ion search/application process. He also briefly explained the article’s usefulness. What is noteworthy in this post is that it has been “liked” by 13 other students (out of a total of 29 potential ES2007S student commentators from two tutorial groups for the same term) and by the instructor. Seven of these students were the student’s classmates, but six were members of the instructor’s other tutorial group. In fact, the three students who have posted follow-up comments were all from that other group. This demonstrates another appeal of using Facebook: the fact that interactions, or what Adhihari (2011) calls “a conversation,” might be facilitated not just with classmates, but with others – such as those in a parallel tutorial group – who share the same interests and values.
The same trend, with students in one tutorial group crossing cyberspace via the Facebook page to interact with students in another group of the same course, is apparent in the posted video link in Figure 6 as well.
Figure 6: ES2007S student posting a relevant video link
This post, a link to a video dramatizing another course topic, intercultural communication/the act of stereotyping, received “likes” from six students, four from the student’s own tutorial group and two from students in the other group. It also received comments from the instructor as well as from two members of each tutorial group. In one of those comments, the student commentator makes reference to Gladwell’s (2005) book Blink, stating that there was a reference made in the book to the notion of stereotypes and how African Americans were routinely charged more than whites when buying cars. Besides the fact that this student shared information related to the topic under discussion that he remembered from a previous reading experience, he carried the conversation into a direction not discussed in the class itself, but prompted by his classmate’s initial video posting. This again illustrates Siemens’ idea of “connecting specialized nodes or information sources.” Clearly, a value-add of the use of Facebook in ES2007S was that content-relevant topics that had not been discussed thoroughly enough in class – or perhaps not dealt with at all – could be shared within the course community.
To summarize, through the Facebook wall posting process, students were being encouraged first to source for relevant content, and then to share that with coursemates, who could build upon that material in their own manner. Ultimately, through this posting and the commenting process, each student was furthering their knowledge in a socially active manner. Learning in such a way, as Siemens (2004) states, “is no longer an internal, individualistic activity.”
The Facebook platform also gave the instructor an enhanced role to play, one for collaborating out of class in these “conversations” on the student-generated themes. This was in addition to the more conventional instructor role of introducing material for student consideration and connecting that to an academic theory, as demonstrated by the post in Figure 7:
Figure 7: ES2007S instructor posting a relevant article link
Of note in this post is that 13 students – eight from one tutorial group and five from another – ‘liked’ the link, meaning that they had accessed and reviewed the New York Times photo essay. Of those 13, four made comments. What is also noteworthy is that two of the student commentators reflected not on the instructor’s original post or on the photo essay but on the accompanying remark made by a fellow student. Once again, these students are utilizing the Facebook page – though non-compulsory – as a place for an explicit “conversation” with their peers.
A final way that the Facebook page was used in ES2007S was for administrative purposes. At the end of the term, the ES2007S instructor reminded students via the Facebook wall of his earlier request for them to do an online survey regarding their course Facebook experience. Even in this instance, the platform’s value-add became apparent, as evidenced through one of the follow up comments made 