Tech meets sociology at IUPUI with an international twist -- through Facebook
David Ford, associate dean of research and graduate programs at the IU School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI, has added a new twist to a sociology course he is teaching one last time before he retires in the fall.
To engage students through technology and add an international element to the class that examines social problems, Ford turned to Facebook, the social networking web site, as a platform to connect his students in Indianapolis with students in Mexico, China and Kenya.
Ford came to Facebook accidentally. A discussion at an international affairs meeting about the use of the social networking site to reach out to those who weren't connected to the university's electronic communication channels triggered his interest.
His first task was to get over his initial dislike of Facebook.
"I had never used Facebook before," he said. "When I first started using it, I hated it. It was too young for me, I guess.
But he set aside those feelings when he discovered he could use Facebook to make an invitation-only group, enabling students connected to the class to access pages that not only provide class information, but facilitate communication, discussion and offer a source of information on the central organizing theme of the class: globalization creates similar problems for everyone everywhere.
Ford went about recruiting students and faculty from IUPUI's strategic partners: Moi University in Eldoret, Kenya; Sun Yat Sen in Guangzhou, China; and the Autonomous University of the State of Hidalgo in Pachuca, Mexico.
Initially, Ford had hoped for a one-on-one pairing of courses with these institutions. That turned out, he said, to be wishful thinking on short notice and with the vast differences in time zones. The IUPUI class may yet meet at 8 p.m. in order to meet at the same time as the class in China that would meet at 8 a.m.
There were other problems as well. Internet resources at Moi University are limited, which requires students there that want to participate to make a 20-mile one-way trip to an internet café in town. When the class began in January, students in China were on a break until mid-February.
Nonetheless, Ford has been pleased with what the Facebook-enabled class is accomplishing. "Students are discovering there are social problems that are common to all of us," Ford said.It is more meaningful for students at IUPUI to have international partners, who like themselves, have ideas about the world, Ford noted.
"When IUPUI students see a message from a student in Mexico, it generates a higher level of interest that will enhance their learning."Ford posts news accounts of various issues and problems around the globe on the web site, with discussion boards offering students the opportunity to comment on these. Students at IUPUI present in-class reports on these issues.
"Students from the other countries can see what problems we are talking about at IUPUI," Ford noted. "The discussion boards allow all the students to see each other's perspectives."While students have not yet communicated one-on-one with each other regarding global issues, that is something Ford is nudging his students to do.
"I want IUPUI students to have broader outlook on the world and its problems and challenges," Ford said. The IUPUI class offers an opportunity, at least indirectly, for most of the students to interact with students in other countries, something most have not had an opportunity to do through travel.
"I want them to appreciate too that the United States isn't the center of world, and even if the United States is accused of being the source of many social problems, that there are many countries that have problems similar to ours. That, in a sense, is part of the whole global phenomenon."
"One of the other big points important to me," Ford continued, "is for students to lose some of their ethnocentrism, understanding that they are not all that different than others and to have a more open mind to differences among people."
