February 27th, 2009 by Robin Green
The problem here, obviously, is not Facebook itself. After all, the learning system misconduct possible online (cheating, posting answers, working collaboratively on work meant to be completed individually) is also possible in libraries, dorms, cafés, etc. Facebook is merely just another space for students to do what they do, whether it’s the creation of an honest collaborative learning system, or merely a platform for answer-swapping.
In the final seven-page ruling, the engineering faculty appeals committee found no proof the Facebook site actually led to cheating by any of its 147 users. Avenir was given a zero on part of his mark (which did not bring him below the passing line) and the requirement of taking an academic integrity workshop. “Maybe every student should have to go to this kind of workshop,” Avenir commented. Whether it’s a virtual learning system or a face-to-face one, students need to be aware of the rules and abide by them.
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February 27th, 2009 by Robin Green
The Facebook Study Groups application has gotten plenty of media attention in the past year, with 18 year-old freshman Chris Avenir being threatened with expulsion for creating an online learning system in the form of a Facebook Study Group.
The media ran with it, with headlines reading “Is Creating a Facebook Study Group Cheating?” and “Facebook Study Group Condemned by University.” However, these were misleading. After all, it wasn’t the learning system’s mere existence on Facebook that made it prohibited. It was its activities, which would have been forbidden on or offline.
The professor had instructed students to complete homework individually. To make matters worse, the invitation to the group read: “If you request to join, please use the forms to discuss/post solutions to the chemistry assignments. Please input your solutions if they are not already posted.”
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February 27th, 2009 by Robin Green
There are certainly a few Facebook applications that aid students and could enhance LMS and classroom learning systems in various ways. There’s SkoolPool, which allows students to research online and traditional schools. Books iRead is an application that allows users to share the books they’re reading and check out others’ reviews of books.
But then you get to apps like Rate My Professors and Study Groups. Both sound innocent enough–you can find out reviews of professors before choosing to enroll in their learning systems, and Study Groups allows students to meet online and study together. However, these are two applications that have caused a good deal controversy and criticism.
Rate My Professors can be a major breach of privacy. It allows students (and non-students, faking identities) to post, if they feel like it, embarrassing or false information about professors. And though Study Groups has potential to act as an online, collaborative learning system, it has also caused its share of stirs. (Continued in next post.)
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February 26th, 2009 by Robin Green
Facebook and other Web 2.0 technologies offer exciting possibilities to create interactive and collaborative learning systems. Online, LMS-hosted and classroom learning systems are able to take advantage of students’ attention to sites like Facebook and create projects within them.
Some educational applications that Facebook offers are JSTOR Search, DoResearch4me, Books iRead, Wikiseek Search, Flashcards, Notely, Study Groups, Class Notes, SkoolPool, Swaproll, and Get Homework Help, among others.
Applications like JSTOR Search makes gathering information online simple for students, allowing users to find full text research articles on Facebook. Students can use apps like Flashcards and Notely to study and organize. Class Notes is the app for sick or absent students, allowing them to find scanned notes for classes. Get Homework Help connects students with tutors and other students for help in all kinds of learning systems subjects. (Continued in next post.)
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February 26th, 2009 by Robin Green
Because of the hazards involved with including Web 2.0 technologies in many LMS and classroom learning systems, educators who want to use them must take extra precautions. It is their duty to supervise the use of these technologies to ensure that students are staying on track with the learning system activity.
Of course, many wonder whether or not this is a realistic expectation. Can educators realistically stand guard while students navigate such sites? Sometimes it may be best for educators to do the navigating while students observe.
Educators should discuss with students such issues as predators and cyberbullying, appropriate online behavior, and managing personal information. Products such as Open DNS and Panda Internet Security 2008 with built-in parental controls are also helpful. For more information educators might pick up books such as MySpace Unraveled and Cyber-Safe Kids, Cyber-Savvy Teens: Helping Young People Learning to Use the Internet Safely and Responsibility.
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February 26th, 2009 by Robin Green
Although many schools and districts continue to prohibit the use of Web 2.0 technologies like social networking sites, podcasts and wikis, more educators are coming to embrace them. In fact, the use of collaborative technologies is now included in many IT learning systems for educators, such as ITQ Learning & Skills, which is emerging in the UK as the IT qualification for practitioners in the Learning & Skills sector.
However, it’s often not easy to include these technologies sites in a learning system designed for young adults and children.
At the end of a YouTube video, for example, an invitation appears to go to the next slide or video. Despite classroom rules about drifting off-course, kids will be kids. And this truth creates the potential for Web 2.0 technologies to become inappropriate or dangerous in an LMS or face-to-face learning system, and also a potential source of litigation against educators.
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February 25th, 2009 by Robin Green
Of course, as with any new technological learning system aid, a shiny new toy only has value as long as it offers something new in terms of functionality. And in order to tap into the possibilities that social networking sites offer to LMS and classroom learning systems, they need to be understood by the educators themselves.
Stephen Carrick-Davies, the chief executive of Childnet International, said it well: “The phenomenal speed at which the internet is developing and the rapid take up of new web 2.0 services by young people can be challenging. However, it’s vital that all of us really take the time to understand the way students are using the latest technology, the various features of these new services and appreciate how these new tools can aid good social interaction and learning.”
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February 25th, 2009 by Robin Green
The Childnet International report claims that social networking sites can provide many opportunities for learning system collaboration. It includes an evaluation tool, which walks educators through key features of sites they may be considering using to support their learning systems.
“In addition to providing a whole community with useful information about a school, college, organization or event, a social networking profile sends a clear message to learners that you are aware of the types of spaces they enjoy online,” the report states.
Using sites like Facebook and Bebo, schools could help students develop “e-portfolios” where learners can record their achievements and collect examples of their work. In addition, LMS and classroom educators can use social networking services to set up groups that “semi-formalize” students’ online communications and “document discussions and milestones as they go.”
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