Unlike a lot of FE Colleges using Facebook is not blocked in my college. Why do we do this, well we don’t block social interaction in physical environments, actually we actively encourage it in the FE sectors which cafe and coffee places, dining rooms, student social areas, common rooms, etc…

I had an interesting conversation with students using Facebook in our Library recently which I would like to share with you.

I asked them if they were using Facebook to support their learning (well what I actually asked if they were using Facebook to communicate and collaborate on their assignments). Their answer was quite interesting, not only did they use the Facebook communication tools (the messaging and live chat) to talk about their learning, but they used them (in the Library) so they wouldn’t disturb others in the Library through talking and discussing.

Now we don’t ban talking and discussing in the Library, but we do like to create a quiet learning environment. So the learrners are using online communication tools to support their learning. The fact that the learners want to use the tools in Facebook rather than the tools we provide is not surprising to me, but may be surprising to others. Learners will often choose their own tools over the provided tools from the institution.