Spotlight on Strategies
Facebook Profiles
Background
Social media websites like facebook, instagram and vine have taken the world by storm. Adults and teens have flocked to these websites as a way to communicate and connect with other people. "As of September 2009, 73% of online American teens age 12 to 17 used an online social network website..." (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith and Zickuhr, 2010).
According to the Educational Technology and Mobile Learning website, "One of the strategies to get students engaged and motivated to learn is to incorporate materials that they can identify with and use easily." Our students today relate and connect with social media and this "Fakebook" project is a neat and creative way to connect their present digital selves with content and themes from the classroom.
JFK Project Newsfeed
JFK Project Information
JFK Project Pictures
Example
Students would be required to include:
- A profile picture of their historical figure.
- include at least 5 posts on the newsfeed that describe an important event in their lives. They must include the correct dates.
- Include 6 'friends' of the historical figure and at least 2 of these friends should have a post or comment on the newsfeed.
- The 'About me' section should also be filled out including birthday, hometown, spouse, quotes, interests, political affiliations etc.
- include at least 5 pictures that relate back to the historical figure including captions for each.
- Include a 'note'. You can include a famous quote, speech, or interview.
Challenge
Extension Activity: You can use the same idea but adapt it to another social networking site. You can have students create a twitter feed for a historical figure or character in a novel. The students can also create an Instagram and post as a character from a book. The possibilities are endless!
Templates/Resources
Credit/Citations
Kharbach, M. (2012). 3 Awesome facebook templates for you [Blog post]. Retrieved from Educational Technology and Mobile Learning website: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/03/3-awesome-facebook-templates-for-your.html
MacEntree, S. (2010, October 10). fakebook [Image]. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/smemon/5069070378/
Wiebe, G. (2011, May 5). Fakebook- The next step in Facebook Templates [Blog post]. Retrieved from History Tech website: http://historytech.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/fakebook-the-next-step-in-facebook-templates/