why the sharer thought it was relevant, interesting or useful. An example is given in Figure 2 below.
Figure 2: ES2002 student posting a relevant article link
This post illustrates the appropriate use of comments by a student about a link that was both useful and on topic. It also shows that the lecturer was “present” and “engaged” because he (“You”) “liked” the post and gave an encouraging comment about it. It is also a good example of Vygotsky’s (1978) social development theory, which advocates learning contexts in which students are active in their own learning. To achieve this, Vygotsky advises that the traditional roles of the instructor and student are altered to enable the instructor to collaborate with students in order to facilitate the construction of meaning.
Figure 3: A former ES2002 student posting a comment
Figure 3 is a good example of a student sharing experience using the class Facebook page. Here, the student who posted is a former one, having joined the Facebook page of his own accord, and in this post he shared his experience using Prezi, an alternative presentation software application. It is worth noting the time stamps on the posts in Figure 2 and Figure 3: both were out of class in the late evening. An analysis of the time stamps of all 40 student posts for one semester in ES2002 finds that 70% were made in the evening or early morning and the remaining 30% were made during the day but outside of class times.
Figure 4 below is an example of an instructor post and a follow up student comment that again illustrates Vygotsky’s social development theory in action. The post is of a link to a news article about inappropriate business communication. A student commented on the article and also contributed further by posting a link to the initial story mentioned in the article.
Figure 4: ES2002 instructor posting a relevant article link
This post is also an example of what Siemens (2011) refers to as a learner “connecting specialized nodes or information sources.” The instructor engaged the students with news realia from the local Singapore media, and the student processed the initial input then referenced it to the information source, adding depth and understanding to the discussion. The entire Facebook interaction was eventually transferred to the classroom when clarifying issues in the initial post was required. It is also worthwhile noting that this post generated 618 “impressions” (how many times a post has appeared on Facebook users’ feeds and on their page itself). This means that the post appeared on average 15 times for each of the 39 students in the course. This shows a high level of engagement by busy students on a (non-compulsory) social media platform being accessed outside of class time. It is clear that using Facebook with ES2002 increased student motivation and investment in their learning as well as facilitated informal learning by extending the classroom into their digital lives.
The use of Facebook in ES2007S
As was the case in ES2002, the main purpose of using Facebook in ES2007S was explained to students as being a way for them to share resources and interact with one another. A secondary, unspoken objective was for the instructor to provide yet another means of motivating students to be engaged with various communication topics related to the course content. Directions for the use of Facebook, similar to ES2002, specified that any links that were posted on the wall should be accompanied by a comment of two or three sentences about why the sharer thought the linked content was relevant, interesting or useful. Students were told that they should only indicate a “like” if indeed they had read a linked article or viewed a linked video. As with ES2002, the Facebook wall proved to be a well-used platform for extending classroom discussions beyond class. See the screenshots in the figures below for examples:
Figure 5: ES2007S student posting a relevant article link
In Figure 5, the student posted a link to an article that was relevant to one of the main content segments of ES2007S, the posit