Who's using facebook.

Mashable has an interesting infographic on the demographics of Facebook. A year ago on April 5th 37.5 % of the total US population had a Facebook account. The Makeup of the US Facebook population had significantly more diversity that the US population, at least with Black, Hispanic and Asian users (Muhammad Saleem 2010). Roy Wells estimated the total US Facebook population in August of 2010 at 41.6%.

Why I want to do quantitative research

I'd like my dissertation to look at quantitative data related to student use of online educational network technologies and sucess in writing classes: that is if my committee will agree.

I've heard from a few colleagues - and at least one technology guru - that I should look at actual writing and do pre and post tests of authentic writing. Eventually I will - but that's not the research I need to do first.

Everyone understands that writing today involves technology - in the product and in the process - but I want to recognize in my research that success in writing involves more than coding lexical items in conventional syntax - it also involves crafting educational identities and finding one's voice, it involves negotiating new and fluid cultural rules, it involves making friends with one might have an authentic audience for one's writing, it involves peer feedback, establishing trust, complaining about teachers and having fun.

It has been thoroughly documented how difficult - if possible - it is to control an experiment on live humans for all the different linguistic input between a pre and a post test. In order to perform any meaningful analysis of authentic writing in order to examine the effects of technology - a monumental amount of research needs to be done on the specific context of the population.

Also, meaningful change on core educational skills like reading and writing happens over time. No intervention so far has had drammatic effect in less than a semester or even year, so what conclusions we gather over said intervention's effect is suspect.

One challenge is the bias against quantitative research among English teachers. I agree with an old business teaching colleague / reverend who used to say "statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is interesting, but what the conceal is vital;" however, that doesn't make swimwear irrelevant or useless. And while skinnydipping may be a more natural and authentic experience, I wouldn't do it in a river or lake without going in first with a suit. I've been in more than my fair share of ponds and rivers, and the first time you go in one should always wear a suit - and I recommend foot coverings as well. It may slow down your swimming, but cutting yourself or slipping on rocks can be worse.

What can you learn thru Read/Write web; what skills are needed (research notes)

Luckin et al. (2009) asks how the read/write web interacts with learning and what sort of skills support the kind of learning that happens in this environment, and notes that researchers (Buckingham, 2007; Green and Hannon, 2007; Jenkins, 2006) have identified "learner criticality" as a constellation of essential cognitive skills. I'll have to read up on these sources to be sure of how the term is used, but it seems to be a more specific subset of meta-cognitive skills - which is an awareness and knowledge of self and learning - learning to learn.

Luckin et al's study of 11-16 year old British students found low use of wiki's (save for Wikipedia), blogs and podcasts by students, and high use of social networking sites, such as Facebook. The tremendous potential of the former applications are not as embraced by youth as we might have thought. Indeed, they found,

The types of activity revealed by the data illustrated little evidence of critical enquiry or analytical awareness, few examples of collaborative knowledge construction, and little production or publishing outside social networking sites. We also confirm the low level of computer activity at school when compared to use at home and also illustrate the difference in the type of activity being undertaken inside and outside school (100).

Luckin et al. also note a lack of sophistication in research and a lack of higher order thinking skills. We should remember that the population studied were only 11-16 years old, but elsewhere Carr (2010) argues that modern technology creates consumers of information who are less equipped to think deeply or construct meaning from that information.

Works Cited

• Buckingham, D. 2007. Beyond technology: Children’s learning in the age of digital culture. Cambridge: Polity.
• Carr, N. 2010. The Shallows Norton & Co.
  
• Green, H., and C. Hannon. 2007. Their space: Education for a digital generation. London: Demos.
• Jenkins, H., K. Clinton, R. Purushotma, A. Robison, and M. Weigel. 2006. Confronting the
  challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. Chicago:
  MacArthur Foundation.
  
• Lenhart, A., and M. Madden. (2005). Teen content creators and consumers. Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project.
• Luckin, R. et al. (2009)"Do Web 2.0 tools really open the door to learning? Practices, perceptions and profiles of 11–16-year-old students" Learning, Media and Technology. 34 ( 2) 87–104

Research on Peer Feedback and CMC.

Currently reading "Peer Feedback Through Blogs: Student and teacher perceptions in an advanced German class" by DORIS DIPPOLD found in European Association for Computer Assisted Language Learning 21 (1) : 18-36. Published in 2009.

This article explores the question of how blogs can facilitate peer feedback in a second language acquisition environment. It concludes that blogs can be useful tools for collaboration and student feedback on peer writing in second language classrooms, but warns of dangers and need for training by both teachers and students. I appreciated the literature review which expressed ideas I take for granted that may not be common knowledge - and it exposed me to articles I need to track down. Dippold also notes that in educational writing "feedback" and "assessment," when used in discussions of formative assessment - are used almost interchangeably. The importance of this insight might be more important that she realizes.

Blogs allow student writers to reach a far larger audience than just a teacher and/or tutor, and help in the easier sharing or resources and ideas (Goodwin-Jones, 2003; Williams & Jacobs, 2004).

Because of the need to imagine and predict the possible reactions of their readers blogging promotes critical thinking (Williams & Jacobs, 2004; Oravec, 2003; Ducate & Lomika, 2005). Ducate & Lomika strove to build intercultural awareness in their research, which involved exchanges (travel as well as communication) between French and American students. Blogging uniquely enables peer feedback, which is essential to meeting objectives of audience analysis, tone, purpose, and the recognition of one's place in a discourse community united by an intellectual goal. Baggetun and Wasson (2006:460) explain:

We see that in order to generate feedback one needs certain skills, in particular, participation skills. As a student, you need to learn how to frame an issue you want to raise, relate it to a current issue, and know how to invite or ask questions so that someone feels tempted to reply. [y] SRL [self-regulated learning] also encompasses participation in learning communities and how to develop skills to engage in productive interactions with your peers.

There are several issues that make using peer feedback with ESL learners a tremendous challenge. Hyland and Hyland (2006) note that foreign language students prefer feedback from teachers to peers. This likely has something to do with the non-native speaking ability in English of their peers. If their "peer" were another comp. 1 or 2 student whose native language was English, then these results might be different. Also, ESL students resist having power over their peers and resist their peers having power over them (Liu & Carless, 2006).

Works Cited

Baggetun, R. and Wasson, B. (2006) Self-regulated learning and open writing. European Journal of Education, 41(3–4): 453–472.
Ducate, L. and Lomicka, L. (2005) Exploring the blogosphere: Use of blogs in the foreign language classroom. Foreign Language Annals, 38(3): 410–421.
Goodwin-Jones, R. (2003) "Blogs and wikis: Environments for on-line collaboration." Language Learning and Technology, 7(2): 12–16.
Hyland, F. and Hyland, K. (2006) State of the art article: Feedback on second language students’ writing. Language Teaching, 39: 83–101.
Liu, N. and Carless, D. (2006) Peer feedback: The learning element of peer assessment. Teaching in Higher Education, 11(3): 279–290.
Oravec, J. A. (2003) Blogs as an emerging genre in higher education. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 14(2): 21–44.
Williams, J. and Jacobs, J. (2004) Exploring the use of blogs as learning spaces in the higher education sector. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 20(2): 232–247.