1) The document discusses a study on students' and teachers' perceptions of using Facebook for educational purposes at West University of Timisoara in Romania. 2) The study found that most students access Facebook daily but for short periods of time, and see some educational benefits but also challenges to using it for learning. 3) Overall, the researchers concluded that in Romania, it is difficult to define a "Facebook student" focused on formal education due to low reliance on the platform for academic purposes currently.

1. photo credit: http://chicagobreakingbusiness.com/files/2010/08/ct-biz-facebook-wall-aug25.jpg Ramona BRAN Laurentiu TIRU Gabriela GROSSECK West University of Timisoara Romania WCES 2011

4. Conclusionsphoto credit: http://jess3.com/

5. Facebook was launched by Harvard Student Mark Zuckerberg and his roommates in February 2004. It turn a profit late 2009. In the spring of 2010 Facebook become the most visited site in the US, even surpassing Google. FacebookGames Farm Ville claimed cover 85 mil. active users in 2010. In 2010 Mark Zuckerberg is the Person of the Year.

6. People that are using mobile Facebook (30% login via mobile devices) are TWICE more active than non mobile users almost 596.371.760 users worldwide Europe in 49 countries 152.5 MIO Romania 2.4 MIO Credits: Amodiovalerio Verde / digitalsurgeons

8. designate other users as friends

9. send private messages

10. join groups

11. post and /or tag pictures and leave commentson these pictures as well as on either a group or an individual’s wall

12. install and use third-party applications based on the Facebook platform (such as games, polls and quizzes)

14. CHANGE engaged in student culture constructive educational outcomes practice a differential pedagogy calibrate didactic activities FACING CHALLENGES accept the student as an interactive partner perform efficient teaching mentoring interconnect learning experiences photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hikingartist/ http://www.havefunteaching.com/images/Facebook-For-Teachers.jpg

16. Romanian experience (there is no representative study!) Looking for solutions photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hikingartist/

17. 131 students (out of almost 300) 8.67 months 79.4% male & 20.6% female convenience sample When do you access Facebook? photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hikingartist/

18. Even if they use it for a short time, it seems important for us to underline the fact that they do use it daily (recurrently), which can reveal a lot about a possible habit of using Facebook. photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/19marksdesign/5268732048/

19. students prefer the English version (44,3%) (some) Educational aspects of using Facebook 57.3% photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hikingartist/

21. 70% of the students believe Facebook is a “cheap” tool for promoting knowledge in HE

22. only26,7% of the students perceive the use of Facebook in general, and of educational groups in particular, as important instruments of change in HEonly a little over 10% feel they belong to a community photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hikingartist/

23. What we do NOT particularly appreciate is the fact that the evaluation process is not as flexible as we had expected and the teacher’s intervention is needed almost permanently on the platform. This causes time management difficulties, especially since teachers need to adjust their feedback to each student. photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hikingartist/

24. Although the majority of students claim the page of a subject / facultyadds credibility, just a little over 20% rely on the explosion of the social media profile, while 13,7% think that teachers have to adapt to this highly PersonalMediumofInteraction.

25. [...] the general conclusion we have reached is: at present we cannotdefine/speak about a Facebook Student in Romania (here “Student” means being preoccupied with aspects of his / her formal education)

26. Ramona BRAN Laurentiu TIRU Gabriela GROSSECK West University of Timisoara Romania Faculty of Sociology and Psychology E-mail: [rbran] [ltaru] [ggrosseck] @socio.uvt.ro photo credit: http://mashable.com/2010/06/17/facebook-connect-fail/