefits to having students use Edmodo instead. Given that it gives a similar feel to Facebook, I really think students would like using it. It's also a great alternative to using Facebook because teachers and students are able to keep social media meant for personal reasons (Facebook) separate from ones meant for educational purposes (Edmodo).

Do you have any experience using Edmodo? 

Sources: 
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.