Colleagues,
In the Diversity and Literacy Community of Practice, a discussion has been taking place about using Facebook for online learning with adult students. https://community.lincs.ed.gov/discussion/facebook-classroom
As part of that discussion I have suggested that, if there is enough interest, it might be useful to adult basic skills (including ELL) teachers or tutors to have an online discussion group whose purpose would be to explore and learn about good ways to use Facebook for private adult learning pages for adult basic skills students. The group would be for those who already use Facebook in this way, as well as for those who want to learn how to use Facebook to create an online learning presence for their students. The rationale is that many adult learners already are comfortable using Facebook for communication with family and friends so using it for learning isn't a big stretch. Some adult educators have already found it useful for online instruction.
If you are interested in joining a practitioner-focused Facebook for Adult Basic Skills Teaching and Learning group, please reply to this post or email me.
David J. Rosen
djrosen123@gmail.com
Comments
Colleagues,
Seven adult educators so far have expressed interest in joining an online discussion group for adult educators who use, or want to use, Facebook for learning with their students, or possibly also for professional development with adult education teachers.
If you are interested in being a member of this group, now is the time to let me know. Please reply here or send me an email.
David J. Rosen
Moderator, Technology and Learning CoP
djrosen123@gmail.com
Hello David-- I would be very interested in joining your group if it takes off. I have been trying to incorporate more technology into my teaching/tutoring, not only because students like to feel like we are in the 21st century, but also because it encourages them to work on English more often and longer. I suggest Duolingo for my Spanish speakers. It has been very helpful in that they keep working on the English and it goes back and forth from English to Spanish and vice versa in all four skills. Also, they use it on their phones rather than a computer or tablet, which they find convenient. It has a choice of topics to practice, but seems really aimed at tourist language, not so much at every day English. But at least the students are willing to work on it 15 minutes or more a day. I also have enjoyed using newsinlevels.com as a supplemental reading activity. Of course there are lots of other things to use, and I am really hoping to learn how to use FB more productively than just going into the blackhole that it is.....
I look forward to being part of this group if it takes off. Robin Lovrien,
Hi Robin,
Glad you are interested. You are the 13th person to contact me, so it looks like this is a go. The focus of the group will be on how to use free, private Facebook pages for building an online learning presence with adult learners, and possibly also with adult education teachers. We will explore the features that enable this, and we will also discuss what other education features we wish Facebook might add. One of the members of the group is especially interested in this question and in sharing our recommendations with Facebook. We may also look at how using Facebook for education purposes compares with using other free online platforms such as Schoology, Edmodo and others.
It isn't clear yet whether we will apply to be a LINCS micro-group, create our own Facebook page, or use another way to host our online discussions. I will be in touch soon using your LINCS email address, or if you prefer I reach you using another email address, please email it to me.
Others -- there is still time to join this online group. Reply to this message or email me if you are interested.
David J. Rosen
djrosen123@gmail.com
Colleagues,
16 people have expressed interested in joining this group, some of whom already use Facebook for education purposes with adult learners, and others who plan to. Those who are interested but have not contacted me yet should do so now.
David J. Rosen
djrosen123@gmail.com
David, using Facebook has a lot of advantages, and can be easily set-up. People only need to request membership to the page and need not log in each time. Discussions can more easily be held than here, actually, because a thread on a single topic can be maintained without posts on other issues piling on. Actually, Groups can be set up on different topics or issues, such as How to use ...such and such. Facebook has the added advantage of chat - text, audio or video, and audio and text, audio and video files can be attached. And it would be much easier, in my opinion, to recruit new members and to generate discussions.
Paul
Hi David,
I'd like to join this group.
Thanks,
Kathy Tracey