Most
teachers want to have an easy way to communicate with students and
their parents. We need a way to send information and assignments so
that everyone will receive them. At the same time, students need
somewhere to be able to ask questions, both to the teacher and their
peers. All my students have mobile telephones and all of them use
Facebook daily. That is why I like to create closed groups on
facebook.com as a tool. If one has a Facebook account, it is very
easy to create a closed group to which one can invite students and/or
parents. One presses the “create group” button, which is found
under groups on the left-hand side, when working on a computer.
Doing that, one will see the following image:
The only
thing left to do now is pick a name for the group; for example, the
name of the school and for which class and year the group is meant.
Choose to have a closed group, and then it is finished. The students
do not need to be friends to the group creator on Facebook to be able
to join the group. The teacher can invite the students or parents by sending an email to each of them;
then the students/parents will have access to the group. It is easy to post
information, assignments, videos and whatever else the teacher wants
to share with the students or their parents. It is also easy to see
who has read or seen what, as it appears next to each of the posts.
The teacher
can choose to use a group for only one subject or for more. The class
teacher can use a Facebook group to share information with parents. A
potential problem is that not all parents or students have Facebook
accounts. However, it is easy and free to create an account. For
students who struggle with homework or other assignments away from
school, the Facebook group can be used as a discussion between peers
or to ask questions to the teacher. The group can also be used to correspond with other
students, in other parts of the world. There are many possibilities.
It is important that the teacher and the students discuss what purpose the group has, so that everyone agrees on how it should
be used.
Malin Holmén