1. The Pros and Cons of
using Facebook in ELT
Barbi Pál and Zsófi Lékai
2. Background
Digital natives – internet has an
important role in their lives
More than 400 million active users
More than 200 million log in every day
Average user spends 55 minutes per
day on Facebook
Average user belongs to
13 Facebook groups
3. The Question
Should we integrate Facebook (or
other social networking sites) into
education?
4. The Pros
Promotes collaboration
Even shy students can open up
Indirect way of creating a learning
community
Actively engages students
Increases teacher-student, student-
teacher interaction
5. Convenient way of communicating with
parents
Connect with native speakers
Authentic cultural material
Creating a class Facebook group
◦ Sharing information
◦ Commenting on others’ posts
◦ Sharing reading experience
◦ Posting homework
Class projects (e.g. sharing reviews)
6. The Cons
Facebook addiction
(multitasking, Facebook chat…)
Privacy Issues (both on the teacher’s
side and on the students’ side)
Professional vs. personal relationships
aren’t separated
Teachers and students are „friends”?
7. Using the same site for personal (fun)
and educational (not so much fun)
purposes?
Security problems
There are students who are not on
Facebook (or not active)
Extremely time-consuming
There are other ways of sharing files,
material… (e.g. e-learning, class
website, GoogleDocs…)
