My ePic faiL: facebook and the classroom

Chapter Three

He said, “There are many interesting possibilities and applications for classrooms when it comes to utilizing networks to gather information.  Not only do teachers need to recognize the importance of strong and weak ties in online information, as well as in a broader epistemological sense, the students need to adapt this type of schema or technique as well.”

I see a trend in education, at least at the college level, of moving to a digital environment. If the course material is not delivered entirely digitally, the instructor may be supplimenting the course work through D2L, wiki, facebook, or email submissions of assignments, or any combination of these tools. Chapter three of her book Blogging, explores the issue of weak ties and colliding social spheres which, when applied to an educational arena, may be the main reasons why a social networking sight might not be a great tool for the classroom.

This was my attempt at creating a social networking sight to suppliment my College Writing course (Fall 08). My idea, or hope, was to give my students a place to connect outside of class. In my supposed world, students would be able to post requests for missed notes or assignments, or discuss assignments – maybe finding answers to questions from their classmates. If you can access the facebook group I created, you will see only six of my twenty-five students joined the group. I was the only one to post anything. Some of the comments that were on the wall (all mine) have been lost due to changes in how facebook displays group wall posts.

Why was my facebook group an ePic faiL?

♦Colliding social spheres: I believe this was one of the biggest factors. Joining this group would give all of my students access to each others’ facebook profiles, including me. I think that most of my students were reluctant to open that door. They did not want their professor and their classmates to have access to the testimonial posts on their facebook wall. Nor did they want me (or any of their classmates) to have access to their photos (depicting their wild and crazy weekend, thus revealing the true reason their homework is incomplete ).

♦My bad: I did not make joining the facebook group a required part of class. Membership was voluntary and I did not require posts or feedback. This mistake only further weakened the weak ties people tend to create through facebook. Were I to revive this idea today, I would build assignments around this tool, requiring posts and particpation.

♦Hammer vs. Pliers: I was trying to use the wrong tool. Facebook does tend to “appeal to our instinct for collecting” (Blogging, 72). When you think about how people interact, or don’t, with collections, it is plain to see why facebook would not necessarily be the right tool to suppliment student interaction. Collections tend to be looked at, not played with, not used. People tend to observe collections from a distance. They don’t want their collections to observe back. Having been on facebook for a couple of years now, I see what I didn’t see then, facebook groups are a collection, not a connection. (Do you agree?)

Tony, I agree with you; teachers must recognize the importance of strong and weak ties in the online networks available to them. It is the only way a teacher is going to make the right choice about which tool to use to suppliment the education they are giving.

A Visit Down Memory Lane

Chapter One:

Reading this chapter revived some fond memories of my first-ever exposure to a weblog. As an undergrad, I took this new class in January of 2004. Nobody knew what I was talking about when I said I was taking a blogging class. Honestly, I didn’t either.

When I was asked what a blog was, I was hard-pressed to define it. I didn’t know for sure. Now reading this chapter in “blogging” by Jill Walker Rettberg, I see that a reasonable definition for a blog has emerged. I am particularly fond of the idea that a blog is a medium. As a writer, it makes the most sense to think of a blog as a medium. Similar to how a visual artist (are bloggers visual artists? a question for a later post) uses acrylics, pastels, watercolors, etc. to create representations of the same still-life, so too, is a blog a medium by which a writer can create a representation of life through words. Maybe the writer would also use chalk to write a poem on sidewalk to capture that same moment in life, thus changing the medium and the genre.

My first attempt at blogging was fun and stressful at the same time. I struggled with such self-doubt. What should I say? What should I leave out? Who cares? I know it is important to invest any piece with your own personality. Being willing to expose your figurative underbelly, in writing, always makes a piece more interesting. But it is easier said than done to be that vulnerable, and even harder when that vulnerability can be viewed by anyone, anywhere, any time, including your ex-husband, frienemies, and grandmother. But I do agree with the triad: personality, brevity, and frequency. These three components are essential in creating a good blog.

Hi, my name is Tammi…

and I have a problem.

Welcome, Tammi!

I went to my first Weight Watchers meeting tonight.

I did not go quietly. I was complaining and whining the whole way. I was tired after work, which didn’t help me deal with my fear of the unknown. I was afraid I would be told I had to drink soy milk and eat fake cheese. I was afraid I would be confronted with judgemental stares. But most of all, I was afraid I would fail. Fail? you ask. How can you fail before you even try? I don’t know. But fear does that to you, makes you afraid of unreal things. So, I was afraid of letting my friend down (WW was her idea), I was afraid I would have to say good-bye forever to chocolate, and I was afraid I would fail myself.

But, I actually felt empowered after my first meeting. I know I made the right move going there. I am dealing with an addiction to food. I use food for more than sustaining my life, and I know it. I’ve always known it. In the past, I have had short-lived periods of success dealing with my addiction. One thing that I didn’t have during those periods of success was a meeting. After going to this Weight Watchers meeting I realized there are some similarities to an AA meeting, and rightly so, for me. So, maybe WW is my equivalent to AA. Maybe this time will be a life-long success.

The first thing I learned, to my relief, is that WW celebrates little goals first. When you are 90 lbs overweight, the task of losing all of that weight can seem insurmountable; it is very discouraging. But, the WW program does not look at the elephant in the room. Rather, it focuses on the first bite. For me, the first bite was going to the meeting. So I celebrate that I took a step in the right direction. My next goal is 5% of my body weight. I think I can do this.

Next, I learned about the points system. This was another huge relief. I have never been good at simultaneously counting calories, tracking fat grams, and journaling every bite I take. In any other area of my life, I am a World Class Multi-tasker, but put me on a diet and I develop dyslexia, amnesia, and writer’s block all at once. (Not to mention and insatiable hunger for chocolate!) But this point system is kind of easy. I write down the food I eat, I look up the assigned point value (I’m pretty sure I’ll quickly memorize some frequently consumed point values) and subtract it from my daily allowance – kind of like an expense account. I only deal with simple math. I think I can do this.

And, the best part, was learning that I have bonus points, just in case I get caught in a situation where eating right isn’t possible. The bonus points allow me to blow it once in a while. (That’s why I don’t have to say good-bye to chocolate!) Plus, I can earn points by walking my dog around the block. I think I can do  this.

Hi, my name is Tammi, and I don’t think I’m going to have a problem doing this.

Weighing In

So, I’m fat…

again…

I never thought I’d be here again, but I am; overweight and overtired. I am really good at denial when it suits my addiction. I keep telling myself my weight gain isn’t so bad. But each time I see a photo of myself I flinch at the reality. So I avoid pictures, and sliding glass doors on sunny days. I try to hide. I love winter the best because I can hide in layers: long coats, pants, sweaters, jackets. But it is getting harder to hide from all the facebook uploads by friends. And, anyway, hiding doesn’t really suit my personality, or my goals.

I am not going to lie to you by saying I don’t know how this happened. I know exactly how it happened.

It started with a bad break-up five years ago; it takes a long time to gain this much extra weight. At first, I ate because I was lonely; not lonely for him, just lonely. Next, I ate because I was lonely and stressed. Then I ate because I was lonely, stressed, and resigned. Mostly, I drank a lot of wine, but there was Double Fudge Brownie ice cream involved too. I remember pizza, lots of pizza… and Cheetohs. Oh, and Red Vines.

It’s easy to think that gaining weight doesn’t matter, that real friends will love you no matter what. And, while this is very true, my real friends do love me unconditionally, being overweight makes it hard to love myself. I feel an overwhelming sense of letting myself down. I have been both thin and healthy; and overweight and overtired. I know I am missing out on life because I don’t feel confident to have adventures. I know, because when I was thin and healthy I had a lot of adventures. I had confidence in myself. I trusted myself. I want to know how I went from trusting myself, taking care of myself, to trusting in Papa Murphy’s Pizza and chocolate chip cookies instead. I want to know, because I don’t want to make this mistake ever

…again.