Immerse yourself in Facebook

By Best Practice Models for Learning with Social Networks

Who am I

How do I use Facebook?

Nia

Hi, I’m Nia Wearn, I’ll be helping you with navigating Facebook – Feel free to

add me as a friend

http://www.facebook.com/wormella

In fact I’m on most Social Media under ‘Wormella’

I teach Computer Games Design at Staffs Uni – I

do design documentation and

marketing, but my main concentration is on how groups work, and how you can get them to

make games.

I use Facebook a lot for this..

I also use almost all of these, on an almost daily basis, to communicate,

discover new ideas, chat, inspire, help and have fun.

I’m what you call a Digital Native

(or a geek, or a nerd, or just tragic…)

How I use Facebook #1 – Day to Day Communication

There isn’t really an average day, but in the last 24hrs I’ve used Facebook in the following ways to communicate.

Message and Saved Chats (everyone from my husband, a friend who’s leaving, some colleagues,

my editor, a student and a reminder about an event)

Instant Message

A quick chat with one of my FYP students

about his survey

Notifications

24hrs of notifications

Comment on a post

A student was asking for help on an assignment

Note the other

student chipping in too – that’s always nice

to see…

How I use Facebook #2 – Organising Friends

According to Facebook I have 636 friends – this isn’t really true

Some of them are pubs, clubs, local services, game

accounts; there’s at least one cat, a tortoise and a

megalomaniac stuffed lizard.

Mainly they’re made up of students – I made

the decision a while ago to only have 1

account

(I did try having two, one for work, one for

play but it got messy)

Other people I work with have this two account system.

My friends are organised into lists – if I could be bothered I would

make sure that only certain people could see certain stuff.

I just always keep in mind that my students, my mum, my

mother-in-law, my employers and my friends can see pretty much everything I post. This keeps me

in check…

Facebook have made the privacy settings and list sharing really easy – but it’s good practice to start putting your friends into

lists from day one.

Facebook will automatically start making some lists for you…

How I use Facebook #3 – GroupsGroups have evolved a lot since Facebook started – they are now a really useful way of keeping in touch with people – you don’t need to be friends

with everyone in a group. Groups come in 3 flavours, open, closed & secret

Closed Groups like this one for my FYP students, or a group project makes for a safe environment to swap details and ask

questions – and there’s also group

chat

Most of my students work groups are

closed – with admins & members inviting

others but it tends to keep them focussed

Open Groups are great for large

causes etc – anyone can join

Secret Groups don’t appear anywhere else, great for discussions off

radar or organising surprise parties

How I use Facebook #4 – PagesWhile you Join a Group you Like a Page – It’s a much more one sided relationship then a group – great for promoting things like bands, or brands – you can limit how people interact with a page, but they are

always public, unlike groups

Pages act a little like people, they can like things, you can send messages to all of the people that like it,

but you can’t chat with them.

All of our courses have a page with specific info

for that course on it

As a Page Admin you get all kinds of juicy metrics on the reach and

interactions of your pages.

What you use, and how you use it, will dictate how you can best use Facebook for learning…

How I use Facebook #5 – Events

Anything with a set time and place can be made into an event.

Much like Groups – they can be Public or Private (or somewhere in between) – You can RSVP yes, no or maybe to any event sent to

you.

We use them a lot to publicises events, talks, games jams etc to our student body

How I use Facebook #6 – SharingBefore you think I have too much time on my hands (although a lot of this is part

of my required duties) – a lot of content on my Facebook is shared from other things – similarly lots of links etc are shared onto other things, like pages

or groups

These have all come via something else (a blog or

checkin service)

Most other Social Networks have a share on / post to

Facebook option.

I make sure what I do share is relevant

Almost every ‘item of content’ on Facebook, a

link, a status update, or a photo is sharable – across

everything else.

You can share most things, from most things – so from

groups, or pages onto profiles and vice-versa

Most blogs and sites have a share on

Facebook button too

These are likes and

comments generated by the post from

GetGlue

So, that’s a quick round up of how I use Facebook, to interact with students, keep an eye on group work and promote our courses and

events.

I’ve got a blog

all about this

kind of thing:

http

://blogs.staffs.ac.

uk/nhw1/

I’ll be on-line all day if you need me for anything then add me as a friend – then

you can send me a message or @ mention me in a status (that way it will turn up on

my notifications)

To ‘@’ mention someone

Use the @character and start typing a name – when you see the person you

want to mention come up click on them in with the mouse. You will know it’s

worked, my name will be highlighted in blue – It makes it into a link

(you can do the same trick with pages & groups) Thanks for

reading,

Nia