Twitter or Facebook: which do you prefer?
I have not really got on with Facebook ever since I first joined it, which is a bit puzzling as millions of people love it. With Twitter, however, I took to it immediately and I much prefer it to Facebook.
Does anyone have a strong preference for one over the other? It would be great to share your views here!
Hi Sue
Great to see you here! It's interesting to note that you feel the same as me regarding FB. I have to admit, that maybe I haven't actually tried hard to make it work for me, either. FB seems to be a pretty powerful tool for promoting web events and there is a lot in its favour, I guess. I feel though, that FB can't compete with Twitter for what I learn about my chosen field, which is EFL.
Twitter, definitely, at least as far as PLN's go. I find Facebook too tied in with friends, family, and purely social chit-chat to be of much use as a component of a PLN; besides that it's far easier to "follow" people; point towards interesting comments; create groups; and track hashtags on Twitter. The blue bird gets my vote.
Twitter for me for the same reasons as people have already listed though Facebook does win out when it comes to being able to play scrabble :-)
I have to agree with everyone too. Twitter wins hands down for me. Why? It's all about the conversation. Facebook, on the other hand, is so jam-packed full of apps and groups etc that it's started to become tiresome. I do still use it though, but mainly to talk to people who aren't on Twitter!
I also agree. Twitter is an endless resource of ideas, articles, news. Essential for a PLN.
I must also confess I have never really "used" FB. Haven't figured out how to keep my personal and professional identities apart (esp. when it comes to students). Any tips?
Hi Mariel
Regarding your question on how to keep personal and professional identities apart on FB, especiually with students, I wonder if it is possible to have 2 accounts on FB or even on Twitter? Maybe someone with more knowledge could offer advice on this topic.
I agree with Graham about all the apps and group invites on FB. I also feel that FB tries to control who I should befriend( by always suggesting who I might like to befriend) and I don't like that, to tell you the truth.
Could anyone write up a few really good ideas on how FB could be used to great effect? I feel that I personally seem to have some doubts only because I'm not really using it properly! I'd be interested in learning more.
I know a teacher at the BC here in Delhi who has 2 FB accounts - personal and for students. works for him.
ideas for using FB with learners? set up a FB group for your class. connect with other FB class groups worldwide. endless possibilities...
Hi Stephen
Thanks for the tips. The class group connections sounds like a great idea. I wonder if you can have 2 accounts with FB with the same email, or do you need to have 2 separate email accounts. Just curious!
I'm experimenting with using FB pages for students and not making my students friends. At present very few of my students have become members as all the content coming to the pages comes from the same RSS feeds that they get from their groups on Edmodo.
Next year I am toying with the idea of only providing the RSS feeds for them through FB, although I am really in favour of offering multiple ways of getting material as long as it doesn't over-burden me with work.
I have set up Twitter accounts for students at three different levels to follow where they should get the same material, but an upgrade of Edmodo has put paid to that for the moment as feeds in and out are not working right now.
I don't know what the advantages and disadvantages of groups v. pages are as I have only tried pages, but would like to hear from anyone who has actually tried both (not just read about them!)
If you're interested in the the FB pages http://chrisfry.pangea.org/
and if you're interested in the Twitter accounts:
http://twitter.com/EFLpre_intermed
http://twitter.com/EFLintermediate
http://twitter.com/EFLAdvanced
Hi,
Well I guess it's up to me to disagree.
FaceBook is something I want no part of - I have always assumed it was set up by the FBI.
I do Tweet, but really in a rather half-hearted fashion. I don't like it very much and I don't think I have got much from it. Call me an old-fashioned, but I see absolutely no merit in reducing communication to 140 character sound-bites.
I guess I am missing something, since so many people seem to think it is wonderful, but after a couple of years I still don't get it. Can someone explain the attraction - preferably in more than 140 characters.
Pete
@ Pete MacKichan
"Call me an old-fashioned, but I see absolutely no merit in reducing communication to 140 character sound-bites... Can someone explain the attraction - preferably in more than 140 characters".
Monica Rankin's 'Twitter Experiment' www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WPVWDkF7U8
Hi Stephen,
Well, you can still call me old fashioned :-)
In the video, the problem appears to be that a US university runs history classes that are so large that discussion is difficult/impossible. Were those classes always so large? Did it matter that there was limited opportunity for discussion? If the answer to both is yes, why was nothing done to change the situation?
There is something I find a little sad about the fact that teachers are forced to resort to such measures in order to make education work. In the video the teacher makes the point that 140 characters does limit discussion; I'm not sure how easy it would be to give a definition of historical materialism in a tweet. However, I would argue that the character limit also encourages an atomised view of knowledge, with ideas being bundled into bite-sized chunks, rather than facilitating synthesis and encouraging students to draw links between theories, situations, etc.
Pete
Hello
Maybe I am missing something, but I see Facebook and Twitter as having 2 very different functions and being totally different modes of communication.
It would never have occurred to me to compare them!
Heather
Hi Heather
What they both have in common is the ability for users to update their status in real time. When status updates were introduced into the early version of FB and collected in a single home page for every user, the application exploded, as suddenly you didn't have to visit all your friends' pages to see what they were writing. it was a turbo network effect. Twitter is based entirely on this principle.
My vote goes for the blue bird as well. Tweets gets so fast and you feel connected to people everywhere, from far away in spite of the distance...You can learn in a matter of seconds what people think about certain issues related to ELT (kalinagoenglish; thornburyscott; dudeneyge )...The sea of info/tools shared by people is amazing (e.g. NikPeachey;SeanBanville, carldowse, russel1955; Larryferlazo)...You can learn about people's sites or blogs to get inspiration for your own lessons or use and/or adapt those lessons (phrasemix;ij64; grahamstanley; TheconsultantsE)...The willingness of people to help is so great (e.g. harrisonmike; sethdickens)...You can voice your thoughts or help voice someone else's thoughts on very delicate issues (e.g. political and social issues)(yoanisanchez)...You name it...This is priceless.
Some claim FB is for keeping in touch with those you already know & twitter for finding those you want to get to know...
Also, I think users tend to choose friends on the basis of who they are, whereas with Twitter the focus is on what they write. Might be why Twitter networks are generally of better quality and used by professional communities, while FB remains more of a social network.
Interesting discussion. As most of you, I associate Twitter with professional networks and FB with social ones, although neither of them exclusively so.
Now, what really amazes me is how unbelievably popular FB has become in my country (Argentina) Around here, everybody seems to have their FB. At some point, I was receiving so many invitations from my students that I decided to take advantage of this and created a group for them so that they could practise their English in an environment they feel comfortable with.
I opted for a group rather than a page because I had the impression (please correct me if I'm wrong) it would be safer for my students this way. You can make groups closed and generally have more control over who joins.
Hi Mary,
I teach adults so I am less worried about safety (I'm assuming you teach younger students?) or are you worried about safety for adults, too?
However, my choice of Edmodo for class social networking is because it is a closed community, although, as the teacher, you can make any post public.
How much success have you had at getting your students to communicate with each other using the FB groups you have created? I have had no real success at achieving this on either Edmodo (between students in one class) or on my FB pages with between 35 and 94 'fans'.
Is Twitter any better for encouraging communication between students? Has anyone got experience of this?
Hi Chris,
First of all, congratulations on the incredible job you've done on your pages. As Mariel says, you've taken FB use to another level.
About your question, I have students of different levels and ages, with even preteens having FB. That's why I need to be particularly careful with privacy issues. Honestly, I wouldn't have considered starting a group on FB if it weren't because THERE is where most students are. In my experience, working with blogs, wikis and Yahoo Groups implies a lot of coaxing and training. With FB, most of the motivation work is done for you: they do want to be there.
I started the group a couple of months ago, and mainly as a meeting point for ex students. But now that we have started the school year, the current students themselves suggested using the group to discuss the songs they want to see in their video class (we normally use a Yahoo Group for that) and they are starting to interact.
I must confess I haven't tried Edmodo, which I've heard is great for class networking, or Twitter with my students. But reading this thread is giving me some ideas :-)
Thanks for the suggestion to create different FB a ccounts for personal and teacher "personas". After reading http://newmatilda.com/2008/09/25/diary-facebook-victim , let me be a little sceptic.
I have been browsing the page for advanced learners by chris_fry_barcelona and I must confess I'm seriously impressed. It adds a new dimension to FB, a far cry from the chit-chat it's usually associated with. I do wonder, though, whether a similar environment could not be created in a wiki or in a Ning platform. Mary Di Monaco mentions the use of closed groups instead: I would love to see that in motion. You may have a convert here, guys, at least in terms of teacher-student interaction.
As for professional development, I second MiguelMendoza. The "blue bird" gives you instant access to materials, research and news that would otherwise pass unnoticed in the endless ocean of the web.
Julian and stephen jenner make very interesting points as regards the different scope of both networks,
I think you may enjoy this slidecast on the topic http://www.slideshare.net/justinbasini/the-different-roles-of-social-net.... It shares elements with hmbaba's remark.
For suggestions to use FB you may want to check out http://www.onlinecollege.org/2009/10/20/100-ways-you-should-be-using-fac...
Hi Mariel!
I've just seen Justin Basini's presentation on social networks and found it quite interesting. Thanks for sharing!
About the FB group I started, you're most welcome to visit it here:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=199594903638
I'm not sure how much you'll be able to see since it is closed - not that there's so much to see "yet" (I'm optimistic though)
Thank you, Mary.
I didn't see much (next to nothing, in fact), which is quite comforting since we were discussing the privacy of such pages!
Hi all
Thanks for all the great tips, links and fab discussions on this topic so far. I have just seen an article via Jane Hart's blog which deals exclusively with her Reading List links regarding FaceBook.
http://c4lpt.co.uk/ReadingLists/facebook.html
This thread is fast developing into a great teaching/learning site about these 2 networks. It's certainly making me reflect on my current attitude towards FB.
Janet
Just read this great post on "Why Twitter is so powerful". Very interesting read. What do you all think? http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2010/04/why-twitter-is-so-powerful.html
For me it is both, but for different purposes. I use Twitter professionally to spread information and Facebook for personal stuff with friends. Do my best to keep the two seperate, but work does try to push in to facebook a bit.
It's nice to have a space on the web to get away from work though
Best
Nik Peachey
Hi.
I think every one has covered most of what I wanted to say except that, even although my privacy settings on Facebook are quite stringent, and I have separate lists with limited profiles, I am uncomfortable when my students find me on Facebook. I have one profile for students and another one for my friends for that reason. I am happy to be followed on Twitter.
Best
Iffaf
Hi Iffaf,
I have refused friend requests from students (and teachers) for Facebook as I prefer to keep it for friends and family. I obviously feel differently about the three pages I have set up for learners of English, which include my students. Being a fan of a page doesn't give you much access to the rest, does it? I must admit that I'm not very knowledgeable about the privacy settings of Facebook
Unlike you, with Twitter I have set up four accounts using the method outlined here:
http://thesocialmediaguide.com.au/2009/06/12/how-to-setup-multiple-twitt...
The first account is for professional contacts (other teachers) and the rest for students:
http://twitter.com/chris_fry_bcn
http://twitter.com/EFLAdvanced
http://twitter.com/EFLintermediate
http://twitter.com/EFLpre_intermed
The last three should get the same content as the Facebook pages.
Chris
Have never really got on with Facebook either, to be honest although I have to admit that I haven't really make that much effort to get to grips with it. According to my teenage son, I'm way too old to have any kind of presence on there, anyway... ;-)
The fact that Twitter is a microblogging platform suits me very well, as I'm generally too busy to do anything more than post a couple of sentences at a time.