Facebook Groups and TPACK: Strange Bedfellows?....Perhaps Not | W10 Q1 | Forum

As director of Educational Program Design at Online High School I propose the use of Facebook groups in all high school courses as a supplement to the existing learning management system and academic content. These Facebook groups will be used to both foster student-student and student-teacher interactions in a safe and professional environment, and also as a place for students and teachers to share resources and post content. The use of Facebook in this proposal most closely resembles Manca and Ranieri’s (2016) conception of the “informal use of Facebook in a formal settings”. The Facebook group will provide a space which complements the formal learning management system environment.

A study by Asterhan and Rosenberg (2015) found that teachers used Facebook to connect with their students in both social and academic ways, and that teachers found value in pursuing a Facebook relationship with students. In this study teachers used Facebook to organize school activities, got to know their students on a more personal level, and extended learning to contexts outside of school. One concern highlighted in the article was the possibility of appropriate interactions between students and teachers. To address this concern teachers will be required to create a professional Facebook profile used only for school purposes.

In order for this proposal to be successfully implemented instructors will need to pursue technological competence on Facebook, and integrate that knowledge with the application of sound pedagogical principles and deep understanding of content. Indeed, Blonder and Rap (2017) speak to these teacher characteristics when they invoke TPACK to investigate high school Chemistry teachers’ use of Facebook, highlighting the important relationships between technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge. Teachers must have the ability to use technology to implement effective pedagogical techniques in a social network setting for the use of these tools to be effective. Simply establishing a class Facebook group is not enough, the teacher must use the Facebook group in ways which meaningfully enhance learning.