Lara Procaccini's ICT PLE

FAKEBOOK

This tool that resembles "Facebook" allows teachers and students to create imaginary profile pages. You can add pictures, a profile name, comments, posts, among others.

Click here to access the tool.

Here's a tutorial on how to use it:

Tutorial on how to use FAKEBOOK.pdf

Here's a tutorial on how to use it:

Tutorial on how to use FAKEBOOK.pdf

Here's a tutorial on how to use it:

Tutorial on how to use FAKEBOOK.pdf

How can you use this tool in class?

A possible task for a group or teen learners to revise past simple may be:

1) Select a famous person or a character of your preference. Create their profile by adding a picture (copyright-free), the name, and the personal information.

2) Create three posts: the reference time should be:
Post 1: Last year. Post 2: Last month. Post 3: Yesterday.

You have to write a text with at least two sentences in simple past in each post. Images are optional.

Bonus! Write a comment from other user, asking something about the post, in past simple!
For example: Messi posted "We won the cup yesterday" and the extra comment may be "Was it a difficult match?"

3) Share the links to your fakebook with other classmates to stalk each other and find out what that celebrity/character did!

How is this activity linked to the theoretical frameworks?

The above-proposed activity will be linked to the SAMR model. This is a model for mobile learning that " lays out four tiers of online learning, presented roughly in order of their sophistication and transformative power: substitution, augmentation, modification, and redefinition" (Terada, 2020, para 6).
An activity in which students need to create a profile for a character/famous person could be an instance of modification, since technology allows the activity to be redesigned (Romrell et al., 2014). In other words, if this tool did not exist, maybe the teacher would not ask students to do it on paper because the images, display and presentation would be difficult to produce. This is why, the use of the website here allows the transformation of the task.

From Surviving to Thriving with SAMR and Canvas

Which are the benefits of using this website?

As Fakebook allows students to create fake social media profiles, they can develop their creativity skills. In other words, "Students can use social media simulators as a tool for creative writing, such as creating a fictional social media account for a character in a story or creating a social media campaign for a fictional event." (Zeoob, 2024, para 12). Moreover, this format encourages posts or comments which are nowadays a very frequent type of text in students' lives, therefore real-world communication examples. Thus, language practice becomes more authentic and fun.

References

Arias, N. (2024) From Surviving to Thriving with SAMR and Canvas
https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructional-Leadership/From-Surviving-to-Thriving-with-SAMR-and-Canvas/ba-p/618194

Romrell, D. Wood, E. & Kidder, L. (2014) The SAMR Model as a Framework for Evaluating mLearning
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264549561_The_SAMR_Model_as_a_Framework_for_Evaluating_mLearning

Terada, Y. (2020) A Powerful Model for Understanding Good Tech Integration
https://www.edutopia.org/article/powerful-model-understanding-good-tech-integration/

Zeoob (2024) Use of Social Media Simulators in Teaching
https://zeoob.com/use-of-social-media-simulators-in-teaching/