Can anyone tell me if any work is being done on the integration of Moodle and facebook?
There is a group in Facebook (Teaching and learning in facebook - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2408370557) which is encouraging the building of tools for learning. Looking at the discussions there it seems they underestimate the functionality of VLEs/LMSs like Moodle. Strange, as they do not for other services, and rather than build that functionality into facebook they have written modules to get information from those services (eg.last.fm service).
Many keynote addresses recently have predicted the end of VLEs which will be replaced by the likes of FB and I do agree that if you could replicate the functionality of a VLE within FB it would certainly be a more complete and attractive service for students. However, it will not be a small job and so not a threat to Moodle in the immediate future. It seems to me that Moodle could easily see off this medium term threat and provide a better service to students by having a module in FB that would mine their Moodle account for information (is the word "scrape"?).
Does anyone know if this or any other developments are under way in the line of integration of Moodle and Facebook?
Apologies if there is a posting in another forum on this (I had only 10 minutes to search the archives before posting).
Brian
I'm just a Moodle (and Facebook) user so I don't know much about what's happening in terms of development. Maybe your post will trigger more discussion about this.
What has been discussed here so far was not exactly a full-on initiative to replace Facebook with Moodle but either a mashup of Facebook into Moodle or some kind of Facebook-like way to use Moodle in the future (i.e., SNS-like features in Moodle 2.0). AFAIK, those discussions were before the Facebook Platform "bubble" and there hasn't been much discussion of very technical ways to tackle these issues.
Personally, I find both Moodle and Facebook fascinating. And I can easily imagine ways to integrate the two in my own teaching (even though I haven't done so, so far). One issue which seems to make the two platforms "incompatible" is the issue of privacy/secrecy/security/control. Moodle relies on a different approach toward data than Facebook does and some people are worried that Facebook could have detrimental results in some Moodle-like contexts (e.g. test questions or school transcripts). I don't necessarily share those fears (Facebook does have ways to handle some kinds of private data) but I do think it's one of the first arguments which come up when we discuss Moodle and Facebook. A related issue has to do with monetization. Many people would be uneasy with the use of such an advertising-focused platform as Facebook. It can be ok for informal stuff outside of learning contexts but universities and schools using Facebook actively may seem to be supporting "ad-supported education," which has proved unpalatable in many cases.
Facebook is also less open than Moodle in the sense that it does rely on proprietary code. There is kind of an ideological clash, here.
Having said all this, I do hope Moodle will quickly add "social networking" features. The first step, for me, would be if Moodle can accommodate links between courses. Like adding "friends" who may not be in the same courses.
I'm assuming you've read prior threads on those issues. Not sure if those satisfy you but it'd be interesting to keep the ball rolling.
What has been discussed here so far was not exactly a full-on initiative to replace Facebook with Moodle but either a mashup of Facebook into Moodle or some kind of Facebook-like way to use Moodle in the future (i.e., SNS-like features in Moodle 2.0). AFAIK, those discussions were before the Facebook Platform "bubble" and there hasn't been much discussion of very technical ways to tackle these issues.
Personally, I find both Moodle and Facebook fascinating. And I can easily imagine ways to integrate the two in my own teaching (even though I haven't done so, so far). One issue which seems to make the two platforms "incompatible" is the issue of privacy/secrecy/security/control. Moodle relies on a different approach toward data than Facebook does and some people are worried that Facebook could have detrimental results in some Moodle-like contexts (e.g. test questions or school transcripts). I don't necessarily share those fears (Facebook does have ways to handle some kinds of private data) but I do think it's one of the first arguments which come up when we discuss Moodle and Facebook. A related issue has to do with monetization. Many people would be uneasy with the use of such an advertising-focused platform as Facebook. It can be ok for informal stuff outside of learning contexts but universities and schools using Facebook actively may seem to be supporting "ad-supported education," which has proved unpalatable in many cases.
Facebook is also less open than Moodle in the sense that it does rely on proprietary code. There is kind of an ideological clash, here.
Having said all this, I do hope Moodle will quickly add "social networking" features. The first step, for me, would be if Moodle can accommodate links between courses. Like adding "friends" who may not be in the same courses.
I'm assuming you've read prior threads on those issues. Not sure if those satisfy you but it'd be interesting to keep the ball rolling.
I read the previous posts in the Lounge. Thanks for your reply. I'll just use this to add my views. I'm sure many of my views are the same as others, but it is probably important that those who develop Moodle (including the 'boss', Martin) get an idea of how many people hold these views.
- I think Moodle is a great tool. I'm a little worried that there is some truth in the predictions that social software will take over from VLEs (eg Moodle), so I would like to see the developers do what's needed to ensure its continued popularity.
- People like to keep all their information in one place, so if FB were in competition with Moodle, FB is so popular, I would not bet on Moodle.
- People have started work on "courses" functionality for FB. It will take them a long time to replicate the functionality of Moodle. It would be much faster to integrate FB and Moodle.
- The integration does not need to be comprehensive. NOtification of new events in courses would be very useful (possibly even enough for now). Integration of discussion areas between FB groups and Moodle courses would be good. I'm sure other functions would also be worth integrating.
- In regards to commercial advertising, it would be a pity to let idealogical opinions keep us from finding a pragmatic solution to a real problem. Students will use FB anyway. Ideally the integration should be structured so that students need not use FB should they prefer not to (ie.FB should be an alternative method of accessing some information from Moodle courses)
Greetings, Brian!
I thought it quite interesting that you posted this today, and there was an article in the Washington Post (sorry, login might be required) that indicated that Facebook had some serious work to do before it could replicate the types of connections, created at a variety of levels, that we enjoy in "real" life. There are a number of University faculty members quoted that have some extremely interesting things to say.
1) We need different levels of networks; the same information should probably not be shared with EVERYONE.
2) There is a limit to the number of people we can bond with. The Dunbar number is 150 (I never heard of the Dunbar number before, but it sounded reasonable to me as non anthropologist!)
3) Trust. It is harder to build trust in a virtual setting, particularly with the emphasis on collecting a large number of friends.
So, stay tuned! Some interesting research might be on its way!
atw
Citation information:
Sunday, August 26, 2007; Page M10
I thought it quite interesting that you posted this today, and there was an article in the Washington Post (sorry, login might be required) that indicated that Facebook had some serious work to do before it could replicate the types of connections, created at a variety of levels, that we enjoy in "real" life. There are a number of University faculty members quoted that have some extremely interesting things to say.
1) We need different levels of networks; the same information should probably not be shared with EVERYONE.
2) There is a limit to the number of people we can bond with. The Dunbar number is 150 (I never heard of the Dunbar number before, but it sounded reasonable to me as non anthropologist!)
3) Trust. It is harder to build trust in a virtual setting, particularly with the emphasis on collecting a large number of friends.
So, stay tuned! Some interesting research might be on its way!
atw
Citation information:
An Unmanageable Circle of Friends: Social-Network Web Sites Inundate Us With Connections, and That Can Be Alienating
By Monica Hesse
Washington Post Staff WriterSunday, August 26, 2007; Page M10
Brian,
I personally agree with most of what you say so I should probably wait for other people to chime in. But still...
Many people do like to keep a lot of data in the same system but it may be relatively unimportant if data can be easily transferred from one system to the other. AFAICT, Fb's APIs make it possible to reuse user data elsewhere and Moodle's data, though protected, could eventually be transferred to other systems. Maybe there should be work done on this. Making sure that users can transfer their data from Moodle to other services. For instance, we've been talking about possible connections between Moodle and virtual portfolios. Users could benefit from Moodle even more if there were a way to take work outside Moodle into the wider (online) world. So there's a lot to be said about integration and much of it is about sharing data.
We've been talking about mashups on occasion and they still sound like a good model for integrating applications. Harder to do with platforms but there were good examples of mashups with Moodle blocks coming from other online utilities. It might be useful to make sure Moodle gives opportunity to people to mash up Moodle elements outside of the Moodle environment. As you say, notifications could help. But it can go further, with forums, blogs, and other collaborative tools.
I personally don't relate so well with the "competition" view of different online environments. Often, it takes the form of "competing for people's attention" with the idea that those who spend more time in one environment will spend less time in another. I haven't done controlled experiments for this but my experience leads me to think that those who are enjoying their time online (whatever the service they use) are more likely to do more through other systems. On Facebook itself, for instance, there are casual users who do very little on Fb apart from accepting a friend request or two. Some of them are just plain busy but others are also casual Internet users. I've noticed people who become more active on Fb once they become more active in their overall online lives.
Then, you have people who do everything on Facebook, from changing their status several times a day and posting pictures of everybody they know to playing Scrabble and inviting friends to parties. I don't have hard data on this but I'd be surprised if such people were to not use Moodle when they need to. Sure, they might need to "budget their time" to allow for both Facebook and Moodle in their lives. (Not to forget WoW and Second Life.) But the type of use we're talking about can be rather time-efficient anyway. Someone can do a lot on either Moodle or Facebook in just a few hours a week. In fact, a lot of the things we do on either platform take just a few minutes to complete. And because these activities can make us more efficient overall, the Malthusian argument doesn't seem very useful.
I do agree that we should embrace the fact learners are now using Facebook, despite some issues we may have with the way the system is handled. But I wouldn't be so quick as to dismiss issues about advertising as merely "ideological opinions." For instance, how strategic would it be for an online university to officially send students to Facebook when advertising for online programs at another university are prominently displayed? Sure, a university can tolerate advertising from the competition on its own "online campus." But there's a huge difference between tolerating a practise and actively supporting an environment in which students are bombarded with targeted advertisement from other programs. If we imagine elementary school children being bombarded with ads for branded toys (even unleaded ones), there is room for more discussion of the implications learning environments may have on consumption patterns.
There's another side to this whole discussion that I believe is important to discuss. The same way school-related activities should not overwhelm someone's daily life, time spent on school-related online activities should not overwhelm someone's online time. An advantage of separating "social networking" from "schoolwork" is to allow people to live well-balanced lives. Neither Moodle nor Facebook should be a prison.
Yes, I jumped on the soapbox again. But ultimately, we're getting somewhere.
I personally agree with most of what you say so I should probably wait for other people to chime in. But still...
Many people do like to keep a lot of data in the same system but it may be relatively unimportant if data can be easily transferred from one system to the other. AFAICT, Fb's APIs make it possible to reuse user data elsewhere and Moodle's data, though protected, could eventually be transferred to other systems. Maybe there should be work done on this. Making sure that users can transfer their data from Moodle to other services. For instance, we've been talking about possible connections between Moodle and virtual portfolios. Users could benefit from Moodle even more if there were a way to take work outside Moodle into the wider (online) world. So there's a lot to be said about integration and much of it is about sharing data.
We've been talking about mashups on occasion and they still sound like a good model for integrating applications. Harder to do with platforms but there were good examples of mashups with Moodle blocks coming from other online utilities. It might be useful to make sure Moodle gives opportunity to people to mash up Moodle elements outside of the Moodle environment. As you say, notifications could help. But it can go further, with forums, blogs, and other collaborative tools.
I personally don't relate so well with the "competition" view of different online environments. Often, it takes the form of "competing for people's attention" with the idea that those who spend more time in one environment will spend less time in another. I haven't done controlled experiments for this but my experience leads me to think that those who are enjoying their time online (whatever the service they use) are more likely to do more through other systems. On Facebook itself, for instance, there are casual users who do very little on Fb apart from accepting a friend request or two. Some of them are just plain busy but others are also casual Internet users. I've noticed people who become more active on Fb once they become more active in their overall online lives.
Then, you have people who do everything on Facebook, from changing their status several times a day and posting pictures of everybody they know to playing Scrabble and inviting friends to parties. I don't have hard data on this but I'd be surprised if such people were to not use Moodle when they need to. Sure, they might need to "budget their time" to allow for both Facebook and Moodle in their lives. (Not to forget WoW and Second Life.) But the type of use we're talking about can be rather time-efficient anyway. Someone can do a lot on either Moodle or Facebook in just a few hours a week. In fact, a lot of the things we do on either platform take just a few minutes to complete. And because these activities can make us more efficient overall, the Malthusian argument doesn't seem very useful.
I do agree that we should embrace the fact learners are now using Facebook, despite some issues we may have with the way the system is handled. But I wouldn't be so quick as to dismiss issues about advertising as merely "ideological opinions." For instance, how strategic would it be for an online university to officially send students to Facebook when advertising for online programs at another university are prominently displayed? Sure, a university can tolerate advertising from the competition on its own "online campus." But there's a huge difference between tolerating a practise and actively supporting an environment in which students are bombarded with targeted advertisement from other programs. If we imagine elementary school children being bombarded with ads for branded toys (even unleaded ones), there is room for more discussion of the implications learning environments may have on consumption patterns.
There's another side to this whole discussion that I believe is important to discuss. The same way school-related activities should not overwhelm someone's daily life, time spent on school-related online activities should not overwhelm someone's online time. An advantage of separating "social networking" from "schoolwork" is to allow people to live well-balanced lives. Neither Moodle nor Facebook should be a prison.
Yes, I jumped on the soapbox again. But ultimately, we're getting somewhere.
I liked the comparison to the borg. Facebook is great for making connections with people of like interests but I also have encountered a fair amount of bigotry, racist and colonial attitudes that were pretty shocking in groups that I joined and I have found myself standing up to some really nasty stuff being said about various groups of people by educated people you would expect to be more tolerant. Just this morning I got a message sent through one group I belonged to from the owner telling all the people of a certain religious persuasion to leave the group because their interest in the topic at hand was too religious and not "academic" enough. I pointed out that many colleagues I know of that religious persuasion are informed by the academic side not the other way around and that he brought it upon himself by naming the group with a "clever" name that referred to followers of that religion and misleading people into thinking the group was a religious one.
Bringing Facebook content into Moodle would open you up to bringing in stuff like that that you don't necessarily want and over which you have no control in its display.
Bringing Facebook content into Moodle would open you up to bringing in stuff like that that you don't necessarily want and over which you have no control in its display.
Very interesting! Another argument for "Moodle as safe environment." Given the control Moodle administrators have over content, even from outside sources, it should be relatively easy to moderate the content that is coming from Facebook and other dynamic websites to Moodle. In fact, such a feature would also be useful for the RSS integration.
If Moodle 2.0 is to have some social networking features (like the ability for people to connect outside of courses, create their own groups, etc.), it could receive a lot of support from those who prefer a controlled environment over Facebook's "free-for-all." Of course, some of us still prefer the "free-for-all" approach accompanied with critical thinking. But it's good to have alternatives.
(Nicole: I'd personally be very interested in learning more about the specific case you mention. Feel free to send me more information about that group through PM.)
If Moodle 2.0 is to have some social networking features (like the ability for people to connect outside of courses, create their own groups, etc.), it could receive a lot of support from those who prefer a controlled environment over Facebook's "free-for-all." Of course, some of us still prefer the "free-for-all" approach accompanied with critical thinking. But it's good to have alternatives.
(Nicole: I'd personally be very interested in learning more about the specific case you mention. Feel free to send me more information about that group through PM.)
Just curious- for teaching institutions a big challenge is getting all the right students in the right courses, and in getting course content recycled from one semester to another.
For institutions to use FB as a VLE, how would they send enrollment data to FB, and update it as students change their enrollment? How would grades be recorded in FB, and sent back to the institution?
For institutions to use FB as a VLE, how would they send enrollment data to FB, and update it as students change their enrollment? How would grades be recorded in FB, and sent back to the institution?
Well, it's easy to get swept away with the latest thing. Pardon my skepticism, but the old adage "when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail" has rung true for me many times over the years. Something better or different always comes along. In my old age now I think we'll always need a range of tools for different things, linked by open standards.
I use Facebook too and have been studying it like many here, I'm sure. I'm impressed by the interface and the viral design, but concerned about all that private data being shared, mined and sold commercially. I don't see the ads myself because I use Ad Blocker but they also are a problem.
I don't think many educational institutions are going to be switching to anything like that anytime soon and I certainly don't feel it's a "threat" of any kind ... (not that I'd ever feel such a thing because I'm all for the best tool for the job).
That said, there are opportunities for integration that I would like to see taken up.
The first is that we can easily make Facebook stuff appear within Moodle using their APIs. What kinds of things? That's up to you (ideas welcome), but certainly streaming photos and other stuff would be trivial.
The second is exporting things from Moodle into Facebook. I don't know what people would want to do with that. Has anyone got any solid scenarios or dreams there?
The third is to replicate some of the best features in Moodle. Which bits in facebook do you think Moodle could really use? (BTW, have you seen the new tag pages in Moodle 1.9 with the flickr and youtube plugins eg Guinness?).
I use Facebook too and have been studying it like many here, I'm sure. I'm impressed by the interface and the viral design, but concerned about all that private data being shared, mined and sold commercially. I don't see the ads myself because I use Ad Blocker but they also are a problem.
I don't think many educational institutions are going to be switching to anything like that anytime soon and I certainly don't feel it's a "threat" of any kind ... (not that I'd ever feel such a thing because I'm all for the best tool for the job).
That said, there are opportunities for integration that I would like to see taken up.
The first is that we can easily make Facebook stuff appear within Moodle using their APIs. What kinds of things? That's up to you (ideas welcome), but certainly streaming photos and other stuff would be trivial.
The second is exporting things from Moodle into Facebook. I don't know what people would want to do with that. Has anyone got any solid scenarios or dreams there?
The third is to replicate some of the best features in Moodle. Which bits in facebook do you think Moodle could really use? (BTW, have you seen the new tag pages in Moodle 1.9 with the flickr and youtube plugins eg Guinness?).
Among the things Facebook can do for Moodle is get people to take notice of the power of online tools. Administrators are likely to be worried about Fb use, despite reports on the usefulness of social networking systems. But the hype itself can give Moodle an advantage because it's already "more social" than Bb and other course management systems. In fact, there could be a "Moodle advocacy" point of demonstrating the school-friendliness of Moodle over Fb. Control over "cyber-bullying," lack of ads, integration with PeopleSoft/SIS, role definition (administrator/instructor/student), etc.
One of the few features of Facebook's core package which relates directly with formal education is that users can list courses they're taking and find other students from the same course. Even then, the feature is a bit clunky when compared with Moodle. For one thing, the feature is almost hidden in the profile and, despite the fact that teachers are also learners, there's something funny about a teacher listing herself as "took a course together" with her students.
One of the easiest and/or more efficient ways to actually integrate Moodle and Facebook could be, as Brian suggests, to use notifications. If people are spending a significant amount of time on Fb, they could receive notifications within Fb of things happening in their Moodle courses. New course events, forum messages, assignments, blog entries, etc. This way, the Moodle "content" can remain protected to a certain extent but part of the attention Facebook gets from individual users could have a positive impact on Moodle use. The reverse might be doable but may make less sense. Getting Fb notifications within Moodle could easily become annoying. Bacn, anyone?
My previous "Moodle as new Facebook" posts had more to do with using Facebook as inspiration. The tag feature just demonstrated seems to go in this direction. Other possibilities would include: elaborate profiles, user-created groups, cross-campus links between users, post-graduation accounts...
I still think Moodle's group-related features are key to these developments and many are saying that groups are Facebook's "killer app." Is it technically feasible to change Moodle groups in such a way as to make them more "social?"
The other part would have to do with grouping a user's public activities for easy browsing. If this can be done, Moodle could easily become a place where users collect "Web content" (links to blog posts, videos, images, sounds) for sharing within specific contexts. This could actually get very close to the kind of peer-teaching and collaborative learning many of us so love. Personally, I'm a fan of bookmarklets as a method of entering links. And Moodle could use external tools to accomplish this kind of integration. Most "social bookmarking" systems have RSS feeds and Moodle can easily integrate RSS feeds. If a given bookmarking system can easily be integrated in both Facebook and Moodle, users could easily kill two birds with one stone.
One of the few features of Facebook's core package which relates directly with formal education is that users can list courses they're taking and find other students from the same course. Even then, the feature is a bit clunky when compared with Moodle. For one thing, the feature is almost hidden in the profile and, despite the fact that teachers are also learners, there's something funny about a teacher listing herself as "took a course together" with her students.
One of the easiest and/or more efficient ways to actually integrate Moodle and Facebook could be, as Brian suggests, to use notifications. If people are spending a significant amount of time on Fb, they could receive notifications within Fb of things happening in their Moodle courses. New course events, forum messages, assignments, blog entries, etc. This way, the Moodle "content" can remain protected to a certain extent but part of the attention Facebook gets from individual users could have a positive impact on Moodle use. The reverse might be doable but may make less sense. Getting Fb notifications within Moodle could easily become annoying. Bacn, anyone?
My previous "Moodle as new Facebook" posts had more to do with using Facebook as inspiration. The tag feature just demonstrated seems to go in this direction. Other possibilities would include: elaborate profiles, user-created groups, cross-campus links between users, post-graduation accounts...
I still think Moodle's group-related features are key to these developments and many are saying that groups are Facebook's "killer app." Is it technically feasible to change Moodle groups in such a way as to make them more "social?"
The other part would have to do with grouping a user's public activities for easy browsing. If this can be done, Moodle could easily become a place where users collect "Web content" (links to blog posts, videos, images, sounds) for sharing within specific contexts. This could actually get very close to the kind of peer-teaching and collaborative learning many of us so love. Personally, I'm a fan of bookmarklets as a method of entering links. And Moodle could use external tools to accomplish this kind of integration. Most "social bookmarking" systems have RSS feeds and Moodle can easily integrate RSS feeds. If a given bookmarking system can easily be integrated in both Facebook and Moodle, users could easily kill two birds with one stone.
Architecturally FB is a bit like the borg. It doesn't really integrate with anything - just trys to assimilate everything else:
As someone working in Distance Ed though I would encourage Distance Ed students to use FB though to form social networks outside of class like study groups or even just to hang out. A huge advantage of the on-campus student is the richness of the environment outside of class. Its like when you go to a conference and the best talks are during the coffee breaks. FB (or similiar) can give this to students.
- Eamon
- Only exposes one RSS feed - your friends' status updates
- Google are knocking hard but search engines aren't allowed in
- The only APIs FB has are for sucking content in from Flickr, Del.icio.us, blogs etc.
As someone working in Distance Ed though I would encourage Distance Ed students to use FB though to form social networks outside of class like study groups or even just to hang out. A huge advantage of the on-campus student is the richness of the environment outside of class. Its like when you go to a conference and the best talks are during the coffee breaks. FB (or similiar) can give this to students.
- Eamon
Eamon,
Important point to make about the difficulty to access Fb data, even through APIs. What I don't really get is how apps get access to lists of friends. Seems like a basic feature which could be used outside of the Fb sphere.
The point about conference coffee breaks is also well-put. Many people (especially in Europe) seem disillusioned when they notice that large conferences aren't really about transmitting information. But there's a lot of value in the "social" contacts made during such meetings.
Important point to make about the difficulty to access Fb data, even through APIs. What I don't really get is how apps get access to lists of friends. Seems like a basic feature which could be used outside of the Fb sphere.
The point about conference coffee breaks is also well-put. Many people (especially in Europe) seem disillusioned when they notice that large conferences aren't really about transmitting information. But there's a lot of value in the "social" contacts made during such meetings.
Anyone intereested in this topic may also find the following of interest:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/dimdim
"Dimdim is an open source web meeting product with features like Application, Desktop and Presentation sharing with A/V streaming and
chat. No attendee installation - all features are available through a web browser. Dimdim can be integrated with Moodle."
Seán.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/dimdim
"Dimdim is an open source web meeting product with features like Application, Desktop and Presentation sharing with A/V streaming and
chat. No attendee installation - all features are available through a web browser. Dimdim can be integrated with Moodle."
Seán.
>>apps get access to lists of friends. Seems like a basic feature which could be used outside of the Fb sphere.
Absolutely. I'm don't know much about the FB sandbox but I think a big FB privacy/security scare is coming.
Absolutely. I'm don't know much about the FB sandbox but I think a big FB privacy/security scare is coming.
I agree about the selective access to data. From a personal ownership point of view, it would be good to see all the data held on me. I can limit the access of others by not adding 'Superlatives' or other apps. Anglers let fish 'access' <addition> the hook not the reel or the view from the top of the rod.
On another note, I did wonder about whether integrating FB with an LMS/VLE would render FB uncool in an instant for student users.
On another note, I did wonder about whether integrating FB with an LMS/VLE would render FB uncool in an instant for student users.
The New York Times had an article today about creating social netwrks for older people. The reason for this was because older people "are less likely than youngsters to flit from one trendy site to the next. Teens are tire kickers — they hang around, cost you money and then leave." Facebook may be an ancient relic before too long. Most college students would probably love FB integration with whatever LMS they use, but they will still eventually end up leaving FB for the next big thing.
Facebook may be an ancient relic before too long.
While it is quite likely that Fb will be replaced soon, chances are that the site will remain active for a while, even as a shadow of its former self. In that case, it might actually attract some members whose needs haven't been met. A bit like what happened with Orkut. Or even with MySpace.
Most college students would probably love FB integration with whatever LMS they use, but they will still eventually end up leaving FB for the next big thing.All the reason more to adopt Fb-like features in Moodle and/or to mashup Fb elements into Moodle. That way, Moodle can take advantage of the next shift. Not really in terms of "market share." But in terms of usefulness. One thing Fb has shown is the value of SNS in relation to learning communities. Moodle could certainly serve a purpose there.
Sorry to sound like an old record, here. And none of this is meant to say that Fb is superior to other services. But the observation is that, for technology in learning contexts, social networks can have important consequences.
Can anyone clearly distinguish between Facebook and MySpace? It seems that the two overlap significantly in terms of functionality. Is there something that you can only do in one and not the other?
This distinction might also help to distinguish Moodle from these other tools.
Peter
This distinction might also help to distinguish Moodle from these other tools.
Peter
Excellent question!
Which does come with a number of appropriate answers.
Possible class distinctions. Type of ownership (Fox vs. independent developer). Flexibility. Business models. Aesthetics...
But more relevant for Moodle, here are a few things which, IMHO, make Fb more appropriate a model for Moodle's future development.
Facebook was originally based on campus communities and then opened up to allow anyone to join. Even now, several features (like the Marketplace application) make use of local networks, many of which are college and university campuses. Some .edu email addresses were directly associated with network membership so there was a type of control over membership.
Something which is quite relevant is that, contrary to many other SNS, most Facebook users put their actual profile online. There's a few accounts which are associated with fictional characters or deceased people (I'm a friend of deceased anthropologist Clifford Geertz, for instance) but, on the whole, people create real accounts. Also, a larger proportion of Facebook contacts ("friendship" links) are between people who do know each other.
There are ways, on Fb, to control the privacy level of many items of information. For almost any item, a user can make that information completely public, make it available for specific networks, allow all their friends to see it, allow only friends who have access to a restricted version of the profile, or keep the item completely private. Few people really use these features but they could be a good inspiration for Moodle, IMHO.
Advantages of MySpace over Fb include customized accounts for musicians and bands, popularity, and financial backing. I still prefer Facebook over most other SNS (MySpace, LinkedIn, Friendster, Orkut, WAYN, etc.).
Of course, there are obvious features missing from Facebook, which would make it more useful for learning and teaching. For instance, Facebook has a much less developed editor, as compared to Moodle. And it currently has none of the learning-specific features of a LMS.
Still, thinking about SNS could be a good way to help Moodle leap over other LMS.
Why do I care? Moodle is, so far, the most flexible LMS I have used and I see clear potential for it, as a platform, to enhance online learning practises.
Which does come with a number of appropriate answers.
Possible class distinctions. Type of ownership (Fox vs. independent developer). Flexibility. Business models. Aesthetics...
But more relevant for Moodle, here are a few things which, IMHO, make Fb more appropriate a model for Moodle's future development.
Facebook was originally based on campus communities and then opened up to allow anyone to join. Even now, several features (like the Marketplace application) make use of local networks, many of which are college and university campuses. Some .edu email addresses were directly associated with network membership so there was a type of control over membership.
Something which is quite relevant is that, contrary to many other SNS, most Facebook users put their actual profile online. There's a few accounts which are associated with fictional characters or deceased people (I'm a friend of deceased anthropologist Clifford Geertz, for instance) but, on the whole, people create real accounts. Also, a larger proportion of Facebook contacts ("friendship" links) are between people who do know each other.
There are ways, on Fb, to control the privacy level of many items of information. For almost any item, a user can make that information completely public, make it available for specific networks, allow all their friends to see it, allow only friends who have access to a restricted version of the profile, or keep the item completely private. Few people really use these features but they could be a good inspiration for Moodle, IMHO.
Advantages of MySpace over Fb include customized accounts for musicians and bands, popularity, and financial backing. I still prefer Facebook over most other SNS (MySpace, LinkedIn, Friendster, Orkut, WAYN, etc.).
Of course, there are obvious features missing from Facebook, which would make it more useful for learning and teaching. For instance, Facebook has a much less developed editor, as compared to Moodle. And it currently has none of the learning-specific features of a LMS.
Still, thinking about SNS could be a good way to help Moodle leap over other LMS.
Why do I care? Moodle is, so far, the most flexible LMS I have used and I see clear potential for it, as a platform, to enhance online learning practises.
One way of linking Moodle in useful ways to a range of other social networks may be to use Explode! or similar technologies. Stan Stanier of Brighton University has given an interesting overview of this. In some ways Explode! is just another aggregation service, but it does provide a rather powerful combination of OpenID-based authentication with searching that spans different social networks.
In Stan's 'Shared Learning Envionment' picture of this, Explode! connects to the VLE (in Brighton's case BlackBoard, but could be Moodle) via Elgg. However, Explode could easily connect directly to, say, a Moodle user's Profile/Blog interface and integrate with Moodle's evolving Social Networking features.
There is clearly some overlap of all this with the Moodle Network and the Moodle Community Hub. Perhaps we are moving towards a scenario where the Moodle Network would facilitate more formal relationships, learning communities sharing resources etc between institutions and Explode!-type links would allow more informal social networking communities to develop - which nonetheless support learning.
As a follow up. It's is actually very easy to add an Explode! Widget linking to your accounts/friends on other Social Networks (Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, LiveJournal, Flickr, Xanga, Blogger, MyYearbook, Vox, YouTube, Yahoo360, WordPress, TypePad, Elgg etc 
) to Moodle.
You first need an account with http://ex.plode.us
Then select the Widgets > Javascript widget links and copy the javascript code provided.
You can then paste this into an HTML block ([Edit this page/Turn editing on] > Blocks > Add... > HTML. Before pasting, ensure the HTML editor is in source code [<>] mode) on either your MyMoodle page or the Blogs page of your Moodle Profile.
Not a complete Moodle-Facebook integration, but very handy!
Hey, Alexandre. I loved the essay on class differences between FB and MS. Very interesting analysis.
I've been playing with Epsilen over the last few days. It entered my radar last week when The New York Times announced a partnership with them. Several colleges are using Epsilen and The Times' Knowledge Network.
I think it's substantively different from other CMS tools I've seen in that it functions to showcase the individual as opposed to facilitate the individual's involvement in a course. Here are a few of my observations:
1) .edu access - everyone with an .edu domain can create a free account
2) ePortfolio - your account is manifested as an ePortfolio, where you can choose what you'd like to share about yourself, including what Epsilen calls "Showcase items", which are "digitized examples of a member’s artifacts and major project accomplishments, such as written papers, computer coding projects, or creative arts productions, and may also provide a record of work experiences or examples of a faculty member's major research projects, published papers, grants, and the like."
3) relationship to Facebook and MySpace - in Facebook, you have a profile that you choose to share with like-minded people, and with MySpace you have your own MySpace page; same too with Epsilen, but the profile is shared among others in the .edu world and, instead of a web page, you have an ePortfolio
4) privacy - you can make your ePortfolio private, share it with a select few, or make it available to the general public
5) purpose - the real purpose, it seems to me, is to facilitate self-promotion; in your profile, you can include teaching and research interests; you can also choose consulting interests; I assume this is to allow you to connect with others that share your interests, including people who might want to hire you for the services that you provide. According to the site, "Epsilen offers a comprehensive resume builder engine with various templates that offer the opportunity to create anything from a simple one-page resume, for example, for a student member, to a comprehensive Curriculum Vitae (CV) for a faculty, researcher, or other professional member."
6) how Moodle could benefit - after entering in my interests, it was great to be able to click on a series of tabs (see attached screen shot) and see people who shared my teaching interests on one tab, research interests on a different tab, and consulting interests on another. I'd love to see a networking feature like this built into Moodle. It's just a simple database query that aggregates all users who have the same or similar keywords in their profiles and presents them in a user-friendly GUI that allows me to reach out to these folks.
I've been playing with Epsilen over the last few days. It entered my radar last week when The New York Times announced a partnership with them. Several colleges are using Epsilen and The Times' Knowledge Network.
I think it's substantively different from other CMS tools I've seen in that it functions to showcase the individual as opposed to facilitate the individual's involvement in a course. Here are a few of my observations:
1) .edu access - everyone with an .edu domain can create a free account
2) ePortfolio - your account is manifested as an ePortfolio, where you can choose what you'd like to share about yourself, including what Epsilen calls "Showcase items", which are "digitized examples of a member’s artifacts and major project accomplishments, such as written papers, computer coding projects, or creative arts productions, and may also provide a record of work experiences or examples of a faculty member's major research projects, published papers, grants, and the like."
3) relationship to Facebook and MySpace - in Facebook, you have a profile that you choose to share with like-minded people, and with MySpace you have your own MySpace page; same too with Epsilen, but the profile is shared among others in the .edu world and, instead of a web page, you have an ePortfolio
4) privacy - you can make your ePortfolio private, share it with a select few, or make it available to the general public
5) purpose - the real purpose, it seems to me, is to facilitate self-promotion; in your profile, you can include teaching and research interests; you can also choose consulting interests; I assume this is to allow you to connect with others that share your interests, including people who might want to hire you for the services that you provide. According to the site, "Epsilen offers a comprehensive resume builder engine with various templates that offer the opportunity to create anything from a simple one-page resume, for example, for a student member, to a comprehensive Curriculum Vitae (CV) for a faculty, researcher, or other professional member."
6) how Moodle could benefit - after entering in my interests, it was great to be able to click on a series of tabs (see attached screen shot) and see people who shared my teaching interests on one tab, research interests on a different tab, and consulting interests on another. I'd love to see a networking feature like this built into Moodle. It's just a simple database query that aggregates all users who have the same or similar keywords in their profiles and presents them in a user-friendly GUI that allows me to reach out to these folks.
Possibly, but with the tag cloud integrated in the Moodle interface.
Actually, there's more than one feed available. (Techcrunch story)
Seem like that would be the way to test the FB->Moodle waters, outputting the feeds in a block as someone else here suggested.
Sorry, I've been away for a while, but does the parser support OPML? If so the block could show all feeds. Or you could always slip in something like a Grazr widget in the sidebar -- or Optimal to stick with PHP.
Seem like that would be the way to test the FB->Moodle waters, outputting the feeds in a block as someone else here suggested.
Sorry, I've been away for a while, but does the parser support OPML? If so the block could show all feeds. Or you could always slip in something like a Grazr widget in the sidebar -- or Optimal to stick with PHP.
I'm delighted with the success I've had in publishing my forums' RSS feed in Facebook with it RSS application.
While I wouldn't care to store any data with Facebook, I do think it serves as an excellent opportunity to keep people informed.
Neat approach!
In a way, what RSS makes possible is a "publish once, broadcast everywhere" approach. In a way, the original source doesn't matter much. You can add something on a blog and have it show up in both Moodle and Facebook, or you could wite something in Facebook and have it both on Moodle and Twitter...
There's also the whole notion of "contact" in a social network. It's one of the bases for Facebook which could really make sense in Moodle. It already exists, to a certain extent, but it could be exploited further. Maybe using Google's OpenSocial. One of the big advantages of Moodle, here, is that it can still be a walled garden. The combination of the inherent privacy in Moodle with the openness of contacts could be quite useful, in many contexts.
In a way, what RSS makes possible is a "publish once, broadcast everywhere" approach. In a way, the original source doesn't matter much. You can add something on a blog and have it show up in both Moodle and Facebook, or you could wite something in Facebook and have it both on Moodle and Twitter...
There's also the whole notion of "contact" in a social network. It's one of the bases for Facebook which could really make sense in Moodle. It already exists, to a certain extent, but it could be exploited further. Maybe using Google's OpenSocial. One of the big advantages of Moodle, here, is that it can still be a walled garden. The combination of the inherent privacy in Moodle with the openness of contacts could be quite useful, in many contexts.
I am, as part of a distributed team, frantically researching the use of social media in education. My favourite use of RSS is to publish the del.icio.us links I've tagged as socialNetworking. The published RSS is embedded in my moodle, my Facebook profile, my MySpace page and my Ning profile as well as harvested by browsers' RSSreaders. That's one example of reaching out to people in their own environments.
I would dearly love to explore a hybrid of OpenSocial and Moodle. If I understand the technology, OpenSocial APIs could be used in Moodle to create, say, a profile more like the personal page of MySpace and Ning.
So, if anyone has got the OpenSocial platform installed on their Moodle server, I'd like to know how that's working out.
yup .. facebook is sure good for that hahahah
FYI,
A tool called CourseFeed that integrates Blackboard with Facebook has recently (c. Oct 15th) appeared from a small company called ClassTop. It's rather buggy still, but does work.
Of course, "integrates" isn't really the right word: it passes through authentication and sucks over announcements and links to posted items.
But that is mostly what I hear from students they want -- to be notified when new things are added to the LMS, so they don't have to go to the trouble to login in to see if something is new.
If you think of FB as a web top, that makes sense. (An iGoogle widget could do the same thing.)
I would think an FB app to 1) pass through authenticate, 2) display forum notifications & posts 3) list updated resources, would be a low hanging fruit.
Anything more complex and time consuming, eg activities, should be done in the Moodle interface, naturally, but it should be easy to there from FB with just one click.
Randy
1) pass through authenticate, 2) display forum notifications & posts 3) list updated resourcesNice! Are there Fb-savvy developers, around here?
Nowadays, students view email notification as "so five years ago"! It would be great if Moodle could send notifications to other sites, according to each student's profile - facebook, twitter, etc. Is there any progress or other discussion towards this change?
I agree but as there have been no replies I assume that this is not getting high priority.
Max Wild
Moodle Admin, MHSG
Max - Have you read about the plans to improve messaging in Messaging 2.0? Peace - Anthon
I recognise the value of social constructivism in the context of education, but can't understand the fascination with wanting to integrate a social network ie. facebook with Moodle?! They are essentially different creatures serving different purposes. Last time I checked, social networks do not assess learning, grade nor report on participants in a course-like fashion. Suffice to say, moodle has an array of inbuilt 'social' tools that promote collaboration and communication in a secure environment - without sending your students all over the web to access a multiplicity of services. Blog, chat, forum, messaging, wiki, tags (pages), flickr, youtube, rss feeds etc. See attached.
If you really want your Moodle to 'look' like facebook, check out the Foodle theme
http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=26&rid=2129
If you really want your Moodle to 'look' like facebook, check out the Foodle theme
http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=26&rid=2129
I'm noodling/moodling over how Moodle can be used like Facebook and Twitter.
I logged in to our test instance of Moodle as a fake student, added "music" to my list of interests, and then clicked the link to see other users who were interested in the same thing.
Saw there were 12 people who were also interested in music.
I clicked on the first one -- Jane Miller -- and was taken to her profile page. From here, I could send her a text message via the Moodle Instant Message tool or I could click on her blog. When I clicked on the blog, I could see she had posted one message. I could then click the RSS feed link and then subscribe to her blog, so I would receive every blog post she created in the future via Google Reader (or whatever blog reader I wanted to use).
This is EXACTLY like Twitter (well, more or less). Now if there were a way to add her as my "friend" (as in Facebook), then we could duplicate this function, too. People keep wringing their hands about how to make LMS's more like Facebook and Twitter. In this case, you could take what Twitter does (and possibly Facebook with some tweaks?) and then use Moodle to have Facebook/Twitter-like function without screwing up your Facebook and Twitter accounts. After all, who really wants to "friend" all your classmates from all your classes? In this case, you can have your personal space for Twitter and Facebook, and then you can have Facebook/Twitter-like function for your academic life. I'm pretty sure that most people want to keep the two separate.
If Jane knew that her blog could be read by other users in the system, and that she could blog about whatever she liked -- not just boring course-related stuff -- would she be more likely to blog about things that were interesting to her? Say, for example, blogging about music? If so, would Jane be motivated to write more often? If so, then her skill as a writer would increase (writing is, after all, a muscle that benefits from use and repetition . . .)
If so, as a user, I'd want to enter all my interests, click on the link to find other users in my academic community who shared those interests, and then read and follow the blogs of those people who had interesting things to say about my interests. Those users could do the same with me and my blog posts . . .
So then Moodle becomes much bigger than the individual courses I am taking. It allows me to connect with other users in the community, users I may or may not share classes with. I would go to Moodle to do my course stuff, but I might also go to Moodle to socialize, to think, to engage, etc.
Question: in Moodle 2.0, will you be able to add people with shared interests to your list of "friends"? Will you be able to "follow" them, too? If you subscribe to their blog, then you won't really need to follow them. But it would be nice to "friend" them in some way.
Peter
I logged in to our test instance of Moodle as a fake student, added "music" to my list of interests, and then clicked the link to see other users who were interested in the same thing.
Saw there were 12 people who were also interested in music.
I clicked on the first one -- Jane Miller -- and was taken to her profile page. From here, I could send her a text message via the Moodle Instant Message tool or I could click on her blog. When I clicked on the blog, I could see she had posted one message. I could then click the RSS feed link and then subscribe to her blog, so I would receive every blog post she created in the future via Google Reader (or whatever blog reader I wanted to use).
This is EXACTLY like Twitter (well, more or less). Now if there were a way to add her as my "friend" (as in Facebook), then we could duplicate this function, too. People keep wringing their hands about how to make LMS's more like Facebook and Twitter. In this case, you could take what Twitter does (and possibly Facebook with some tweaks?) and then use Moodle to have Facebook/Twitter-like function without screwing up your Facebook and Twitter accounts. After all, who really wants to "friend" all your classmates from all your classes? In this case, you can have your personal space for Twitter and Facebook, and then you can have Facebook/Twitter-like function for your academic life. I'm pretty sure that most people want to keep the two separate.
If Jane knew that her blog could be read by other users in the system, and that she could blog about whatever she liked -- not just boring course-related stuff -- would she be more likely to blog about things that were interesting to her? Say, for example, blogging about music? If so, would Jane be motivated to write more often? If so, then her skill as a writer would increase (writing is, after all, a muscle that benefits from use and repetition . . .)
If so, as a user, I'd want to enter all my interests, click on the link to find other users in my academic community who shared those interests, and then read and follow the blogs of those people who had interesting things to say about my interests. Those users could do the same with me and my blog posts . . .
So then Moodle becomes much bigger than the individual courses I am taking. It allows me to connect with other users in the community, users I may or may not share classes with. I would go to Moodle to do my course stuff, but I might also go to Moodle to socialize, to think, to engage, etc.
Question: in Moodle 2.0, will you be able to add people with shared interests to your list of "friends"? Will you be able to "follow" them, too? If you subscribe to their blog, then you won't really need to follow them. But it would be nice to "friend" them in some way.
Peter
I have created a very easy tutorial on how to add Facebook Connect to a Course and for Admins to use with HTML blocks on a page of their choosing. Let me know if you have any advice: http://www.cipherhive.org/course/view.php?id=26
http://www.cipherhive.org/course/view.php?id=26
V/r
Jason Mansfield
http://www.cipherhive.org/course/view.php?id=26
V/r
Jason Mansfield
I'd love to see your tutorial but the link seems to be 404. Is there anywhere else that you have the tutorial posted? Thanks.
i just continued a discussion thread in facebook about this topic, please participate, if you have some news about the moodle-facebook integration:
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=5243732877&topic=4534&ref=mf
i hope, that all kinds of INTEGRATION will be much easier with moodle 2.0 !
the integration of moodle & connunities like facebook an d others are very important for th efuture of elearning, i think!
heiko idensen
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=5243732877&topic=4534&ref=mf
i hope, that all kinds of INTEGRATION will be much easier with moodle 2.0 !
the integration of moodle & connunities like facebook an d others are very important for th efuture of elearning, i think!
heiko idensen
Aloha Brian - I have been working on an academic project called Schola Global (www.scholaglobal.com) and, given your comments on this post and your interests, I would appreciate your feedback about this initiative. Schola Global is a free education network dedicated to developing a collaborative environment for teachers, students, parents, and schools.
I am currently evaluating the integration of Moodle and Schola Global so that members can create online courses and teach for free.
Have a great day.
Alex.
I've created a module which integrates Facebook with Moodle. See http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=3316
Hi, I set this up and it works! Great.
I don't understand the function of the Live Feed feature. I added it to the course and it has a field that says "Update your status about this event." and has a checkbox Share with everyone watching this event.
What is the "event" tied to and how does it appear on facebook. What function does the live feed serve within the moodle course?
Thanks!
Dave
I don't understand the function of the Live Feed feature. I added it to the course and it has a field that says "Update your status about this event." and has a checkbox Share with everyone watching this event.
What is the "event" tied to and how does it appear on facebook. What function does the live feed serve within the moodle course?
Thanks!
Dave
Is there an integration of Moodle in Facebook where I can see who has completed which courses, have a look at my activities and jump with single sign on directy into Moodle?
I know that i can implement Moodle RSS feeds in facebook, but is there a mash-up to be built somewhere?
Thanks for any ideas.
There are a number of ways this module could be extended. I think what you are referring to here is facebook application page (that lives in Facebook but is part of moodle). This could be done but would require quite a bit more work. If you would like to lodge this as a feature request please go to the issue tracker (http://tracker.moodle.org) and lodge it there. Ensure you select the Facebook package when creating the issue. Please include a detailed description of what you would like to be able to do.
can this intergration work for Moodle 2.2.3?
Hi Tobias,
I would seriously reconsider inviting Facebook into your Moodle. Please consult with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) http://eff.org/ or some other expert on user data and personal privacy. To highlight the issues, I co-authored an article a while back: http://blog.matbury.com/2011/12/11/a-thorny-issue-protecting-teachers-and-learners-right-to-privacy/ and the UK's Open University has just launched a personal data and privacy awareness learning interaction (free): http://blog.matbury.com/2012/11/03/ou-releases-new-web-privacy-awareness-game/
If you want better social networking capabilities in Moodle, Elgg (http://elgg.org) is a good application that supports Moodle integration. Running your own software and having control over its databases means that you can meet security, privacy and oversight requirements which are increasingly becoming an administrative or even legal requirement.
Some alternatives to consider: http://blog.matbury.com/2012/01/08/safe-social-networking-alternatives/
I hope this helps!
HI Matt,
Thanks for the reply. I have skimmed through your article and its true in a WAY!.
The purpose of the idea of moodle with facebook, for example, the comment box BELOW. This is for online collaboration only. Teachers should educate the students beforehand about how to use the facebook comment box for forum discussion in moodle.
1. This method could be used strickly to online discussion only. Why?
- There are many publicationson facebook and LMS, comparison and pro's and con's. Most studies on this particular topics indicate that students spend more time on facebook (or other social network) than LMSs'.
- Facebook has a mechanism called "mention" When I (student) answer a teacher's question in the forum discussion, I could mention other students' name (involving others / invite other students to engaged) They are given the ball game to say something. for Example " According to Matt Bury, he mentioned that, too many rules and disadvantage of facebook in Moodle. right? ..." Now this time you are notified (+) and you are given a chance to elaborate more on your posted comments before. The Discussion now becomes more quantitative; the qualitative will be depended on the teacher and students.
- I (student) mention my brother's name and post the question to facebook,
My brother cannot access moodle, but he can answer the question from facebook, and show on moodle for everyone (other students) to learn from. The above picture is an example from my experience. You can involve other educators share their feedback with the rest of the students. The person who reply to my comments above is not a students. This is how it looks like in Moodle. He made the comment from facebook.
- However, if the discussion requires a picture to upload like this comment, that is the fall short of facebook comment box in moodle.
I hope my answer does spark something interesting in you mind. Perhaps I can mention Mark Zuckerberg's name (if he's an active facebook user) to share about his purpose of facebook. He may make better comments than any other textbooks, articles and researches about the purpose of facebook.
cheers
Hi Tobias,
I think that your examples raise more ethical questions for any learning and teaching organisation, in that the boundaries between what is shared privately between cohorts of leaarners and their teachers and what is broadcast publicly. If you're doing it right, learning and teaching is a haphazard, self-contradictory, confused activity filled with mistakes and stuff that we just don't want to broadcast to the world and have it hanging out there for all eternity.
I can easily see the imminent appearance of services aimed at employers to do "web checks" for potential and/or existing employees. They can scrape the web to find all your publicly available postings, essays, rants, arguments, silliness, etc. undoubtedly taken out of context and used to make judgements on them. There's also the guilt by association factor of who you're in contact with. There are banks and insurance companies that are looking into trawling the web to find your network of contacts and then basing your "credit worthiness" or "insurability" on them. Can you begin to understand why corporations and governments are so interested in getting as many people as possible to disclose as much about themselves as possible? It's a gold mine for them and an Orwellian nightmare for us.
In terms of learning, if learners are afraid to make mistakes or look stupid or silly, they won't extend themselves outside their comfort zones or explore the limits of their abilities and knowledge. We have to protect the privacy and intimacy of the learning experience between learners, teachers, and administrators. If we introduce interfaces and tools that invite learners to publish their own and others' private learning activities to the rest of the world, we're breaking an implicit trust and creating irreperable issues further down the line. Once it's out there on the public web, it's close to impossible to remove all trace of it.
HI Matt,
We probably not on the same page here. I did a field research here in a high school in the island of Tonga, senior students. Here's the measurement for qualitative outcomes, more students engaged. However, this is strickly to online discussion. You might not fully understand the mechanism of facebook and other social network. Of course business do wants to get as many fans as possible. But there is not way they could access moodle. That is why, facebook in moodle concepts in proposed, However on the other hand, a function in moodle should be in the same behave as facebook comment box.
As long as instructor of LMS administrator is trying to secure their data, so as social network administrators (technical) are trying their best to make sure their security is triple. However with the 2 security together, or a similar behaviour in LMS would be best as of now. How would you get a first time user participate in the online collaboration, considering the culture, lifestyle and learning traditions use in the educational system?
You are probably right in a certain setting, you a definitely wrong in the island of Tonga. Students publicly dialogue with other high school students, even on radio and television and a form of public education, "educate the uneducated" goal as to say. Privacy is respected in this manner, a least portion of the dialogue is publicly disclose for others' feedback and opinion. What is the purpose of a LMS website anyway? data are secure, their purposes and objectives are not, right? The core dialogue in the classroom and online has to be related.
cheers
There is a purpose behind social media - which is to open everything as much as possible, but this is not always wholly conducive to education
This would certainly not be appropriate for primary and even lower secondary schools where students are too young to use tools such as facebook within their terms and conditions.
I would have reservations about its use within our university environment too. We are required to comply with data protection requirements as well as having a care for the online security of our users and opening comments up to the entire world through facebook or similar is not necessarily appropriate for many LMS uses. In fact, I can't think of any at my university where I would want to do this - that's not to say others will think of situations in their own institutions or hypotheticals, but I can't think of a practical use that would work for us without major security and safety concerns that would far outweigh the benefits.
Whether it would be appropriate for the kind of freely available OER/MOOC type courses currently in the headlines is a possibility, I suppose . It really is a case of ensuring administrators select the most appropriate tools for the job they need to do.
If (in your example) your brother is not taking part in the course - as he does not have access to the moodle site - do we want him and all his contacts, and their contacts and so on, chipping in to a discussion which the tutor has to moderate and review for the content added by the students they are responsible for teaching? Who will validate the expertise and suitability of the comments being added to what is 'branded' as a teaching discussion linked to a teaching institution and would carry the weight of such when being read by other users?
A comparison of how much time students spend on social media than on their LMS is hardly compelling reason to integrate the two (although their may be others) I spend more time listening to music on my PC than I do typing Word documents - does that mean I should turn WinAmp into a wordprocessor??? Different jobs require different tools as has been the case in every generation of technology. You don't (normally ) fix a nail in with a screwdriver, or a screw with a hammer.
And as for Mark Zuckerburg - I really think his idea of facebook is a social one, I don't think when it started out with the original ideas there would have been any concept of facebook as an LMS
There's also the point that using SN platforms ain't socialising. Not in the human being sense of the word anyway: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/opinion/sunday/your-phone-vs-your-heart.html
By the way, the definition of socialization 50 years ago, is no longer complete in our days, don't we need to at least sometimes except the change, there we might discover other opportunities and solutions. Out definition of Social Network, will be half wrong in the next 50 years. And so as LMS.
cheers
Hi Tobias,
I think human social presence is one of the biggest issues facing distance learning and elearning. We find find it difficult to form the kinds of close relationships and bonds that are conducive to collaborative, interdependent learning; see Martin Dougiamas' foundational thesis on Moodle for social constructionism; without face to face contact. Apparently, even very high resolution video and high quality audio conferencing tools (research by Cisco) don't convey the intimacy that we seem to require.
In my opinion, commercial SN services like Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. are specifically designed to promote personal disclosure for the purposes of data mining and selling services to 3rd parties, i.e. we're the product. They aren't concerned with facilitating real collaboration or social intimacy, only in getting as many users as possible to disclose as much as possible to mine their data for profit. People may be spending a lot of time on them and they may have the name "social networking" attached to them but that doesn't necessarily make it so. It's PR rather than science.
Cory Doctorow characterised Facebook as "A Skinner box that trains you to under-value your privacy": http://craphound.com/?p=3399
Randy Garrison et al have been researching ways to increase online intimacy and social presence for elearning for over a decade. It's well worth checking out: http://communitiesofinquiry.com/ There's other researchers and research projects along similar lines. I think we should be looking at evidence and reasoning based approaches to increasing the social presence of learners in order to facilitate learning rather than jumping on the latest commercial and popular bandwagons.
Just my €0.02!
HI Matt,
Thank you very much for you insights and please don't mine me debating about this point. But your feedback and insights was very helpful, Please do not hesitate to keep in touch. I might need you help and feedback later.
cheers
Tobias
Hi Tobias,
You're welcome and thanks for engaging in the discussion from your part.
first, sorry for my bad englisch. But, i have good news, i hope
I'm developing such an app for my masterthesis right now. at the moment the app shows the courses of the student, the modules of the course and news in forums will be send to the students fb-wall. this are the base features i think would be usefull. but the code is extensible. maybe i have time enough to implant some more features.
if you are interested let me know. i'll be very happy to share the code with you.
Hello Anna, also sorry for my english.
I'm now working in a similar masterthesis than you. I have to integrate facebook showing news or forums for moodle courses.
But I've tried to integrate de facebook connect with moodle 2.1 and shows me white screen.
I think if the facebook connect already integrates authentication with moodle, I only need to create/use webservices from moodle 2.0+ to show info in facebook app.
Thanks in advance.
Perhaps a good example of the integration of educational tools and Facebook would be Udutu Teach (http://apps.facebook.com/udututeach/) and Udutu Learn, the Facebook applications. These applications are connected to the Udutu site http://www.udutu.com/products-myudutu.html, providing the course authoring system with branching scenarios, Power Point slides integration and export to SCORM. By using the Udutu Teach application, a teacher can also summon the class and notify them about the learning events...
I post this in hope that it could be useful for someone.
I post this in hope that it could be useful for someone.
Unable to find facebook activity under manage activites after the installation of facebook connect.
plz help me out with this issue?
Hi,
Thanks for the great resource.
Is there a way for Moodle users to share their quiz/assignment grades with their friends on Facebook?
This would be a great way to encourage other users to become interested in the courses.
Cheers
Simon
Thanks for the great resource.
Is there a way for Moodle users to share their quiz/assignment grades with their friends on Facebook?
This would be a great way to encourage other users to become interested in the courses.
Cheers
Simon
Please tell me. Is there a plugin for sending messages from moodle on the user's page in facebook.
Hi folks, I have followed the directions at https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/comments/ but to no avail. Users are able to leave comments but they don't post to the users' Facebook pages. Any ideas on how to fix this? Thanks.