

A Disturbing Trend in Online Education: News Feeds - ashamedlion
http://www.smartlyedu.com/blog/posts/20-a-disturbing-trend-in-online-education-news-feeds

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sandipc
I don't think this statement is actually true: "Ever since Facebook pioneered
the concept of the News Feed, a constantly updating stream of communications
to keep you in the loop..."

(Twitter, and possibly even RSS feeds before that)

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ashamedlion
Upon further research, Twitter and the FB News Feed came out within 2 months
of each other, Twitter coming first. However, the News Feed was the first
truly successful version of it.

I wouldn't say that a news feed and RSS are synonymous. RSS was not
accessible, nor was it really for distributing user created content, it was
more for blog posts and news. Those aren't the type of communications I was
talking about.

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jchonphoenix
I really hope this analysis is not of smartlyedu's target market... because if
it is, they're going down the wrong track. Facebook doesn't actually add any
extra overload. Most students perfectly understand that facebook is just
another tool for communication. Nobody really expects other students to check
their facebook at all times and most students are tech savvy enough to realize
that they can just ignore facebook. Most college students tend to ignore the
feed and "like" spam that happens anyways and will only comment if they see
something that catches their eye. Its not a stressing ritual at all.

All the hype around facebook makes people who aren't intimately aware of the
social scene think that the entire social scene is on facebook. Its a great
and useful tool, but the social scene really isn't on facebook. Facebook only
augments it. Thus, if someone is really feeling social overload from facebook.
Removing their facebook account really isn't going to do much--your friends
are only a campus away. The pressure will find you. Regulating the feed won't
change anything.

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ashamedlion
Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. When I say it overwhelms the user, I meant
that in a positive way. People go on Facebook because it's always updating,
it's always giving new information to users. I didn't mean to paint a picture
of people ripping their hair out because of the updating stream.

I was merely pointing out that the idea of something that is constantly
updating is not a good model for education, because students want to feel like
they've completed the day's work rather than feeling like they need to go back
constantly to finish.

