Facebook Page vs. Group: Which Should I Use?
I recently responded to a question regarding the differences between Facebook Pages and Facebook Groups. I use both extensively and thought I would share some of my preferences when making the decision whether to start a Page or a Group.
When to Use a Facebook Page
When we first started developing for the web back in the 90s, most referred to a website as a "web page." In truth, a web page was usually little more than a personal home page that was under the umbrella of a larger domain. For example, your "home page" might have a url like http://www.myisp.com/publicweb/~myaccountname.
Ahh. The good old days. Try saying that url to a friend or family member in hopes they will find your website!
Like a "web page," a Facebook Page is a single entity that is part of a much bigger community on Facebook. Your Facebook Page is essentially open to anyone who wants to view the page, and by liking it, they can join the community and begin posting pictures, links, articles, or comments. There's some control from an admin perspective, but essentially, you must think of a Facebook Page as an open community focused on a topic, person, or organization.
Examples of Facebook Pages include:
- Churches & Nonprofits
- Schools, Colleges & Universities
- Businesses
- Causes (save the whales, etc.)
- Political campaigns
- Celebrities (actors, musicians, etc.)
- Media (CNN, NBC, KCCI-TV)
- Blogs (ThePioneerWoman.com, MichaelHyatt.com)
Facebook Pages may have a few "likes" or fans, or may have several hundred thousand (or millions).
The key question to ask when making a decision between a Page or Group is what kind of control do I want to have over my audience? If your open to having everyone and their friend be a part of your community, then a Page is the correct choice. Secondly, is the focus of your Page an idea, organization, person, etc., or is the purpose to facilitate communication to a select group.
When to Use a Facebook Group
Facebook Groups are an excellent choice for someone who wants to use Facebook as a means of communicating to a select group of people.
For example, if you are on a college faculty, your college will likely have a Facebook Page for the college, but you would need to use a Facebook Group for your individual classes. Moreover, the only people part of your Facebook Group would be your current students. You may choose, therefore, to create a Facebook Group for each section of a class you teach for each term you teach the class. Your Facebook Group may only have a handful of members.
Here are the advantages of a Facebook Group:
- Complete control over membership by the Group admin
- The ability to post documents
- The ability to control what the public can see (open, closed, secret)
Most Facebook Groups will have a small number of members.
Recommended Instructional Applications for a Facebook Group
As stated above, Facebook Groups work very well with a blended or flipped classroom situation, in which you want to push a portion of your teaching onto the web. Here's how I use a Facebook Group for instruction:
- Link to articles of interest and request comment
- Create simple polls and surveys
- Link to videos or other media
- Upload documents or other classroom support material
- Link to Google Docs for reference or collaboration
- Respond to questions or comments
- Maintain a calendar of events
- Post announcements and updated class information
How do you use a Facebook Page or Group in your setting?
Presentation Tools: PowerPoint, Keynote, or Prezi?
I am beginning the process of planning some presentations for various conferences in 2012. Historically, I have used PowerPoint as my presentation app of choice. (See What’s In Your Presentation Toolbox?) Given I have some time to explore, and some new tools are now available, I am re-evaluating my options.
Presenting With an iPad
Ideally, I would like to walk into a presentation with nothing more than my iPad. I know Apple has a Keynote app for the iPad, and based on some quick scanning of the reviews, it performs well. Still, many of the presentation tips I see relate to a presentation in front of a small group with the iPad serving as the only visual source (i.e. no projector).
How would the iPad perform in front of a live audience?
One of the newer (2-3 years old) apps I am looking at is Prezi, a web-based presentation tool. Prezi is a completely different paradigm than either PowerPoint or Keynote. First, and foremost, it is non-linear. The presenter can easily move from one area of a Prezi presentation to another with a simple click.
Perhaps the best way to appreciate Prezi is to see it in action. Here’ is their official intro video from YouTube:
Prezi has an iPad app, and I like the way Prezi automatically prevents a presentation from quickly becoming a series of (boring) bullet points. Still, old habits die hard, and PowerPoint and Keynote have a lot of stability and familiarity built into the apps.
My first presentation is in mid-January, so I will need to make a decision in the next few days.
Do you have any advice? Powerpoint? Keynote? or Prezi?
Times (and Technology) Are Changing
Glance through the last few entries, and you will see I have not posted on a regular basis for quite some time.
There is a reason for this.
The last two years I have been CONSUMED with graduate school. Starting in May 2008, I have taken classes continuously. The longest break has been over the Christmas holiday when we were given a month off.
Fortunately, the end is in sight. I have a literature review to write and an ePortfolio to put together, and I will be finished. I hope to finish both projects this summer. Meanwhile, I hope to become more consistent in writing for this blog.
For anyone looking to enhance their teaching with technology, I would highly recommend the Instructional Technology program at the University of Northern Iowa. You can learn more about it by visiting the website at http://www.uni.edu/itech. With the exception of two on-campus classes during the summer of 2008, the entire program can be completed via distance learning. (I live in Central Iowa, and UNI is located in Cedar Falls, approximately two hours north.)
I am amazed at how rapidly technology continues to change. Looking back two years ago to our first class-Emerging Instructional Technology—I can already see incredible changes.
- Two years ago “netbooks” were still in their infancy, and no one even dreamed of an iPad (except for the engineers at Apple.)
- Social media has really come into its own as a viable method of communicating, marketing, instructing, and connecting.
- “The Cloud” has become the computing platform of choice. Even Microsoft Office, the symbol of desktop dominance now has a cloud component.
Yes, Millie, things are changing!
Hang-on for the ride the next few years as we continue to see rapid development of personal computing devices. This summer the wireless companies will begin to introduce 4G access across the USA, and Google will introduce their “Google TV” later this year. There is an Android Slate on the horizon and a windows-based slate.
Is it All Good?
The challenge for those of us on the consuming end of all this new stuff is what in the world are we going to do with it? Is it possible to become numb to all of the techno whiz that surrounds us on a daily basis? Is it possible for the technology to become more of a distraction than enhancement?
What do you think?
Alternate Reality Games
This weekend while engaged in quite a bit of driving, I listened to the July 16 episode of The Maccast featuring J. C. Hutchins. The topic of conversation focused on Alternate Reality Games, a massive media genre that encompasses a broad assortment of communication methods to engage people in the topic of the ARG. The entire infrastructure is built around the web, so it becomes geographically dispersed as the game takes on a life of its own.
Wikipedia provides a more in-depth definition:
An alternate reality game (ARG), is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions.
The form is defined by intense player involvement with a story that takes place in real-time and evolves according to participants' responses, and characters that are actively controlled by the game's designers, as opposed to being controlled by artificial intelligence as in a computer or console video game. Players interact directly with characters in the game, solve plot-based challenges and puzzles, and often work together with a community to analyze the story and coordinate real-life and online activities. ARGs generally use multimedia, such as telephones, email and mail but rely on the Internet as the central binding medium.
ARGs are growing in popularity, with new games appearing regularly and an increasing amount of experimentation with new models and subgenres. They tend to be free to play, with costs absorbed either through supporting products (e.g. collectible puzzle cards fund Perplex City) or through promotional relationships with existing products (for example, I Love Bees was a promotion for Halo 2, and the Lost Experience and FIND815 promoted the television show Lost). However, pay-to-play models are not unheard of.
Imagine how something like this could be used in an educational setting. It would be a project of great undertaking, but it would certainly engage today’s younger learners.
To read more about ARGs, explore the following resources:
- The Complete Wikipedia article on ARGs
- A Wikipedia article describing “The Lost Experience,” an ARG created to promote the television show Lost.
- Personal Effects: Dark Art (a novel by Hutchins with an accompanying ARG)
- J.C. Hutchins’ web site
- The July 16 episode of The Maccast
4 Simple Tips for Recording High-Quality Audio
The Rapid E-Learning Blog has an excellent article on recording high quality audio on your computer. Having clean, crisp audio is critical to the successful implementation of your learning applications. This article is well worth the read.
Good audio is critical to your elearning success. You might be a great instructional designer and create the most engaging courses possible. But it all falls apart if the audio quality in your course is not very good.
In an earlier post we looked at when it makes sense to consider paying for professional narration. If you have the money, this is a viable option. However, many of you are like Old Mother Hubbard and your cupboard is bare. If you do have a limited budget (or you want to do the narration yourself) then here are some tips to help you do the best job possible.
Today we’ll look at the microphone and recording environment. And in a follow up post, we’ll explore ways to get the best sounding narration.