Exploring Pre-service Teachers’ Awareness on Using Social Networking Sites: Are they ready for digital citizenship?
Undergraduate students have been widely-adopted Social Networking Sites (SNSs) such as Facebook. Some issues were discussed among users concerning the users’ netiquette. For users like pre-service teachers who may or may not use SNSs for their communication tools in near future, however, there is a need for teacher education institutes to prepare their digital citizenship. This study examined three hundred and seventy seven pre-service teachers of the awareness of SNSs communication behaviors. Quantitative data indicated that the number of network friends was the most significant factors effects to SNSs communication behaviors and awareness. Qualitative data from the open-ended question revealed the need to revise the ED-TECH course for pre-service teachers to have more deep understanding on digital citizenship.
Facework on Facebook as a new literacy practice
This paper focuses on 25 UK teenagers' language and literacy practices on Facebook; it draws on data from interviews as well as from Facebook 'walls'. To explore whether Facebook provides opportunities for new literacy practices through text-making, the research considers how teenagers use the site to present themselves and 'do friendship'. Continuities of the teenagers' interactions were traced across the domains of school, home and Facebook and were found to reflect both 'traditional' and new ways of self presenting and of 'doing friendship'.
Introduction and experience with the primary mail services based on their names for students
Kyushu University provided mail service based on student IDs such as "1AB10123X" to the university students for many years. Using this model, we had problems communicating with the students who graduated from the University and enrolled in the graduate school. The students received new mail addresses based on their new student IDs such as "2AB12789Y". Faculty members were forced to change the student mail addresses in the mailing lists and in their mail client address book. Furthermore, students were forced to notify the e-mail address change to all of their existing contacts. We introduced a new mail system to provide addresses based on the student name, as well as student ID in April 2011. The new naming convention uses the following format: lastname.firstname.999 where 999 is a random number of 3 digits. Students can select some combination patterns of their first and last names for Japanese. We also consider the middle names for foreign students. In the system implementation, we did not have the formal information of alphabetical names for students. We generated alphabetical names from Japanese Katakana names. It is not easy for us to get the appropriate name in this manner. We implemented a confirmation stage of the alphabetical name at first use, and then students can select their mail addresses for their convenience. We paid much attention to the user interface in the system. Since April 2011, the number of users who use the mail address based on their own name has been increasing gradually. This paper will detail the usage status of the new system.