This is where we’ll discuss Gina Maranto’s and Matt Barton’s “Pardox and Promise: MySpace, Facebook, and the Sociopolitics of Social Networking in the Writing Classroom.”
This is another one of those articles I assigned more or less sight unseen/based on its title and currency, and I think it really pays off. I can tell you from previous classes where I’ve assigned stuff about Facebook that so much of the previous scholarship (and jeez, we’re only talking a couple years ago here!) has a definite “Facebook=good” or “Facebook=evil” kind of spin to it. This piece doesn’t; rather, as the title suggests, it explores the complicated paradoxes of Facebook and social networks.
It’s pretty straight-forward, so I’ll limit myself to three basic observations:
First, I really appreciate what Maranto and Barton do here in terms of introducing information on studying social networking in part 3 of this essay because people in computers and writing and composition studies often talk about “social networks” and writing as something that was just thought up a few years ago. Lots of stuff to look up here for other projects for sure.
Second, I very much see the analogy to “cruising,” something that was certainly a practice among my high school classmates back in the 1980s. Interestingly, I wonder if that kind of literal cruising hasn’t been replaced by the metaphoric cruising/interaction of sites like Facebook.
And third, I think that part 5 on privacy and part 6 on identity formation are very rich. Really interesting stuff, and for me, my only complaint is that both of these sections could easily be developed into more full-blown and complete essays on their own.
Although I thought this article was interesting, especially since I hadn’t heard of some of many of the news stories they discussed (like the mom who “tormented” her daughter’s friend leading to the girl’s suicide), I kept waiting for a more direct discussion of the connection to teaching writing… after all, it’s in the title. It did a good job of showing both sides of the issue, and made relevant points. I especially liked the seemingly innocent line “without diaries, there are no editorials.” I think it’s a strong statement about the importance of maintaining some semblance of privacy. But even as interesting as I though the article was, in the end, I kind of felt like it only emphasized the more obvious point of using discretion when participating in online social networking, especially if you are in a position of authority like a teacher or public servant… but again, that seems kind of obvious.
I did appreciate the “crusing” metaphor and in agreeing with steve, I thought the article showed how social networking is not something new, nor is using the information that can be gained from observing social networking. And I could appreciate the discussion of identity formation, but it seemed like those things could be discussed in a class of facebook users without actually using facebook for the class. I just wish there was a little more on actually USING facebook for facilitating writing instruction rather than using it as a way to get into construction/representation of self, etc. Maybe my expectations were just a little different from what I found in the article. Still, very interesting and usefull.
I also really appreciated how Maranto and Barton historically situate social networking. While I’d thought about how social networking site facilitate teen’s social lives in new ways, this article goes into much greater depth, and the cruising connection was very cool — I love American Graffiti!
This article brought up the interesting issue of adding students to your Facebook account. I have to say, when I taught high school I didn’t have a Facebook account largely because of this issue. Others teachers did and they had plenty of student “friends” too. I think some of these teachers were able to get away with this because of how they presented themselves in the classroom – an everyone’s friend kind of teacher. As far as I know, none of them had a problem. I just don’t think it would’ve been a good move based on my teaching personae. So, I guess what I’m saying is that while Facebook does present us in a certain light we still have to consider our “real world” selves when making decisions about who to add and who not to add.
Yeah, this kind of goes back to my comment on the last discussion thread about blurring professional and personal relationships…I have known teachers who have had some strange situations arise from adding students as friends on Facebook – like a teacher who had a student trying to chat with her while he was clearly drunk. What do you do with situations like that? And wouldn’t it make things a little awkward later for both the teacher and the student? I don’t know…I guess I vote for avoiding the issue all together by keeping your students “students” as opposed to trying to become their “friends.”
First, thanks to you all for reading the piece and to Steve for letting Matt and me know about this discussion you’re having. This was a fascinating piece to write, not least because writing about social media is definitely a moving target problem. About a year and a half passed from the time we started the piece to publication. The whole time, Facebook and social media in general were changing rapidly, so we had to make tough decisions about topicality vs. generic analysis. As a long-time journalist, I found this temporal tension especially interesting (and difficult): it illuminated the strengths and weaknesses of both popular and scholarly media, not to mention social media. Dave is right that there is more theory and less praxis in the piece. Again, we had to choose. Perhaps because Matt and I have both fairly extensively explored the use of wikis in the classroom, we wound up leaning more toward theory in this piece. My colleague Ben Lauren, who teaches at Florida International University here in Miami, has worked with Facebook in his classes in the way that Dave suggests, so I’ll alert him to this discussion. I’m sure he’d be happy to share some of his insights about the process. The Computers & Writing conference, which will be at Purdue this year, is another rich source of ideas for classroom practice, as I’m sure Steve has mentioned.
And I think that both Gina and Brian are making good points about the problems of this stuff and how quickly it changes. I don’t know this for sure, but I’ll bet you that the Ohio Education Association doesn’t feel as negatively about Facebook now as they did back in 2007.
Nice. One of the reasons I had for wanting to write on Facebook was precisely the sort of colonizing I saw happening–teachers hearing about “this Facebook thing,” and their first thought being to use it in the classroom. I heard of teachers requiring all students to add them as friends, etc. Then I heard about administrators requiring this specifically so they could spy on their students (including having them suspended or even arrested) for having them do things completely outside of the school context. It seemed to me that these practices were violating the students’ rights to privacy as well as their right to self-expression.
I think that teachers should use Facebook only passively. For instance, they could use it as great fodder for discussions about identity formation or social networking. They shouldn’t use it as a tool for surveillance or a platform for inculcating good Protestant work ethics.
This article made me think about my time as a high school teacher who was single- I NEVER allowed students on my facebook or myspace pages (when I had one… back when it was still cool
, I made my profile impossible to find. One boy searched for three years but found nothing.I believe he even paid money to try and find me… He found my old address in Texas, he found my parent’s address back in Michigan, but he did not find my social networking profiles. I was not about to risk my job and my credibility just to look cool to my students. I have some friends who are established in their schools, married, have families of their own and accept their students on their facebooks but these to me seem like “safe” people. If that makes sense. They’re the ones who don’t drink, don’t “party” and don’t put pictures up of them doing anything “wrong”. It may seem hypocritical, but I think some people can get away with having students on their SN sites and some cannot. I didn’t accept any of my Vegas students on my facebook page until I moved out of the state. Even when they graduated I knew present students could possibly see my page and I wouldn’t allow it. It’s true, with SN these days one has to be careful about what they say and do. I agree that “electronic media and social networking is perilous terrain for educators” and “lends itself to the possible interpretation of an improper relationship” which is why I do not allow students on mine.
I do think it’s important htough that with all the change in literacy and the teaching with technology that “scholars in the computers and composition community are naturally curious about how these sites can be used to teach writing and authorship.” We need to keep finding ways to incorporate technology in the classroom if we are to make learning relevant to students’ lives.
I am the same way, Angie– I guard my Facebook page like crazy! I am very particular about who I accept and who I allow to view the things I put on there. I am not a partier and I don’t do anything that might seem too wrong, but I believe in keeping your professional and personal life separate. I also want the ability to post anything on there if I want to! I have gotten numerous requests from other faculty I work with or students who I advise. I hit the “Ignore” button without hesitation. And, really, I don’t take it too personally if my requests aren’t accepted, either.
The Chair of my department showed all of us an article that was written about a faculty member who lost their job after complained about work on her Facebook page. He thought it should be a warning to us– since he knew we all had profiles. Even so, the University of Michigan encourages every department to have a Facebook page and for its employees to link their profiles to it. To the University, not only does it show that we understand the world of social networking/trends, but it also makes us easily accessible to our undergrads. Our department has a Facebook page and I will respond to messages I am sent via Facebook, but I haven’t gotten too many requests from my students to become “friends.” I think, perhaps, they feel there needs to be a barrier of sorts, too.
Okay, I have a FB page. I like my FB page and I think that I, at least try, to keep it all clean and good. With that said I have lots of friends who are current and former students. I find for them it makes me accessable to them and that is a good thing. They know if they have a question they can ask me and I’ll get back to them. I know that there is email, but when Im on FB why cant they ask me there, or post on my page a question, and they do. I dont mind it at all, I feel its a good thing. Of course I teach college so that is a big difference here as well. I can see the issues of teaching high school and being friends with your students on Myspace or Facebook. Does anyone remember the teacher who posted pics of herself in very revealing clothing and her students found it? I do and while it is her private life to pose for pics like that, posting them on FB is not the best idea. I dont remember all the details but the point is dont post what you dont want to be seen. Or most recently the woman who worked at a college and basiclly made threats to kill her students on her FB page? I mean come on people if you work anywhere, teach other otherwise, think about what you are doing before you post. Its so easy to just not hit send, submit, or reply. The rule of think before you speak still applies here.
Ashlee’s remarks about the University of Michigan’s encouragement of social networking–and the Chair’s countervailing message–hit upon the kind of fuzzing of categorical distinctions that Matt and I tried to at least allude to in our discussions of cruising, knowledge workers, and rational-critical debate. In the realm of old-fashioned cruising, clear boundaries existed between kids and “authority figures” that vanish in virtual spaces. In economic discussions invoking knowledge workers, the internet is seen as a territory ripe for exploitation (see, for example, Tapscott and Williams, Wikinomics); inasmuch as universities are seen to serve the job market, the argument is that they should be training students to function within the territory. In some versions of that argument, one sees the same lack of recognition of potential implications as when, historically, capital colonized physical zones. And while Habermas emphasizes the public-private distinction as a necessary condition to democratic functions, social networking sites (and blogs like this one also fall roughly into that camp) seem to evade or erase or sublimate (your pick) that distinction. (Matt, in his comment above, deals with the less savory potential consequences of doing so.)
When I started working with Fb, I thought a great deal about “The Creepy Treehouse Problem” as Jason B. Jones discusses here: http://www.profhacker.com/2010/03/09/creepy-treehouse/
That said, I think it useful to create pages/groups for classes and keep your profile separate if you plan to engage friends outside of academia (not students). Most important, I think students will tell you if using Fb as an interaction tool is effective for them.
Dennis Baron as some interesting ideas related technology and discourse in his book A Better Pencil. Paul Levinson’s New New Media might be useful too.
Thanks to Gina for telling me about this thread. Some really interesting ideas!
I had not thought about creating a page for my classes but I think I will do that in the future.
Here are my thoughts:
I think the memo hit more than 131,000 educators. I think it is a memo with tacit information, or common sense, don’t mix business with your social life.
Without FB and myspace, lines are being blurred between educators and students anyway. Maybe it happens more in ENG/LIT courses because I think they cover a wide range of issues of student culture/life.
Whatever I do on these websites, personal or professional, I try to make it positive! If something negative leaks out or lands on my page, I delete it. I never apologize. One person deleted me as their friend because they couldn’t stand how “cheesey” I am. I guess being positive is equal to being “fake” in some people’s minds.
And I just remain positive. I guess this is where the zen and balancing emotion comes in when you use mediums like FB.
That’s my rule.
But what I think is okay for FB may not be okay for a work culture I want to break into. But then how will I know that. I can learn as I go.
I know a little bit of everyone. I know people with PhD’s from Stanford, and PhD’s from Wayne State, UofM and people in trade school.
I think if you keep it positive, people don’t care about blurring the lines on these social media websites.
We are talking about many different lines being blurred but the two that I relate to are the professional/personal and student/teacher lines.
Some of my best friends and support have been my professors.
Lines sometimes just blur naturally.
LOL, that “creepy treehouse” thing is great. I’d seen that phrase before, but didn’t realize what it meant until now. It fits!
There’s a good article about this on ProfHacker too, here: http://www.profhacker.com/2010/03/09/creepy-treehouse/ Here’s my favorite quote:
Ha! That is hilarious!
Some very interesting back and forth here, and thanks, Prof Krause, for having the authors join us. Per my other post yesterday, I am letting my students join me–for better or for worse–but, I am planning on using my facebook as a sort of experiment, so all my interaction will definitely be school appropriate. I would love to read more about possibly using Facebook to teach, rather than what NOT to do and what to be careful about doing.
I actually am planning on asking my students for suggestions. I was thinking of using it to post reminders of major assignments due, to ask people to suggest books for reading, or movies to see–all the while incorporating writing, of course. I would be thrilled to receive more ideas!