Facebook for Education

by Satrih - Sunday, October 9, 2016, 6:08 PM

I created my Facebook group page for teaching English online as well as documenting my classroom activities in the beginning of 2013. It was started with an optimistic thought and feeling that it was going to be a great tool to teach my students at any time and from anywhere. That was how my students expected to learn too, at any time and from anywhere.

Based on an information, Indonesian people are one of the largest users of Facebook. To make my home institution a sample, I would say that the majority of Indonesian students are using Facebook. For those who see Facebook from a negative point of view, believe that it is a source of problems. Well, I am not denying that to some extent, it is. When students always ignore their homework while they can spend all day and night chatting or posting useless and even inappropriate materials on Facebook, then yes, it is unacceptable. Nevertheless, is it smart enough to blame it on Facebook? I believe it is somewhat stupid.

I wanted to change the mindset of some of my "old school" fellow teachers and more urgently, I wanted my students to see and learn that technology can means anything depending on the user, the human. I keep reminding them that any technological devices they have, either the hardware or the software, are just like a knife, it can be beneficial as much as it can be harmful, it depends on how and for what we use it. I personally treat Internet for instance, as my world largest library, it is wonderful, magical, and real. I wanted to take the opportunity from the fact that many of my students, especially those who have the facility, are fond of Facebook. Instead of feeling frustrated and getting angry on my students' ignorance showed on their Facebook like bullying each other, following inappropriate pages for their ages when there are lots of educational pages where they can take educational benefits as much and often as possible, I tried to show them that Facebook has almost everything - if I cannot just say everything - for their education. They have to know that there are great Facebook pages for them such as Clever Classroom, Classroom Display, Grammarly, Learn English Vocabulary through Picture, Physics Today, Lessons Learned in Life Inc., Word Porn, Interesting Engineering, Cambridge English, Learn English, and lots more. Even teachers like me myself are served with great Facebook pages like Technology for Teachers, Edutopia, TED-Ed, Busy Teacher, Teaching English - British Council, Teaching Ideas, VOA Learning English, English Idioms, and lots more. So again, it all depends on us.

As a teacher, I fully realize that one of my duties to my students is to facilitate them with a learning tool that is interesting and engaging. I found that creating a Facebook group page for teaching and learning activities outside the classroom is greatly interesting and engaging. Another good point of a Facebook group is that we can manage it to fulfil its original purpose. 99% of my Facebook group followers are my alumni or current students. We all know that anyone can come to Facebook and do anything they want; we like it or not. So, a Facebook group page is a great tool to avoid any unexpected materials posted on our educational Facebook page that can be managed through the setting. It is wonderful and deserves praises and gratitude. I believe that every school should have a Facebook group that will work for the betterment of education. Effective or not, it totally depends on how good the cooperation between teachers, students, and even parents as the human, as the Facebook users.