Pedagogical Practice
Community Building via Facebook
Research identified the importance of creating a community of learners in educational environments a few decades ago and defined the term “sense of community” in a variety of ways (i.e. McMillan & Chavis, 1986): mutual interdependence among members, connectedness, trust, interactivity and shared expectations and goals. Psychologists have argued that these positive characteristics create an intrinsically rewarding reason to continue participation in such a group (Kuo, 2003; Whitworth & De Moor, 2003). Recent investigations have pointed out that Facebook can have a positive effect on the student-to-student
4
and student-to-teacher relationship (Mazer et al, 2007). Mazer and his colleagues noted that by accessing a social networking website, students may see similarities with peers and instructor‟s personal interest which can lead to more comfortable communication and learning outcomes. O‟Sullivan and his colleagues (2004) discovered that students who have access to teacher websites containing self-disclosed information reported high levels of motivation and demonstrated a boost in affective learning. In addition, the results of the same study suggested that students appeared to develop positive attitudes towards the teacher and the course. These findings pointed out that a Social Network Community (SNC) can be an asset in building a community of learners.
What‟s more, students and educators do not simply strengthen their relationship in a community similar to the one envisioned by McMilan & Chavis, but they also develop virtual communities which are not limited to linking people to people they already know. Facebook offers a plethora of opportunities for learners to connect on different levels. Researchers have argued that belonging to virtual communities can amplify involvement within people‟s face-to-face communities (Wellman, Haase, Witte, & Hampton, 2001), thus providing empirical evidence of the positive social effects of virtual community participation and highlighting its practical importance in educational environments.
Certain Facebook applications have been specifically designed to build bonds between users that share a common interest or activity. As mentioned in the previous section, users can join Groups that already exist or easily create a new ones based on their interests. Therefore, it is extremely simple for an educator to create a Group associated with a particular course. This application offers choices in terms of confidentiality settings that must be seriously considered by any instructor. By a click of a button, Groups can become private and even secret. Consequently, access to a Group can be limited to Facebook members that have been exclusively invited by the course instructor. By tightening the privacy settings of a Group, educators can maintain a certain intimacy typically linked to other educational tools like Blackboard or WebCT, that can only be accessed by registered students. Once a Facebook member is part of a Group, a variety of options are possible for sharing views, ideas, and topics, and engaging in virtual cyber discussions. Again, the tools that keep them connected socially keep them connected academically via email notifications of Group postings of any type (wall postings, audio and video files, event invitations, etc.). In addition, any Group member has the ability to contact other classmates in a variety of ways through the Group application, or in a more conventional manner by using the Message application (if classmates have previously added by choice each other as Friends) to write on their wall or to send a private email.
As Prensky (2006) mentioned, students are fully engaged in 21st century technology, therefore, it is reasonable to assume that they will rapidly take advantage of such opportunities to collaborate and develop a mutual interdependence if they have not yet done so. Instructors need to capitalize on the fact that Facebook is already an integral part of many students‟ e-routine. Consequently, if educators decide to provide guidance to the students to use such a site it will be an invaluable asset to their educational and social experience. Recognition of the academic possibilities that a SNC offers is important for faculty and students alike. Students must be aware of the autonomous learning potential and the flexibility of time and place that websites offer and add to their e-routine and learning experience. Garrison et al (2004) noted that learners must accept the technology they are dealing with, recognize the potential in these modalities, and understand the nature and amount of communication with instructors and peers that these networks make possible. For Facebook to become a valuable and constructive tool in language classrooms, students have to make similar realizations. Promoting a community of learners is extremely useful as it often positively impacts affective learning and students‟ motivation which, according to Gass and Selinker (2008), is a strong predictor of success in language classes. However, this SNC can also impact important aspects of second language development itself. The following sections suggest several approaches to address the issue of pragmatic competence that is often lacking in second language learners by using the group application in various ways
