Skip to main content

Am I creating a "creepy treehouse"?

In addition to worrying that my students will be confused by all the technology and social media that I've incorporated into my classes, I've also been wondering about something that apparently is being called the "Creepy Treehouse" effect. This refers to students perceiving the use of certain social media tools as encroaching on their personal space. I don't think this necessarily applies to things like clickers, which students see as being pretty much entirely 'school-related', but it's definitely a concern for sites like Facebook, where students are using it already for socializing. In an informal survey of my students last spring, only a few had interacted with any of their courses through Facebook (including informal study groups or Blackboard's sync application). Furthermore, about half said that they would rather keep social networks separate from schoolwork. On the other hand, almost as many students said they wouldn't mind using Facebook for classes, which leads me to think that it could be OK as long as it was an optional thing and not a required thing.

Chris Lott also makes an important point about the distinction between social networks, where the primary purpose IS the social interaction, and social tools, where interactions have a separate purpose (such as bookmarks, blog posts, etc.). The former is much more likely to trigger the creepy factor than the latter. It also seems to me that if you're going to use social tools, your reasons for using them needs to be crystal clear to your students; that is, if students can see how these tools help achieve class objectives, I think they are less likely to see it as creepy. Given all this, I've basically decided that I won't be using Facebook or Twitter with my classes, and I'll be monitoring their reaction to IM'ing and blogging carefully...

Comments

  1. It's an interesting dilemma and one I'm still working out (http://professionalraconteur.blogspot.com/2008/08/students-as-facebook-friends-too-much.html).

    I do use facebook study groups as optional, an additional technology platform for students to use along with the more clunky BlackBoard site.

    Given that I teach communication and technology, I think it can be an effective teaching tool regarding the effects of technology on relationships. Could I use the example without actually becoming students' friends on facebook? Maybe. They might still get the point, but I don't know that I truly would have understood it had I not become friends with some of my (current and former) students.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for referencing Itunes U the other day. I looked it up, and had thought I had heard something about it, but didn't know exactly what it was. I'm hoping this will be my newest resource. There's so much information on here covering so many fields, and its all free. I don't have to pay for a class, or any other fees.

    Being able to hear lectures from MIT, Stanford, Duke, Yale, and others is amazing. Drawing on all of this knowledge makes my head explode. I cant decide where to start or go next. It could rival the time I spend on Wikipedia.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Comments that contribute to the discussion are always welcome! Please note that spammy comments whose only purpose seems to be to direct traffic to a commercial site will be deleted.

Popular posts from this blog

Economics Education sessions at ASSA

If I missed any, please let me know... Jan 07, 2011 8:00 am , Sheraton, Director's Row H American Economic Association K-12 Economic and Financial Literacy Education (A2) Presiding: Richard MacDonald (St. Cloud State University) Teacher and Student Characteristics as Determinants of Success in High School Economics Classes Jody Hoff  (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco) Jane Lopus (California State University-East Bay) Rob Valletta (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco) [Download Preview] It Takes a Village: Determinants of the Efficacy of Financial Literacy Education for Elementary and Middle School Students Weiwei Chen (University of Memphis) Julie Heath (University of Memphis) Economics Understanding of Albanian High School Students: Student and Teacher Effects and Specific Concept Knowledge Dolore Bushati (University of Kansas) Barbara Phipps (University of Kansas) Lecture and Tutorial Attendance and Student Performance in t...

This is about getting through, not re-inventing your course

As someone who has worked hard to build a lot of interactivity into my courses, I have never been interested in teaching fully online courses, in part because I have felt that the level of engaged interaction could never match that of a face-to-face class (not that there aren't some exceptional online courses out there; I just have a strong preference for the in-person connection). But the current situation is not really about building online courses that are 'just as good' as our face-to-face courses; it is about getting through this particular moment without compromising our students' learning too much. So if you are used to a lot of interaction in your F2F class, here are some options for adapting that interaction for a virtual environment: [NOTE: SDSU is a Zoom/mostly Blackboard campus so that's how I've written this but I am pretty sure that other systems have similar functionality] If you use clickers in class to break up what is otherwise mostly lect...

Moving on...

I want to let everyone know that I am officially closing out this chapter of my blogging life. It was 17 years ago this May that I started this blog, back when blogging was still relatively new, and I was exploring ways to have my students do some writing. During the years from 2008 to 2015-ish, when I was most active with experimenting with different pedagogical approaches, this space helped me process what I was learning, and connected me with economists and other colleagues who care about teaching. As I have moved into other roles, I have been torn about what to do with this space, feeling a bit weird about posting anything not directly related to teaching. I have finally decided I need to start fresh so I will be writing (though I have no idea how regularly) on Substack .  Thank you to everyone who has read and commented over the years. I hope you'll find me on Substack, or in real life!