This is a brief overview of my PhD Research which is looking into what Facebook can teach us about learning

1. “Call me Craig. Some years ago Craig Blewett
– never mind how long
precisely – I thought I would “Facebook Learning Space: The
set sail upon the sea of Final Frontier?”
knowledge in search of a place
where the answer to a
troubling question may be
found. This is my journey, so
far.” (Moby Dick, alt.)

2. WHY
“More and more instructors are beginning to abandon
traditional approaches to instruction…for cutting-edge
strategies, which allow students to construct their own
learning.” (Heider, 2009)
“…yet studies of diverse learners’ use of new media
cast doubt on the speed and extent of change.”
(Warschauer, 2007)
“One of the most pertinent questions for today’s
educational climate is that of how learning and literacy are
fostered (or hampered) by the use of digital, electronic
media.” (Duncan, 2010)
“Few studies explore the link between Social
Network System use and education.”
(Greenhow, 2009)

3. WHY
“…guard against “technopositivism” where unsubstantiated
emphasis is placed on the technology rather than its
pedagogical benefits.” (Rambe&Ng’ambi, 2011)
“Facebook and education should be kept
strictly separate.” (Madge et al, 2009)

4. WHY
THE UNANSWERED QUESTION: “What kinds of pedagogy
are appropriate to using this technology and, more
fundamentally, how does this technology change the
epistemologies?” (Noss, 1999)

5. Research Question: What does
students’ use and the affordances of Student design and use of a Purpose: To explore student learning
within a Facebook Learning Space
a Facebook Learning Space reveal
about pedagogy?
Facebook Learning Space
Paradigm: Critical Questions Theoretical RM: Critical Analysis: Critical
Area Critical Framework: Design Discourse Analysis
Realism Affinity Spaces Ethnography
FB Act.: SS Inter: R/Journ:
(observe) (actions)
Empirical Actual
11D 6Q 11D
CQ1: What are the Design/Content
CDE Design/Content
affordances of a FLS? Organisation 3,4,5,6,7 1,2,4,6 3,4,5,6,7
1
Organisation
LS
CDE2
Transitive epistemological dimension
Use/Interactional 1,2,3,4,8, 1,2,3,4,8,
e
CQ2: How do students use Use/Interactional 3,4,5,6
Organisation CDE3 Organisation 9,10,11 9,10,11
a FLS?
philosophical dimension
-----------------------------------------
Gee’s 36 Learning CDE4 FLS Learning Principles
Principles
Analysis
Guided
(mechanisms)
CQ3: Why do students use
Real
a FLS in the way they do?
Learning Guided Learning
CDE5
Theories Analysis Theories
x
Intransitive
ontological
dimension
learning
LEARNING LEARNING
methodological dimension

6. The Journey into FLS