Why I Teach Social Networking

The first thing I should do here is explain the title. By "teach social networking," I really just mean "show my students how to open Facebook accounts." Social networking really teaches itself; all that I do after the initial set-up is answer questions, and about every 20 minutes, I add a mini-demonstration on another of the site's features.

Why Facebook? The answer's simple: Facebook is - overwhelmingly - the social networking platform of choice for Malawians. That's really the only thing that matters. A social networking site is pretty worthless if your own social network is off doing their thing somewhere else. If Malawians were using MySpace or Bebo in vast numbers, I'd encourage my students to use those websites instead.

So, why social networking in the first place? Usually when I tell friends back home that I'm teaching Facebook, they groan and make some joke about how I'm encouraging the downfall of Malawian society via the Facebook "time-suck." Eh. I have two pretty sound reasons for doing what I do.

First off, Facebook does not have a stigma of unprofessionalism associated with it here in Malawi, unlike the US. Online social networking can be an incredibly useful tool professionally (I've never used it, but I understand LinkedIn is the "professional" version of social networking sites like Facebook - of course, again, there's absolutely nobody using it in Malawi). Over time, though, the Facebook brand has become associated with frivolity and time-wasting - not, I hasten to add, without reason. However, this does not mean that it can't be used for legitimate professional social networking purposes. And since Facebook is not automatically associated with goofing off in Malawi, its users have some wiggle room to make it into whatever sort of tool they want (to an extent, I think Facebook's silly time-wasting side is a self-fulfilling prophecy).

That's point number one, but my bigger (and slightly contrary) reason for teaching Facebook is this: People who only ever use computers for office work will never really get them, because they won't bother taking the time. Playing is good. Goofing around a little is good. If you get the idea into your head that computers are here for you, and not the other way around, that can only be a good thing. Computers are incredibly versatile tools that can be put to just about any purpose - but if you only ever use them for what you are told is their intended purpose (which is usually pretty dreary) then you will never get this, and you will never learn to love computers. If you never learn to love computers, it is certain that you will never comprehend the full extent of what they can achieve, the sorts of problems they can be put to solving.

I don't think that my students are about to have their minds completely blown from one afternoon of Facebook - let's not get carried away here. But I do think it's important that I give them a well-rounded experience, and that they not only finish my class more knowledgeable about computers, but appreciative of them as well.

Learning not to Teach the Impractical

Disappointing lesson today.

The goal was to help all 13 of my students set up their own Google accounts. From there, I'd show them the ropes on Gmail, and in later lessons, Google Docs. I was especially excited about the latter; I think cloud-based office applications are fantastic, and I was really looking forward to teaching these guys how to use Google Docs' word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation programs - and most of all, Google's custom 'forms creator.'

Unfortunately - and not for the first time - Google blocked us at every turn when we tried to create the accounts. This is not exactly new territory for me. I never found Google to be obstructive back home in the States, but it really feels like the company is reluctant to offer new accounts to people living in Malawi. That could be unfair - I suppose there could be any number of reasons, it's not necessarily based on our physical location - but the fact remains that maybe 80% of the time when I'm trying to create a new Google account here in Malawi, I've been rebuffed in one way or another. I've never had this problem when creating accounts on other websites here.

Well, even a setback can be an opportunity for a lesson. I mentioned to my group that there are plenty of other e-mail hosting websites, wrote a few URLs on the board, and encouraged them to pick one. Most tried Yahoo. A couple of people went for Windows Live. None of them had any problems creating their accounts on these websites, and they're all happily sending emails back and forth as I type this.

The overarching lesson for me is that, no matter how nice my vision of teaching Google Docs may have been, it simply was not realistic. In the end, it is a waste of their time (and mine) teaching them to use one set of tools that I can't guarantee they'll have access to, when I could use that same lesson time to teach them something I know they'll be able to use.

I'm keeping my own Google account, of course. Using a Google account is not the problem; creating one is. So, I'll continue using Gmail, Reader, Docs, and Blogger, but until I'm convinced that Google will stop randomly blocking the creation of new accounts in Malawi, I'm not going to bother encouraging people here to sign up.