Profile sites
See our guide for information about Facebook
A profile website is a type of social networking site that allows users to create a representation of themselves, an organisation, a campaign, or other grouping. These representations (or 'profiles') can be linked to by other users. The creation of these links reflects existing 'real' social networks and relationships. These networks can reflect a user's particular interests (e.g. former schools, shared interests, 'fan' sites dedicated individuals or groups).
Most profile sites are web-based. These include sites such Facebook, Bebo, and MySpace.
Use in education
Profile social networking sites can be used by educators to assist learning. Many argue that students are often already comfortable with sites such as Facebook and claim that users interacting with other users often stay relativity active and encouraged to engage in debate.
Ways of using profile sites in education
Profile sites are able to:
- Create a sense of belonging for students. They're used by institutions such as UWE to contribute to lower drop out rates. And may also be used in relation to a course or subject to engage the student more than a purely lecture/assignment approach might. Users can interact with each other and offer support in stressful times.
- Create groups. You can create groups for entire classes or for study groups with smaller subsets of students that allow for easy sharing of information and communication, without students even having to 'friend' each other.
- Include your class blog. You can upload your class blog, lecture notes, and multimedia to a profile site and users can have access to it without them having to 'friend' you. This might possibly get around some of the objections by students of teachers invading their social space.
- Any updates to your blog can be flagged up in a students status updates. In other words, they'll be able to locate your posting at an exact point in their timeline.
- Share multimedia. With the ability to post videos, photos, and more, you can share multimedia content easily with students.
- Participate in a challenge. Profile sites and other social networking sites and applications allow users to collaborate and work towards a shared goal. This has been utilised by education, business, and particularly advertising, to great effect.
See Laura’s Psychology Blog on Using Twitter and Facebook in the Classroom for more info.
Profile sites like Bebo have millions of active users. Bebo profiles (like the one above) tend to be maintained by a younger user than other sites such as Facebook.
See our guide for information about Facebook
Popular profile sites
- Facebook - see our Facebook guide
- Bebo
- MySpace
- Ning
What is an Avatar?
- Profile sites (and other social networking systems and virtual worlds) often make use of Avatars. These are basically representations (normally visual) of a user.
They can take the form of a 'character' in a specifically designed environment such as a virtual world (e.g. Second Life) or else be embedded in other media or websites.
Avatars can be 2D or 3D, and they can often speak and move around.
An example of an avatar that can be used in Blackboard is a Voki. A Voki is a specially created avatar that allows its creator to add audio to give the impression that it is 'speaking'. Users visit the Voki website where they can create the avatar (and where it will be stored). Once created users can link to the Voki from their own site or Blackboard course. A small advert will appear on a free Voki.
Page last updated 23 April 2012