To Friend or Not to Friend? An Exploration of Facebook for Higher Education Teaching and Learning

• In Event: Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: Collaborative Tools for Teaching and Learning

Abstract

For university students, social networking sites have become a ubiquitous part of their lives. Accordingly, post-secondary institutions have started to consider the role that social networking sites can play in pedagogy. Beginning in 2007, we have collected classroom-based data from both graduate and undergraduate courses at a major Canadian comprehensive university to examine pedagogical implications of adapting Facebook for learning in blended (both in-class and online) courses. This research study asks: What is gained pedagogically through the use of Facebook in higher education courses? What are the pedagogical challenges and opportunities encountered, and how might these be better addressed? Results indicate an employment of Facebook works as an agent of positive change in higher education teaching and learning.

Authors

• Mary Leigh Morbey, York University

• Farhad Mordechai Sabeti, Bnei Akiva Schools of Toronto