[Air-L] question about use of Facebook in classroom

[Sam Ladner]

I have to agree that using something so public as Facebook might be
problematic for the students. There might be unintended consequences for
their public persona that you may have difficulty predicting, i.e., what
will arrive in their friends' newsfeeds if they change their gender?

I also recall a similar (though not exactly the same) situation among some
former colleagues in interactive advertising firms. One junior designer had
been "requested" to put a beer-related application on his profile because
the agency had created it and the beer company was its client.

He refused but felt it did hurt him within the agency. He was not completely
"on board" or a "team player" because he really didn't want to tell the
world he didn't like beer.

I have used Ning as well and recommend this as a more closed system, but
this won't be as advertising-centric as the method you suggest.

There is an interesting game Passive Multiplayer Online Game (PMOG) that
creates a "mission" for people to surf through. There is one on online
identity that has been used in courses (I have inferrd this from analyzing
my own site stats). It might be interesting from an advertising point of
view.

http://pmog.com/missions/identity_onscreen_and_off_with_howard_rheingold?user_page=3