This Week I Read: 8/3 – 8/9

The new currency of social media

On the docket this week: a few short studies (mainly about Facebook) and a fond farewell to Networked.  The summer might be coming to an end, but the digital journey is just beginning.

The Complex Relationship Between Students and Social Media:
In their online survey study, Dennen and Burner (2013a) investigated the social media proclivities of undergraduates, their perspectives on privacy, and their identity management strategies.  Focusing mainly on frequencies (what, no Chi-Squares?!?), the results of their analysis showed that students prefer to contact their professors either in-person or over email, tend to use both search engines and Facebook to look up their college instructors, (but don’t like to be found that way), would prefer not using Facebook in a formally educational way, and generally don’t feel comfortable sharing personal informational with their classmates on social media.

This study seems to have considerable implications for social media use in higher education, especially for those who teach.  Clearly, boundaries and privacy are major concerns for students on social media, as are the effects on intertwining their academic and social lives.  This study certainly seems like the start of a much broader research agenda.  Understanding these factors as a baseline gives us a foundation to determine how these concerns might vary by relevant student demographics (I was only partially kidding about the Chi-Square analyses) or comparatively across malleable student characteristics (like majors, extra-curricular involvements, or leadership education and development).  I look forward to reading more about where the authors might go with these initial preliminary findings.

Facebook as a Learning Tool:
Dennen and Burner (2013b) are back, and this time they’ve set their sights on issues of privacy and ethics regarding the use of Facebook in higher education.  Sure, professors might want to use Facebook to connect with their students, but should they?  What challenges might come up if they do?  What support exists if they try to anyway?  Are students even going to be receptive to such a strategy?  Largely, these are the questions tackled in their scholarly piece.  After walking the reader through information regarding higher education’s social networking policies, the authors focus on the relationships between Facebook and motivation, privacy, and the ethical issues around digital footprints, with special attention paid to the consequences of friending across the teacher-student boundary.  Ultimately, the authors call for better guidelines for the academic use of Facebook, making the argument that such recommendations would be beneficial for learners, educators, and the learning process.

By and large, I appreciated the thoroughness of this piece and the logical build to the  call for guidelines.  I also think, however, that higher education needs guidelines for social media beyond Facebook, and for aspects of institutions beyond academic affairs.  A quick review of the NASPA Core Competencies reveals no language related to social media literacy akin to those described in the last chapters of Rainie & Wellman (2012); but more on that later.  Certainly the conversation has to start somewhere, and kudos to Dennen & Burner (2013b) for attempting to be the match that lights that particular fire.  I just hope it catches quickly and burns (no pun intended) brightly.

Undergraduates’ Preferences Regarding Facebook in the Classroom
It’s a Dennen and Burner three-peat!  In a 2014 article, the dynamic duo attempted to uncover college students’ preferences regarding Facebook use in class settings and their opinions on Facebook friending their instructors.  Their survey results were largely descriptive, but showed that those in their sample had mixed reactions to using Facebook formally in their classes, as well as on friending their instructors.  Taken together, the authors interpreted their results to imply that instructors who intend on using Facebook formally, “…must be well thought through, and based on our findings, it should never be required” (Dennen & Burner, 2014, n. p.).

Anecdotally, I concur with the findings of Dennen & Burner (2014), both as a student and as an instructor.  As a student, I would not want to use Facebook formally in my classes because it has largely become the space where I cultivate personal friendships (as opposed to Twitter or LinkedIn, where I wouldn’t actually have as much of a problem doing things for class) and doing coursework there would seem to violate that spirit.  Additionally, if an instructor requested to be friends, I would probably feel obliged to accept, even if I didn’t want to.  I’m not super concerned about the lifestyle I lead, because I’m a doc student and school is my life.  However, as an instructor, I’m also not comfortable asking my students to use their Facebook for class, nor would I friend request them.  I would, however, openly welcome anyone who requested to be friends with me; and not just on Facebook.  I’m connected with many of my past students on a variety of social media sites, almost exclusively at their request.

Thriving as a Networked Individual & the Future of Networked Individualism
Together, the last two chapters in Rainine & Wellman (2012) form the final part of Networked, in which the authors lay out their vision for operating in the networked world, both today and in the future.  Both chapters extoll a veritable laundry list of factors and elements related to successfully employing the knowledge gained throughout their book, but two things stood out to me in particular.  The first was the authors conceptualization of Networking Literacy, which was described as:

“…they know how to move adroitly through their network operating system – personal, institutional, and digital – without getting locked into one world.  They follow the Golden Rule.  They scan their existing networks for the possibility of gaining introduction to new networks that can expand their reach and diversify their sources of information.  They strive useful balances between being “on the grid” taking advantage of digital opportunities and being available to help others, and “off the grid” when they need time to rebalance and contemplate without interruption.  In short, they are masters of the new network operating system’s universe” (Rainine & Wellman, 2012, p. 274).

It’s a series of lofty goals, indeed, but attainable for those willing to work to improve those skills.  The second remarkable thing was the note of optimism the authors leave the reader with.  Their parting words, “The work of networked individuals is never quite done – and the satisfaction and uncertainties of net weaving are always available” (p. 302) reminded me of the final scene in the anime classic (and personal favorite), Ghost in the Shell, which despite being made almost 20 years ago, was able to portend many of the same themes Rainie and Wellman (2012) described in their work.

So, that’s it for this week, dear reader! What did you take away from the articles and chapters?  What are you thoughts on the privacy, boundary, ethical, and practical implications of bringing Facebook (or any social media platform) into the classroom? For those of you intending (or currently teaching), where does Fb fit in, if at all?  What did you think of the final Networked chapters?  Let me know in the comments section below!

This post references:
Dennen, V. P., & Burner, K. J. (2013a).  Boundaries, privacy, and social media use in higher education: What do students think, want, and do?  Paper presented at the Internet Research 14.0, Denver, CO.

Dennen, V. P., & Burner, K. J. (2013b). Friending and footprints: Privacy and ethical issues of Facebook use in higher education.  In T. Bastiaens & G. Marks (Eds.), Proceedings of the World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education (ELEARN) (pp. 642-648). Las Vegas, NV: AACE.

Dennen, V. P., & Burner, K. J. (2014). Facebook “friends”, and the higher education classroom: Student preferences and attitudes.  In Internet Research 15.0.  Association of Internet Researchers.

Rainie, L., & Wellman, R. (2012). Networked: The new social operating system.  Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Top Image Credit: Flickr user FACEBOOK(LET) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/goiabarea/)