11.5 Thing Five

All three of my children have been on Facebook for years and I have become use to them refering to their use of facebook. I have seen pictures they have uploaded to their sites as well as pictures their friends have uploaded. My daughter has been able to maintain friendships with friends from high school because Facebook makes it so easy for them to stay in contact with each other. While viewing the different links on Twitter I have seen that Twitter is a little more basic than facebook. Users can basically post very short notes that can let followers know status updates.
Both sites are useful resources for students in and outside of the classroom. Using Facebook, a teacher/instructor could create a group for a specific class and have all their students join. Within a group you can post assignments, calanders, video lectures, and there is a discussion board. This could be used by students during class to view instructions and complete assignments. It could be used outside of the classroom as a place for students to resort back to. If they miss class they would be able to complete missed work and view a calander to know about upcoming class events. Also, the discussion board could be used by students and teachers to ask/clairfy questions. Twitter could be used a quick way to update homework, remind students of tests, clairfy study materials, and clairfy questions. It would be a quicker way for students to be able to refer back to a class and get information they need.
Back-channeling in class could be useful for lectures and for answering/clairfying questions. I think back-channeling would be a great tool to use to see if students understand the material. They could use Twitter to update answers to questions or respond to discussions and the teacher would have all the student's responses right there. It would also benefit students who have difficulty speaking infront of a class because they could use back-channeling to inform the teacher of their contribution to the class discussion.