Facebook: An Effective Space for Professional Learning?
Article
On October 30, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that his social media platform will no longer allow political advertising [i]. As he noted (in a tweet, of course): “We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought.” Around the same time, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was called in front of Congress to explain why his platform refused to fact check political ads.
One wonders whether Facebook should even be classified as “social media”. Zuckerberg somewhat confirmed this [ii], admitting that his business is not a media company even though they built a platform for people to share content and connect.
These two events serve to differentiate the two social media giants’ larger philosophies about sharing information and connecting others. Twitter has acknowledged some responsibility for online behaviors. Conversely, Facebook seems to wash its hands of most accountability. (Twitter is no angel here; two former employees were charged with spying for Saudi Arabia. [iii])
These current events have led me to question the usefulness of Facebook, and social media in general, for facilitating professional learning. Responsibility for the user experience is secondary to that of the technology itself and, ultimately, making money.
What needs to change? In my experience, developing one’s professional capacity tends to involve three elements:
Structure – Norms and agreements about how professionals conduct themselves
Guidance – A level of expertise available, including relevant content and resources
Leadership – Either an individual or a guiding coalition tasked with supervision
This is relevant to me as a principal with responsibilities in this area. Several of my school’s teachers use Facebook for professional learning. The most common approach seems to be forming and joining groups. They either lead or participate in these online communities. Individuals share resources, reflect on their experiences through posts, and attempt to support one another with comments and direct messaging.
But is it an effective forum for professional learning? My theory is: It depends on the person’s intent and skills in mediating their own online experience. To explore this inquiry, I reflected on my own history of joining, using and leaving Facebook.
Before Facebook: How I Connected with Friends
My communications with the people in my life were in person, over the phone, or through email. While I have been an early adopter of many physical technologies, such as the iPad, I have been more hesitant about software and online platforms. My anxieties about “putting myself out there” outweighed a desire to connect with others online. Part of that is being an introvert and more comfortable with a smaller core of relationships.
So that’s what I remember: Normal, everyday interactions with the people in my close circle along with intermittent phone calls and in-person visits. It feels odd to describe this time before social media as if it were an era I’ll talk to my grandkids about someday. Maybe I will.
During Facebook: Pictures and Video of Our Family
And then we had kids. Many family members lived hours away from us. Why not provide a highlight reel of our lives? Everyone else was. The images and videos were so easy to post and our families seemed to appreciate them.
Until they didn’t. A picture posted here led to someone feeling left out there. It also didn’t help the experience that I treated Facebook like Twitter. For example, I often posted progressive news articles at the height of the 2016 presidential election in-between pictures of my kids trick-or-treating at Halloween.
Maybe most concerning was the fact that my wife and I were no longer downloading photos and creating scrapbooks of our kids growing up. Our memories existed on a platform that had little interest in protecting them.
After Facebook: The Break-Up
People describe it as “leaving Facebook” as if you were breaking up with someone in which you had a long term relationship. For sure there is an emotional connection between our world and the people we connect with online. But this also illuminates a problem with social media as an intermediary for our relationships: where is the line between what’s real and what’s not?
Regarding my life post-Facebook, I have not missed out on much. I have “snuck” back on to engage in a few groups, but I have avoided friending anyone. I’ve also used Facebook to share out blog posts and articles. Even with intent, what I’ve learned has been incidental at best, like casting a fishing net out to sea at random.
But this is my perspective. Others cannot imagine a world without Facebook. What might be the difference? Facebook doesn’t come with the necessary elements of successful professional learning: structure, guidance, and leadership. My interaction in this space was unpredictable and not always pleasant. No one knew the rules, other than to try and not offend anyone.
Reflecting on my experience, I suggest the following for making the most out of social media for professional learning.
Join or create groups with structure: That means there are norms for behaviors, collective commitments people agree to prior to joining, and multiple ways of engaging in learning. One of the better Facebook groups I have found is for the Best Self Planner. They have the previously described parameters along with video tutorials (“units”) for how to use their productivity tools. Members can look up topics through tagged posts.
Provide and facilitate guidance: While people should be able to post at will, challenges and events are also provided. Chats are facilitated to focus participants around topics of interest to the group. In the Best Self Planner community, the moderators have a Bi-Weekly Accountability Challenge, where members post pictures of their completed schedules. People are supported because there’s clarity about the purpose of the group.
Expect or assume leadership: Without some type of monitoring system, seemingly innocuous posts can quickly become a comment war because someone was offended. Designated leaders remind people about community norms and enforce them if necessary. Leaders also encourage diverse thinking. For example, the Best Self Planner group does not dissuade members from discussing related products. While their goal is to promote their tool, the larger purpose is supporting people to feel and be successful.
Until a better social media technology comes along that considers these design aspects for community and learning, we are stuck with what we have. Individuals have tried to create online spaces that adopt these elements. But as I have heard many times, “everyone is on Facebook”. Zuckerberg has little interest in making it better, so it falls on us to do so.
Endnotes
[i] Zarrell, Matt, and Kendall Karson. “Twitter CEO Announces No More Political Ads on Platform; Zuckerberg, Trump Camps Respond.” ABC News, 30 Oct. 2019, abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/twitter-ceo-jack-dorsey-announces-political-ads-platform/story?id=66644471.
[ii] Castillo, Michelle. “Zuckerberg Tells Congress Facebook Is Not a Media Company: 'I Consider Us to Be a Technology Company'.” CNBC, 11 Apr. 2018, www.cnbc.com/2018/04/11/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-is-a-technology-company-not-media-company.html.
[iii] Rezaian, Jason. “Opinion | Can Twitter Get Back on the Right Side of History?” The Washington Post, 7 Nov. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/11/07/can-twitter-get-back-right-side-history/.