At first glance Facebook seems to have a more educated look compared to the popular bright and flashy Myspace, <http://myspace.com>.

The Facebook website at <www.facebook.com> suggests that "Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you." The website suggests that everyone can use facebook to upload photos or publish notes, get the latest news from your friends, post videos on your profile, tag your friends and use privacy settings to control who sees your information. The website suggests you join a network to see people who live, study, or work around you.

Facebook is made up of many networks, each based around a workplace, region, high school or college.

There are many groups warning of the dangers to the general public about the implications of accessing internet sites, whether it be by children in chatrooms (or similar) or by adults for banking, commercial and personal use. In relation to Facebook, the following video link gives examples of such warnings. Type “Facebook” into the video search at this link to watch "Facebook security crisis" and "Who's watching you on Facebook?" (click on "add to playlist" next to each selected video), http://ninemsn.video.msn.com/v/en-au/v.htm?f=39&p=AUnews_AUtoday&t=m166 (retrieved from ninemsn on 27th August 2007.)

It is not the intention of this discussion to follow the path of online dangers. Rather, the reader will quickly gain the understanding that I believe online discussions to offer broader literacy benefits to young people and that it is this aspect I have pursued. Facebook is simply the example I have selected and several other sites would have served a similar purpose. Please note that screen dumps from Facebook have not been individually referenced, since to access those the reader would have to become a member of the Facebook site.

An online search readily provides numerous links to those writing about Facebook including many who are educators using it as their medium to interact with others who have a literacy focus. Others such as Ewan McIntosh at <http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2007/08/uk-and-irish-sc.html> ask the question “Are you going to ban or are you going to educate, Teacher?” (retrieved 20th August 2007

Since Facebook membership conditions require that only secondary students should join the high school network, I selected a network called Australia where I have produced a photo album at <http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=4751&l=9c98a&id=609953493>

Teachers have for a long time known that Literacy is no longer about basic print skills as discussed in Carrington and Marsh (2005), yet very little, in this area, seems to have changed in our school curriculum in recent years. It has often been said that these are new times for literacy, to such an extent that one wonders how old a “new” practice has to be before it becomes accepted. Some questions I wanted to consider whilst looking at Facebook include:
What are students able to do in Facebook that their traditional learning environment in school may not offer?
What are the potential informal literacy learnings that Facebook offers our students?

In regard to young people playing computer games, while the attention paid to the possibilities and affordances of digital media contains much promise for education, Catherine Beavis in her closing paragraph - Chapter 2: New Textual Worlds, emphasises that we must focus our research, not just on the sites themselves or the technology, but also on the way they are understood, the practices that may occur and the identities that are invited. As I explore Facebook, I will look at these issues and try to understand and identify the new literacies that our youth of today are experiencing in social practices out of school.