At this moment, I’m sitting at the Burlington Airport, having a burger in the restaurant filling time before my 7:00 PM flight to Washington. Then is a short wait for the final leg to Raleigh and a full Saturday at home.
It was an excellent day in Burlington, working with educators from the Northwest region of the state. Vermont is an interesting place with very interesting people, and the workshop ended out being a lot of conversation and sharing of ideas. It was one of those days I wish somebody had recorded — everything.
One of the best stories I heard was told by a school librarian, Kathy Gallagher. Her daughter is a senior in high school and is currently shopping for colleges. Kathy said that all of the schools her daughter is considering have their own Facebook groups — except for one, a fairly small liberal arts school. …So her daughter set up the the group for the school. She said, “In just a couple of days, the group grew to over 300.”
This was very impressive — to all of us. But hoping to learn more, I asked, “So why did she set up the group?”
Gallagher looked at me, as if I had completely missed the point. I had completely missed the point. She said that her daughter was visiting the Facebook groups to get answers to questions about student life at the schools from the perspective of students. She wanted to ask the same questions about the small liberal arts school, so she created the community for the school, grew the community, and then had over 300 sources for answers to her questions.
This was, hands down, one of the most interesting and resourceful strategies for finding information on the Internet that I have ever heard. It has as muct to do with working the environment as it does with using Google.
Hi David,
A very cool post- I can’t wait to share it with my daughter. I’m actually visiting my parents right now and have been talking a lot about today’s workshop. It was excellent and many great ideas were shared. Thanks for doing such a great job facilitating. Hopefully I’ll see you in Vermont again sometime. Until then, I’ll be reading your blog. Congratulations on your Edublog award- very cool indeed.
(FYI- I’m actually a technology integration specialist.)
David & Kathy,
David your comments and question could very well be from me given how very little I know how students use information technology these days. As an academic advisor I have been urged by many of my students to get myself a face book connection(is this the right term?). Yet I have resisted this more because I dread learning something new, especially anything having to do with technology; yet deep down I know that this is a really cool tool that allows us to go beyond “just knowing my students by name”. The other side of this is that I would like to be comfortable with the technology our students are using these days because this is a medium that is bound to be used by developing island countries like mine in the near future. There will always be disadvantages and advantages alike for the use of some of these technologies, but that parent’s input about how her daughter utilized facebook is just fabulous. It just reminds me how this tool has allowed for the nurturance of learning communities. I enjoyed your posts!
Nuusa Faamoe
David,
Thank you for the story. A great example of choosing the right tool for the job. We are sometimes ignoring the fact that there are multiple tools and environments that students need to be comfortable with. We’re busy posting a series of weblinks on colleges, and missing the point! Our students realize that collaboration doesn’t mean looking at the book covers. They’re also teaching us that facts aren’t enough! Keep up the great stories and maybe we’ll all get there quicker!
She should have just gone to the liberal art school in person for tha information.
As I immigrate to the technology world, this story gives me a better understanding of the value of facebook.
WOW! I’m glad you shared this story. I would never have thought of creating a community to get the information I wanted. Thanks and Thank You Kathy.
my kids at home will surely love this story , will narrate once i am back home:)