Facebook is an online social network service intended for the exchange of messages, information, images, files, videos and other materials with “online friends“; and a valuable advertising tool. It is used worldwide by people of all ages, for communication, education, business, collaborative work or just for fun. We found it to be a very effective tool for fast communication between us teachers and with students about various issues, problems, ideas, planning, tasks, etc. in the project, and therefore we used it regularly. Our students used it for communication between themselves, collaborative work, discussions and sharing their photos and vlogs.
In our project we set up a coordinating teachers group (closed) which is a great tool for fast communication, planning, discussions, sharing documents, videos and files.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/638275039578892/
We also have a student and teacher project page to keep in touch and share information about us and our countries, traditions, everyday life. https://www.facebook.com/groups/ITornotIT/
We also used Facebook (community) as a dissemination platform of all our IT tools with relevant stakeholders, partners, etc.. https://www.facebook.com/ITornotIT/?fref=ts
Students learn about Russian authors and report about it on Facebook in a closed group.
In our example, FB used as a learning and teaching tool in literature. To participate in the „Raskoljnikov“ Facebook project, students had to create the Facebook page for Rodion Romanovič Raskoljnikov, the main character of the novel Crime and Punishment, written by Fjodor Mihajlovič Dostojevski; and follow his thoughts and events in the form of posts. Although this idea is not a new one, there are even online forms to be filled in with facts about fiction characters or historical figures (in English language), students eagerly accepted the idea since they use Facebook daily, most of them even more often than once a day.
Beside literature, FB can be a tool which is helping and making learning more interesting in foreign language, history, geography or any other subject, depends on a teacher´s creativity and imagination.
In our project we set up a coordinating teachers group (closed) which is a great tool for fast communication, planning, discussions, sharing documents, videos and files.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/638275039578892/
We also have a student and teacher project page to keep in touch and share information about us and our countries, traditions, everyday life. https://www.facebook.com/groups/ITornotIT/
We also used Facebook (community) as a dissemination platform of all our IT tools with relevant stakeholders, partners, etc.. https://www.facebook.com/ITornotIT/?fref=ts
Students learn about Russian authors and report about it on Facebook in a closed group.
In our example, FB used as a learning and teaching tool in literature. To participate in the „Raskoljnikov“ Facebook project, students had to create the Facebook page for Rodion Romanovič Raskoljnikov, the main character of the novel Crime and Punishment, written by Fjodor Mihajlovič Dostojevski; and follow his thoughts and events in the form of posts. Although this idea is not a new one, there are even online forms to be filled in with facts about fiction characters or historical figures (in English language), students eagerly accepted the idea since they use Facebook daily, most of them even more often than once a day.
Beside literature, FB can be a tool which is helping and making learning more interesting in foreign language, history, geography or any other subject, depends on a teacher´s creativity and imagination.
FB Rodion Romanovič Raskoljnikov
It was our turn to do a book report on Dostoyevsky's novel Crime and Punishment, which is by many people recognized as the hardest book report to do in our education. No one was happy when they heard that it was our next book to do a report on, so our teacher, Mr. Mikša, came up to an idea to make the reading a bit more interesting and easier. We read the book simultaneously with the 3.Gb class. The assignment was that each class makes the Facebook page. Our class got Rodion Romanovich Raskoljnikov and they got Sonia Marmeladov. The page looked like this:
TRANSLATE – COVER PHOTO – Crime and Punishment.
Our second task was to make everyone from our class the admin of the page, so everyone could post on the page in the name or Raskoljnikov. During the reading we had to update the page with character’s feelings, ideas, etc. We could also use some quotes from the book and even photos and videos to make the characters feeling seem more real. We also had to keep track on what the parallel class was posting. We could answer on their statuses and they could do the same on our page, all of that to get us to read further on. Following are some examples of how those posts looked like and how the whole thing worked.
Our second task was to make everyone from our class the admin of the page, so everyone could post on the page in the name or Raskoljnikov. During the reading we had to update the page with character’s feelings, ideas, etc. We could also use some quotes from the book and even photos and videos to make the characters feeling seem more real. We also had to keep track on what the parallel class was posting. We could answer on their statuses and they could do the same on our page, all of that to get us to read further on. Following are some examples of how those posts looked like and how the whole thing worked.
TRANSLATION –feeling sick.
TRANSLATION – You can touch everything but not my sister! – feeling strong.
TRANSLATION - I was laying in my room, and just woke up, and I saw a strange man in my room. That was Arkadije Ivanovič, my sister’s boss. – feeling sleepy in St. Petersburg.
At the end of our reading, most of the class agreed that this kind of assignment made reading books more interesting, and they also tried out something new. A new way to make book-reports makes long books “shorter” and easier to read. To further motivate us, teacher Mikša said that the class with more activity and more likes on the page would get a lower grading system and with that better grades in general. This has proven that social networks can be used in educational purposes, and not only for losing time and having fun as many say.
Filip Herceg & Nikola Novosel, 3.Ga, architectural technicians
And here is what our teacher says..
Facebook project „Raskoljnikov“
Facebook is an online social networking service intended for the exchange of messages, information, images, videos and other materials with „online „friends“; and a valuable advertising tool.
Teaching with Facebook is the most commonly used as a tool for information and data exchange between teachers and students, and between students themselves; furthermore, Facebook is considered one of the most popular Internet tools.
Facebook is user friendly. All you need is an email address and to send/accept a friend requests. Most of our students have their Facebook account; also there is the school's Facebook page.
To participate in the „Raskoljnikov“ Facebook project, students had to create the Facebook page for Rodion Romanovič Raskoljnikov, the main character of the novel Crime and Punishment, written by Fjodor Mihajlovič Dostojevski; and follow his thoughts and events in the form of posts. Although this idea is not a new one, there are even online forms to be filled in with facts about fiction characters or historical figures (in English language), students eagerly accepted the idea since they use Facebook daily, most of them even more often than once a day.
Crime and punishment is a psychological novel which deals with the idea of committing a murder by the main character, Raskoljnikov, with his agony – before and after the murder; and with murderer's psychological break down afterwards. Raskoljnikov's moral disruption is the main idea of the novel, thus Facebook seemed to be an ideal media to follow and present his thoughts, doubts, emotional struggles, etc.
Students were assigned to make notes about Raskoljnikov's emotions and thoughts, using various Facenook applications: uploading photos, galleries, videos; posting about the main character's feelings by posts and emoticons, creating events, etc.
Students were encouraged to use any other contents or applications to spread their activity to You Tube, Instagram, Twitter, Google maps, if those contents were in line with the mood changes of the main character. Besides the description of particular mood, students had to give an explanation of the mood or to post appropriate quote.
Rodin Romanovič Raskoljnikov Facebook page can be visited via https://www.facebook.com/Rodion-Romanovi%C4%8D-Raskoljnikov-712182318925606/; students mostly posted feelings, photos and videos. They also used HERE application, commonly used to mark location and for mapping.
The web page maintaining, writing impressions about the main character and other activities were done by students, without any teacher's involvement.
The project took 5 weeks, after that period student's were assessed; and their page gathered (only) 117 „likes“. Students didn’t like the idea of posting the page to their private accounts, nor did they advertise it on any other way; so it seems that it is not very popular among them to publish their school’s activities or their own reading activities.
Although students had shown motivation at the beginning of the project, a few issues arose afterwards. Student's motivation has been a main problem during this project since they had to read the book and to post impressions on a regularly basis, during defined period. Although they were highly motivated at the beginning, only a few students participated regularly. There might be a few reasons for this, students are not used to any online learning, and they don't assume that Facebook can be, not only a social „toy“, but a valuable learning tool. However some of them concluded that the Facebook page they created would help them to understand the plot and to learn the facts they are supposed to know about the novel.
Krasnodar Mikša, prof.
At the end of our reading, most of the class agreed that this kind of assignment made reading books more interesting, and they also tried out something new. A new way to make book-reports makes long books “shorter” and easier to read. To further motivate us, teacher Mikša said that the class with more activity and more likes on the page would get a lower grading system and with that better grades in general. This has proven that social networks can be used in educational purposes, and not only for losing time and having fun as many say.
Filip Herceg & Nikola Novosel, 3.Ga, architectural technicians
And here is what our teacher says..
Facebook project „Raskoljnikov“
Facebook is an online social networking service intended for the exchange of messages, information, images, videos and other materials with „online „friends“; and a valuable advertising tool.
Teaching with Facebook is the most commonly used as a tool for information and data exchange between teachers and students, and between students themselves; furthermore, Facebook is considered one of the most popular Internet tools.
Facebook is user friendly. All you need is an email address and to send/accept a friend requests. Most of our students have their Facebook account; also there is the school's Facebook page.
To participate in the „Raskoljnikov“ Facebook project, students had to create the Facebook page for Rodion Romanovič Raskoljnikov, the main character of the novel Crime and Punishment, written by Fjodor Mihajlovič Dostojevski; and follow his thoughts and events in the form of posts. Although this idea is not a new one, there are even online forms to be filled in with facts about fiction characters or historical figures (in English language), students eagerly accepted the idea since they use Facebook daily, most of them even more often than once a day.
Crime and punishment is a psychological novel which deals with the idea of committing a murder by the main character, Raskoljnikov, with his agony – before and after the murder; and with murderer's psychological break down afterwards. Raskoljnikov's moral disruption is the main idea of the novel, thus Facebook seemed to be an ideal media to follow and present his thoughts, doubts, emotional struggles, etc.
Students were assigned to make notes about Raskoljnikov's emotions and thoughts, using various Facenook applications: uploading photos, galleries, videos; posting about the main character's feelings by posts and emoticons, creating events, etc.
Students were encouraged to use any other contents or applications to spread their activity to You Tube, Instagram, Twitter, Google maps, if those contents were in line with the mood changes of the main character. Besides the description of particular mood, students had to give an explanation of the mood or to post appropriate quote.
Rodin Romanovič Raskoljnikov Facebook page can be visited via https://www.facebook.com/Rodion-Romanovi%C4%8D-Raskoljnikov-712182318925606/; students mostly posted feelings, photos and videos. They also used HERE application, commonly used to mark location and for mapping.
The web page maintaining, writing impressions about the main character and other activities were done by students, without any teacher's involvement.
The project took 5 weeks, after that period student's were assessed; and their page gathered (only) 117 „likes“. Students didn’t like the idea of posting the page to their private accounts, nor did they advertise it on any other way; so it seems that it is not very popular among them to publish their school’s activities or their own reading activities.
Although students had shown motivation at the beginning of the project, a few issues arose afterwards. Student's motivation has been a main problem during this project since they had to read the book and to post impressions on a regularly basis, during defined period. Although they were highly motivated at the beginning, only a few students participated regularly. There might be a few reasons for this, students are not used to any online learning, and they don't assume that Facebook can be, not only a social „toy“, but a valuable learning tool. However some of them concluded that the Facebook page they created would help them to understand the plot and to learn the facts they are supposed to know about the novel.
Krasnodar Mikša, prof.