My budding love of teaching, stemming from my larger love of math and learning

Saturday, March 26, 2011

FACEBOOK...anyone use it?

Well, Duh...everyone uses Facebook, right? Exactly why I want to use it in classroom, but I don't know exactly how to go about it.

There is a FB page for 'Educators using Facebook', but I really haven't found too many answers for the questions I have. I did find a post on someone else's blog titled 'Facebook in the High School Classroom', which had some good points, but as far as setting up a classroom page, I have some more questions.

These are my questions:
1) I currently have a FB page, where I DO NOT accept friend requests from students. Can I link a classroom page to my current login without my students having access to my personal page?

2) I don't want access to my students' pages, is is best to set up a Fan Page where my students can 'Like' the page? Mainly I just want my posts to come up on their newsfeeds.

I feel like I have more questions, I just can't think of them right now.



3 comments:

  1. Hey ER -
    I love reading about your teaching adventures. Making a fan page to "Like" is a great way to go about it because it leaves you anonymous and gives you no more access to your student's pages than you would right now. Another option is a Facebook Group. They have been recently revamped and every time someone posts in it you get a notification. Posts are not in the Newsfeed but it's a more private way of doing things. I am not sure if you have to be friends with people to add them to groups though, which would present a dilemma. If you are looking to involve technology in general, one of my classes here uses Google Groups which functions in a similar manner, sending out emails for all of the discussions. It is extremely helpful for group collaboration and clarifying homework points.
    I hope this helps in some way! I would definitely go for the Facebook Fan Page.

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  2. Thanks Holly! I am trying to stay away from an email based system because not all of my students check email, but they ALL are on FB about 100 times a day. We are ruling out a new webpage for the school district this weekend that will send email updates when something new is posted, but that means the kids have to have their email registered. I have already spoken to some of my students about FB, and they think it would be a great help. One student even brought up the point of being able to ask questions on FB.

    My big question: Do I have to create a whole new account for a FAN page, or can I link it to my current account?

    Hope all is well!!

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  3. I'm a teacher as well and currently have a group page connected to my personal page. I just let my students know the name and to click LIKE to see the updates on their news feeds. The good news is that they don't need to like the page to see the updates but I still ask that they click like anyway.

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