Part A-Facebook
Introduction
I chose to study the Facebook (FB) community because I had been invited to join as a friend from one of my high school friends about a month ago. Of course, I am always too busy and had not responded to the invitation. In the introduction to this course FB was mentioned yet again. Not long after this course began I was speaking to a co-worker who told me that some employers were requesting to meet people via FB for job interviews. All of this mention of one community, that I had previously been completely unaware of, led me to choose this as the virtual community to explore for the first part of this case study.
To attain the full experience with FB you must become a member. I tried “lurking” but found that you can only search to find individuals in this manner. You must become a member and then a “friend” to gain access to member sites. Becoming a member was fast and easy. I was able to quickly enter a few facts about myself and upload some pictures as well. FB instantly compiled a list of members that I might know based on my profile information. I was amazed by the number of high school friends that appeared. Initially I became frustrated that I could not view their sites without becoming a “friend”, but I quickly realized that this is the community’s method of providing some protection of member privacy. I now have my own FB page with friends that I have made initial communications with. This has truly been an amazing experience for me as I grew up in Washington State and have lost touch with most of my former friends over the years. Thanks to FB, I can see them all again!
Analysis
FB is primarily a social community used to communicate with friends or family near and far. Members create profiles with as much, or as little, information about themselves as they choose to provide. There is an option to upload photos that can be divided into albums for “friends” to view. Members are placed into various groups, based on their profile data, that may help locate old friends or make new friends with similar interests. The primary form of communication appears to be posting to the member wall. I was able to view photos of my friends’ families and post comments to their walls. There is another type of post that always begins with “Jammie is”. Through this post you quickly let others know what you are doing right now. There are also chat functions and you may include personal contact information, if you choose to.
This community relies on the participation of current members and the recruitment of new members to stay alive. The recruitment technique is extremely smart and simple. Current members can link to their e-mail address books and easily invite any of their contacts to join their FB. The search features of the site allow members to quickly and easily locate other FB members to join their page.
This community relies on the participation of current members and the recruitment of new members to stay alive. The recruitment technique is extremely smart and simple. Current members can link to their e-mail address books and easily invite any of their contacts to join their FB. The search features of the site allow members to quickly and easily locate other FB members to join their page.
Conclusions
FB is easy to navigate and is highly successful in meeting the needs of its target population. The technology on the site is easy to use for even novice community members. This type of community will change forever the way in which we communicate with each other as a society. The days of letters and even regular e-mail contact seem to be disappearing faster than ever. We don’t have to wait to see the pictures of the new baby or even plan a trip to visit. Today, we can just go to their FB page and have immediate access to anything that our friends and family wish to share.
Part B-Tapped In
Introduction
I chose to explore Tapped In (TI) for the second portion of this case study. In a previous course I explored learning repositories like MERLOT and Wisc-Online so I wanted to log onto a different type of site this time. I had initially chosen the WISE site because I had read about it in the previous readings. The WISE site will not allow you to view its material without becoming a member and I had difficulty getting an account set-up. In true modern fashion, I am an impatient person and I did not want to spend a lot of time trying to access a site that may or may not interest me. So…I moved on to TI.
I chose to sign in to the TI site as a guest, “lurking” through the site to gather my data. Guest’s have some limitations to their access, but I was able to explore different buildings and get a feel for the site. I immediately liked the information regarding the availability of the IT department. I also thought that the design concept for this site was novel. I liked the campus with different buildings, floors, and rooms.
I chose to sign in to the TI site as a guest, “lurking” through the site to gather my data. Guest’s have some limitations to their access, but I was able to explore different buildings and get a feel for the site. I immediately liked the information regarding the availability of the IT department. I also thought that the design concept for this site was novel. I liked the campus with different buildings, floors, and rooms.
Analysis
TI is a practice-based learning community. According to Riel and Polin (2004) a practiced-based community is a group of professionals voluntarily discussing and sharing their knowledge with the common goal of furthering a field of practice. TI is a site used to further the discipline of teaching. Most of the information seems to be geared toward K-12 teachers, but there is information available that can be used by any teacher. There is information regarding specific subjects, styles of teaching, and even information to help teachers better utilize the internet in the classroom. Anyone can become a member of the TI community.
The community is designed to resemble a typical campus. There are currently 11 different buildings representing different communities within the TI community. Each building has multiple floors and is further divided into separate rooms. If you are a member of TI, you can create your own room or “office” as well as a folder in which you can store direct links to your favorite rooms. While I do like this design, it was a little time consuming to search room by room, floor by floor, and building by building looking for topics that interested me. I also found it difficult to find my way back to a room that interested me if I left the room to explore another.
Members communicate in multiple ways through the TI site. There is a calendar with live chat events, conference rooms for public or private meetings, discussion boards, and a white board where you can leave questions or comments. I read transcripts from previous chats and discussions and read the white boards for the rooms that I entered. I appreciated the many articles about improving teaching methods and particularly on-line learning that are posted throughout the site. This may be very useful as I work to develop my own learning community. There are also links to multiple website outside the TI community. One room that was particularly interesting to me is titled EduSources. This room contains many links to lesson plans and web sites to promote creative and effective teaching strategies. Interaction among community members is essential for learning and for TI to remain successful. TI facilitates interaction among members via synchronous and asynchronous activities.
One of the strongest design features to sustain this site is the presence of a help desk with IT staff. The site receives money from grants enabling the use of paid staff to help maintain the site. The ability to save your favorite rooms for easy access helps members to navigate easily. One design feature that helps to stimulate membership and learning is a calendar with organized on-line events. Members are encouraged not only to participate in events, but to lead events in their area of expertise. It is through promotion of members that the site maintains current, stimulating information.
The community is designed to resemble a typical campus. There are currently 11 different buildings representing different communities within the TI community. Each building has multiple floors and is further divided into separate rooms. If you are a member of TI, you can create your own room or “office” as well as a folder in which you can store direct links to your favorite rooms. While I do like this design, it was a little time consuming to search room by room, floor by floor, and building by building looking for topics that interested me. I also found it difficult to find my way back to a room that interested me if I left the room to explore another.
Members communicate in multiple ways through the TI site. There is a calendar with live chat events, conference rooms for public or private meetings, discussion boards, and a white board where you can leave questions or comments. I read transcripts from previous chats and discussions and read the white boards for the rooms that I entered. I appreciated the many articles about improving teaching methods and particularly on-line learning that are posted throughout the site. This may be very useful as I work to develop my own learning community. There are also links to multiple website outside the TI community. One room that was particularly interesting to me is titled EduSources. This room contains many links to lesson plans and web sites to promote creative and effective teaching strategies. Interaction among community members is essential for learning and for TI to remain successful. TI facilitates interaction among members via synchronous and asynchronous activities.
One of the strongest design features to sustain this site is the presence of a help desk with IT staff. The site receives money from grants enabling the use of paid staff to help maintain the site. The ability to save your favorite rooms for easy access helps members to navigate easily. One design feature that helps to stimulate membership and learning is a calendar with organized on-line events. Members are encouraged not only to participate in events, but to lead events in their area of expertise. It is through promotion of members that the site maintains current, stimulating information.
Conclusions
Exploring the TI site has been an eye opening experience. I have taught for 5 years and never knew that such sites existed. Educators are often very busy with multiple demands at once. The TI site helps educators to connect to expert teachers that they would not have access to otherwise. While I find the site to be a little difficult to navigate, it is worth the time and effort. The links to lesson plans, discussions and of course the tips for incorporating the internet into the classroom will prove invaluable tools for educators. The possibilities for on-line learning are endless and this site helps educators find help quickly and easily. This enables both new and experienced educators to learn from each other and to avoid “reinventing the wheel”.
I was unaware of employers wanting to meet via Facebook. That's an interesting thought.
ReplyDelete