Fanficiton, or "Who is Mary Sue and Why Does Everyone Hate Her?"

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Webcomics, or "Can Dinosaurs Really Teach Literary Techniques?"

> Webcomics

As you might guess, webcomics are comics on the web. Unlike the comics you find in the newspaper, webcomics can be created and published by anyone. Also, webcomics are free! These Internet comics are extremely popular, especially with young people who aren't much taken with newspapers anyway. I fondly remember reading Calvin and Hobbes and The Boondocks in the paper, but I have to say that webcomics are a wonderful new take on the old art of storytelling through comics.

F.A.Q.

I can read Garfield and Fox Trot online. Does that make them webcomics?

No, a true webcomic is almost always originally shared online, not through newspapers.

How are webcomics made?

It depends on the artist. Some artists do it the old-fashioned way, drawing their comics out on paper and inking the pictures, then scanning them onto a computer to put online. Some artists draw comics by hand and then color and edit the pictures on the computer. Some artists don't draw at all, simply manipulating existing images on the computer, positioning characters and adding captions to tell the story (this often done using old video game graphics, or "sprites"). Many artists take the middle road, drawing on a tablet connected to their computers. You draw on a tablet with a pen-shaped stylus, and the image goes to your computer as you draw it. Then, you can edit the image using software like Photoshop.

Who makes webcomics?

Anyone can make a webcomic. Some webcomic creators are amateurs who have no formal artistic training, while others are professional artists and animators. Thousands of webcomics inundate the Internet, but a few excellent series have become popular enough to spawn published collections and merchandise. Some webcomic creators become able to support themselves mostly through the success of their webcomics. Thus, the line between professional cartoonists and webcomic artists becomes hazy.

Many webcomic artists, particularly those that become famous, get to know one another. They make references to their friends' comics in their own work, draw "guest strips" for each other, and hang out at conventions.

How often are webcomics posted?

That depends on the comic. Your average webcomic is updated once or twice a week, usually on specific days (Tuesdays and Thursdays, for example). Some comics are updated every day of the week, while others are updated erratically, whenever the artist has time (in these cases, months may go by between updates, causing great suffering among fans). Because webcomics can be created by anyone at any time, some comics might be started and then abandoned, left unfinished by artists who lost the time or interest to devote to their work. Most webcomic sites tell you how often to expect updates in their About section. Sometimes, comic artists take brief breaks to attend a convention or recover from an illness. If they have enough notice, they can usually get other webcomic artists to draw guest strips until they're able to return. That way, fans don't have to go without their favorite comic in the creator's absence.

What age group would work with webcomics best?

I'd recommend high school over middle school when it comes to webcomics, as many webcomics use swear words (some, frequently; some, occasionally). Just choose which webcomics you use wisely and keep in mind that if you introduce students to a comic, they might go investigate the website, which may contain less appropriate comics. I'll indicate which comics are especially clean or PG-13 below.

Some Popular Webcomics:

Penny Arcade

Written by Jerry Holkins and drawn by Mike Krahulik.

One of the most famous webcomics, Penny Arcade is widely enjoyed for its video game and pop culture humor. It's also one of the longest running webcomics, having begun way back in 1998. The creators were among the first webcomic artists to be able to make a living from their work. The comic stars the creators' alter egos, Tycho and Gabe. (Beware: there's cursing in this comic)

Penny Arcade is updated on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Dinosaur Comics

Written and assembled by Ryan North.

Dinosaur Comics seem strange at first, as every single comic has the same clip art format. But the clever, absurd dialogue that changes every day is priceless. T-Rex and his friends Dromiceiomimus (pronounced "droh-MEE-see-oh-MYE-muhs") and Utahraptor ponder life, the universe, and everything. And Batman.

Be sure not to miss the extra jokes and comments that appear when you hold the mouse over the comic!

Dinosaur Comics are updated every weekday.

xkcd

Written and drawn by Randall Munroe (a former contractor for NASA).

Stick figures have never been so expressive. xkcd (which isn't meant to stand for anything) deals with sarcasm, romance, language, and life, but also includes some math and science jokes that true nerds can appreciate. Sometimes, only true nerds can appreciate these jokes, but most comics are quite accessible. Be sure not to miss the extra jokes and comments that appear when you hold the mouse over the comic!

xkcd is updated on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Garfield minus Garfield

Jim Davis's Garfield comics modified by Dan Walsh.

Self-described as "a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb." The artist simply removes Garfield and his thought bubbles from the comic, leaving Jon alone and pathetically talking to himself. Much funnier than the original Garfield comic, IMHO. Garfield creator Jim Davis doesn't seem to mind.

Garfield Minus Garfield doesn't seem to have a regular updating schedule, but usually posts new comics 2-3 times a week.

Lackadaisy

Written and drawn by Tracy J. Butler.

Lackadaisy is absolutely exquisite, possibly the highest quality webcomic around. The author is a professional artist, and it shows. She researches all the historical elements of her Prohibition-era comic so that the clothing, cars, buildings, guns, and other features are realistic and accurate. Did I mention the comic is about anthropomorphic cats? Anthropomorphic cats running an illegal speakeasy? And the cats banter wittily with era-appropriate language? It's fantastic. Easily one of my favorite webcomics.

Lackadaisy is updated whenever the author has time.

Shrub Monkeys

Drawn by Katie "KT" Shanahan, who often gets writing ideas from her siblings.

Shrub Monkeys is about a girl and her siblings, based on their real-life escapades, with some funny exaggeration thrown in. The creator is a storyboard artist for animated shows, and her talent is apparent in her hilarious drawings. This comic is great ammunition against the "girls can't be funny" argument.

Shrub Monkeys is updated whenever the artist has time, sometimes as often as once a week.

(You're advised not to Google "Shrub Monkeys," as the artist named the comic not knowing that "Shrub Monkeys" is also a crude slang term.)

Dr. McNinja

Drawn and written by Christopher Hastings.

Dr. McNinja is a ninja. And a doctor. He has a gorilla receptionist and a mustachioed twelve-year-old sidekick. His mentor is a clone of Benjamin Franklin. He HATES pirates. Needlessly to say, his adventures are awesome. (Note: Dr. McNinja does get violent--he IS a ninja, after all--but doesn't really exceed PG-13-level violence.)

Dr. McNinja is updated on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Gunnerkrigg Court

Written and drawn by Tom Siddell.

A marvelous tale mixing mythology, magic, and technology. Set in a mysterious British boarding school, the comic follows Antimony Carver, a girl who can communicate with spirits. Antimony helps ghosts, becomes best friends with a girl genius, tames a crafty fox spirit, and talks with Coyote (yes, that Coyote). The art improves as the comic progresses and the artist benefits from regular practice. This is one of my personal favorite webcomics. It's also a fairly "clean" comic, containing little to no swearing and few suggestive jokes.

Gunnerkrigg Court is updated every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Questionable Content

Written and drawn by Jeph Jacques

A comic about an indie guy, Marten, and his friends. This comic frequently makes references to music, but is perhaps best loved for its continuity and interesting character relationships. QC has many sassy female characters and some gay, lesbian, and bi characters as well, empowering these groups with positive portrayals. This comic's characters are in their twenties, so they appeal most to twenty-something audiences. These characters have complicated and often physical relationships, so this isn't the sort of comic to recommend to students. High schoolers may know and love QC, however, so it's useful to know what it's about.

The characters are so popular and well developed, they even have their own Twitter accounts.

Questionable Content is updated every weekday.

Hark! A Vagrant

Written and drawn by Kate Beaton.

Delightful comics drawn by historian and Canadian Kate Beaton. The artist often draws accurate costumes on her hilarious interpretations of historical and literary figures. Her comments below each comic are often amusing, too. Further proof that girls can, in fact, be very funny.

Hark! A Vagrant is updated whenever the artist has time, which is usually about once a week.

Cyanide and Happiness

Written and drawn by Kris Wilson, Matt Melvin, Rob DenBleyker and Dave McElfatrick.

A darkly funny stick figure comic. Often, its jokes venture into controversial territory (like when Zombie Jesus shows up). Not for the very young or very easily offended.

Cyanide and Happiness is updated almost every day.

I should also mention a couple sites of note that blur the line between blog and webcomic: The Oatmeal and Hyperbole and a Half. These sites combine pictures, comics, and narration in an effective and hilarious way. The authors sometimes draw comics about their grammatical and literary pet peeves, which could be useful and entertaining in the classroom. I will forever be amused by the idea of the Alot.

For a comprehensive list of webcomics, see Wikipedia. You might enjoy Cracked.com's amusing list of the funniest webcomics, though not all of the comics listed are appropriate for younger students.

How to Use What You Know About Webcomics in the Classroom:

Several comics actually have some content-relevant strips.

Dinosaur Comics has a series of "Literary Technique" strips that (sort of) explain different literary techniques and (definitely) make you laugh. These would be fun in an English class, especially since Shakespeare often makes random cameos in these comics.

Some examples:

T-Rex and Utahraptor explain "in medias res"

T-Rex describes anachronism as "whenever Shakespeare listens to his MP3s"

Foreshadowing according to dinosaurs

Unreliable narrator

and there's even Hamlet: with DINOSAURS!

Dinosaur Comics have also been used to teach foreign languages. Teachers had students write dialogue for blank comics. This was first implemented in an English class in Japan (you can read the Japanese students' comics here). This would be fun to try in any foreign language class!

xkcd is an excellent resource for math and science teachers. Not only does it make those subjects entertaining, but it actually shows how things like graphs don't have to be boring and can, in fact, be useful in illustrating everyday things.

Examples:

Trying to figure out love with an equation

Correlation and causation...maybe

Using math to avoid velociraptors

Efficiency in walking

Science: it works.

If you're a math or science teacher and you're not already familiar with xkcd, I highly recommend you check it out! Chances are, you'll end up buying a book, poster, or t-shirt of one of the comic's awesome nerd jokes. It's just that good.

xkcd sometimes has language humor English teachers can appreciate, like this comic:


Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant is a goldmine for history teachers.

Examples:

Tesla, the celibate scientist (science teachers who like to teach about important figures would like this, too)
the Campbells act suspicious at Glencoe
Madame de Pompadour tells it like it is
Wu Zetian getting some Asian history in there
Marat loves rubber duckies
Elizabeth I is annoyed by her persistent suitors and loves her neck ruffs

There are also some excellent literary figure comics. My favorites are the ones with Shakespeare and the Bronte sisters (poor Anne!).

You can show these comics to students on overhead projectors or computer projectors, or you can print some out and put them on bulletin boards in your classroom. You could even buy one of the printed collections to keep in your room, though you might want to be careful, as many of the comics have the Internet philosophy of swearing (i.e. you can swear as much as you want as long as you do it "for the lulz").

NOTE: You should always read through comics before using them in class, as many webcomics use curse words freely and sometimes make suggestive jokes.

If you have ambitious and computer-savvy students, they could create their own webcomics as part of a project.

Webcomics represent a fun genre with great possibility.

Next entry: Fanfiction, or "Who is Mary Sue and Why Does Everyone Hate Her?"

Twitter, or "Do Tweets Make Us Twits?"

Twitter has stirred up a lot of chatter. As with most Internet trends, it's considered by many to be a waste of time, while others believe it is revolutionizing communication. And like most Internet trends, it's both. The decision by the Library of Congress to archive all public Tweets shows just how important Twitter has become as a form of writing.

(For more on the Library of Congress decision, you can read articles here and here and here, or go to the Library of Congress's own Twitter page).

What is Twitter, exactly?
Twitter is a site that helps people communicate through brief, frequent updates, called "tweets," of 140 characters or fewer. Twitter can be updated online or from your mobile phone. According to the Twitter About page, "[t]he 140 character limit originated so tweets could be sent as mobile text messages which have a limit of 160 characters. Minus 20 characters for author attribution, that gives users just enough room." The action of posting a tweet is called "tweeting." [Yes, "tweet" has joined the list of Internet terms that serve as both nouns and verbs (also on the list: Google, Facebook, friend). As Calvin and Hobbes would say, "verbing weirds language."]

Twitter actually has its own F.A.Q. page with simple, helpful explanations for how to use the service.

A lot of Twitter's features were developed by users, so Twitter is constantly evolving to best meet users' needs.

Some people get addicted to Twitter, tweeting constantly, unwilling to be separated from a computer or phone for an instant.

For a funny look at Twitter addicts, see this video:



What do people Tweet about?
Anything! Tweets range from the mundane (brushing one's teeth) to the monumental (winning an election). Twitter simply reasons that people like to share. And they're right. Teenagers in particular love to chat and share with each other.

How is Twitter different from texting?
When used to full effect, Twitter is public, reaching many people (thousands, if you're famous). Text messages go out to one friend or, at most, a few friends, but Tweets are put up on the Internet for everyone to see. However, some people do change their Twitter privacy settings so that only friends can see their Tweets, so it's more like a Facebook status update. Some people even make their Twitter accounts private, like really concise diaries. Even if you have a private account, you can still used Twitter to follow others' Tweets. Lots of people love to follow famous people on Twitter--it's like getting texts from your favorite author or actor! While Tweets can be sent from your cell phone, in a text message, you can also post them from your computer.

So Tweets are usually more public than text messages, though they can be sent via text message and adhere to text message length. And you can use Twitter to follow famous people, something you can't do by text-messaging.

How are Tweets different from Facebook status updates?
This one's tricky, because there are Twitter applications on Facebook connecting the two sites. There are even tools enabling you to set your Tweets as your Facebook status. Tweets and status updates often contain similar information--what the writer is thinking or feeling, fun pictures or links that she finds. But, once again, Tweets can reach a wider audience. Facebook status updates only reach your friends, while anyone can see your Tweets (though of course more selective privacy settings can change this).

Apparently, the Library of Congress cares about Twitter, but why should we?

A good question. The majority of tweets, especially those made by teenagers, seem to be inane, mundane, and pointless. But then you have people like President Obama on Twitter, and knowing what he's up to is informative and useful and...just plain cool, honestly. You can use Twitter to follow your friends' daily shenanigans, and you can use Twitter to follow famous people. You can create custom lists to filter out the more vapid tweets and get straight to the interesting or monumental updates.

Twitter has already been used in schools to get student feedback and comments.

During emergencies, Twitter is also an effective way to communicate quickly.

For some excellent articles on why people use Twitter, read "Twitter isn't stupid. People are." and Margaret Atwood's "How I learned to love Twitter." You can also hear from some early Twitter adopters in this BBC article, "The Tweet Elite."

Twitter Basics

Tweet – a Twitter post, (“Did you read Obama’s newest Tweet?”) or the act of posting to Twitter (“I Tweeted her about it.”) Capitalization optional. Your newest tweets show up at the top of the page, with tweets getting older the farther down the page you go (this can be confusing at first for people used to a top-to-bottom = oldest-to-newest chronology).

verified accounts - The Internet is rife with people pretending to be people they're not (usually it's normal people pretending to be celebrities). Twitter helps you know which accounts are legitimate by verifying the accounts of well-known figures. That's how you can be sure the Leonard Nimoy you're following is the real Leonard Nimoy.

@ - This sign, used before someone's username, "tags" them in a tweet, serving as a way of mentioning or addressing them. For example, if Achilles had a Twitter account, he might tweet "@Agamemnon Fine! Then I'm not fighting. Good luck beating the Trojans without me, jerks."

RT - stands for Retweet. If your tweet has RT at the beginning, it means you didn't write the original tweet; you're just reposting someone else's tweet that you thought was noteworthy. Sometimes, tweets are retweeted multiple times, so you see the letters "RT" repeated.

# - On Twitter, # signs are known as hashtags. By putting a # sign before a word, you turn that word into a tag, much like you would on a blog. That way, other people can search for tweets with specific tags, like #haiku or #haiti. Sometimes people use hashtags as a way of punctuating a joke, like "kwmurphy: To hell with @donttrythis, I'm trying it at home. #LastTweets"

following - When you "follow" someone on Twitter, their updates will show up on your Twitter home page so you can keep track of what they're doing. Naturally, famous people have thousands of followers, while your average person only has a few.

fail whale - When the site gets too busy, or "over capacity," an image of a whale appears and advises you to return to the site later.

twitterature - Works of literature "distilled" into Twitter posts. This may sound blasphemous to literature teachers, but if done right, it can help students with summarizing and determining main ideas. A skillful Twitter writer could create funny summaries, like the Book-a-Minute series, or even create original fiction through the use of Twitter.

twittersphere - A term used to encompass all of Twitter--its site, its users, its essence. Similar to how "blogosphere" refers to all blogging.

People on Twitter You Might Know (or Want to Know):

President Barack Obama

Margaret Atwood, writer

Stephen Colbert, host of "The Colbert Report"

J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books

Roger Ebert, film critic

Neil Gaiman, author of many award-winning works

Mythbusters, the Discovery Channel show making science fun and full of explosions

Senator John McCain

Keith Olbermann, MSNBC anchor

Ivy Bean, a 104-year-old British woman

Leonard Nimoy, actor

William Shatner, actor

Ice-T, hip hop artist and actor

John Cleese, British actor and comedian

Al Gore, former vice president and eternal environmentalist

Oprah Winfrey, TV show host known for her charity

Lance Armstrong, 7-time Tour-de-France winner and cancer survivor

Ellen DeGeneres, TV show host with sweet dance moves

Sarah Palin, former vice presidential candidate and former governor of Alaska

Dave Matthews, musician

Yoko Ono, artist

Larry King, host of Larry King Live

Anderson Cooper, CNN anchor

and the U.S. Department of Education also tweets updates

(Sites like Famous Twit can help you find famous people on Twitter, but not all of the accounts listed are verified)

How to Use What You Know About Twitter in the Classroom:

You can have students write summaries that would fit in a Twitter post (140 characters or fewer). They can actually post these on Twitter, or just keep Twitter rules in mind when writing by hand. This is a good way to help students focus on important points and large themes. They can summarize chapters of a book or entire pieces of literature.

One of my favorite ideas for using Twitter in the classroom is to have students Tweet in character. Each student is assigned a character from a work and they have to Tweet as though they are that character. Students will have to be thoughtful with their Tweets since they're limited to only 140 characters. The coolest part is that they can Tweet to each other, collaborating and having conversations (hopefully involving multiple characters). Students can tag one another in their Tweets to facilitate multiple-character interactions. Students may even want to leave each other comments out of character to praise their Tweets or offer constructive criticism. If this is the case, you'll want to have a label for out-of-character Tweets so no one gets confused.

If you worry about online assignments and want to be able to delete any posts that may be inappropriate, you can create accounts for the characters ahead of time and then give each student her account's password. Well-known fictional characters may already have Twitter accounts, so you might have to add your school's initials to usernames (like AchillesFSHS).

And of course, you can always use Twitter to get student feedback and to send students assignment reminders. Tweeting links to current events related to your content area could be useful, too.

Next entry: Webcomics, or "Can Dinosaurs Really Teach Literary Techniques?"

Facebook, or "How Can You Really be Friends with All These People?"

Facebook has spread over the Internet with the infectiousness of a baby's laugh, or the ebola virus, depending on your perspective. Whether you view Facebook as a delightful way of connecting to old friends and reaching thousands of people quickly or as an inane and overrated waste of time, it's no longer possible to ignore its impact. Facebook is used to rally, to fundraise, to spread news. Many businesses and organizations have started using Facebook to advertise or raise awareness. And, of course, millions of people spend time on Facebook every second of every day.

F.A.Q.

What is Facebook, really?

Facebook is a social networking site. That means that users can create profiles and follow the profile of their friends, communicating with friends and acquaintances both new and old. Originally, Facebook was a way for college students to stay in touch with their high school friends. Then, high schoolers started creating Facebook profiles, and now people of all ages are on Facebook. This can get awkward when kids find out that their parents have Facebook accounts.

The movie The Social Network is an interesting, fictionalized account of the creation of Facebook.

What do people mean when they say they get "sucked into" Facebook?

It's dangerously easy to waste time on Facebook without realizing it. You can get caught up in chatting, reading friends' posts, looking and pictures, and playing games, and suddenly realize that several hours have gone by. As in everything, moderation is key.

South Park made an episode making fun of this aspect of Facebook (video contains some swearing):

Can anyone see my Facebook profile?

That depends on your privacy settings (found under "Account" in the upper right-hand corner). You can make your Facebook profile viewable by anyone, or just by your friends, or just by your networks, or just by friends of friends. You can adjust settings so that people you don't know can only see your "limited profile," which includes basic info but keeps things like wall posts private. Teenagers often adjust settings so that their parents can only see their limited profiles.

Why do people complain every time Facebook's format is changed?

Mostly, because they get used to the old format and don't like change. Facebook periodically fiddles with the formatting, altering the look of the site and moving where links are found. Sometimes the complaints are warranted (like when the new format is harder to navigate), and sometimes not (the most objected-to changes one week may become new favorite features the next).

and the big question,

Should I be friends with students on Facebook?

Most teachers I've talked to say no. It's not very professional and it can get too personal. You might learn things about students you didn't want to--or shouldn't--know. Many schools and universities have policies forbidding teachers from being Facebook friends with students. However, many teachers that I know are willing to "friend" students on Facebook after the students have graduated. At my university, professors and teaching assistants aren't allowed to be Facebook friends with students while the students are in their class, but are free to friend students once the class is over. Also, many retired teachers like to keep track of former students on Facebook.

My advice would be to make sure students can't friend you or view your full profile while they're in your class. If students ask about it, let them know it's your (or the school's) policy not to friend students. After they leave your class or graduate, you can become Facebook friends with them if you like. Definitely consider friending former students when you're retired--I hear it's a great way to stay in touch!

Facebook Basics

Profile - A profile contains a picture, information about the user (birthday, relationship status, favorite movies, etc.), a status, and a "wall" where friends can leave messages.

Friends - Being friends with someone on Facebook isn't the same as being friends with them in real life (IRL), though some people have trouble making the distinction. You can be Facebook friends with your actual best friends, your acquaintances, classmates, friends of friends, siblings of friends, people you only know online, famous people, and people you don't know at all. The average person has far more Facebook friends than real, close friends, though some people do limit their Facebook friends to their actual friends. Some people consider their number of Facebook friends some kind of status symbol (even though they're probably only friends with about 30 of the people on their friends list) and compete with others to see who has the most friends. When one has 100+ Facebook friends, it's helpful to create lists of friends, so you can easily check these lists to keep track of your close friends. "Friend" serves as both a noun and a verb on Facebook. Making friends with someone on Facebook is "friending" them.

walls - Each profile has a "wall" on which friends can write, leaving messages, pictures, or links. Usually, wall messages are brief ("Happy Birthday!" or "Glad you made it to the party on Saturday!") Sometimes, people message back-and-forth, creating wall conversations.

status - a description of what you're thinking or feeling. This appears at the top of your profile after your name. Facebook status updates are much like Twitter updates in that they're brief and often frivolous. You can tag people in your status.

like, liking - To "Like" something on Facebook is to show approval of it. You can "Like" a status update, post, note, picture, or link. There is no official “dislike” button, to the annoyance of many.

pictures - You can share pictures on Facebook in a variety of ways. If you want to share multiple pictures, you can create albums. If you want to share individual pictures, you can post them to your wall or a friend's wall. You can view albums or you can view pictures of a specific person.

tags - You can "tag" people in a picture, note, or status update. This alerts them that you mentioned them. Tagging is helpful in pictures because it shows who is in the picture and even highlights individual faces if you hold the mouse over their names.

notes - Notes are sort of like journal or blog entries. You can write about anything in a note, though most people tend to write about their thoughts and doings, or fill out silly surveys. You can tag people in notes to let them know you mention them or want them to see what you wrote.

groups - You can join groups on Facebook, which have their own special group profiles where you can share information and messages. Some groups actively organize events and discussions. Some groups promise to take action once they reach a certain number of members (ex: donating money to a cause, giving a baby a ridiculous name). A lot of groups, though, are mostly for show or for the lulz; people only join because the group has an awesome name. For example, I'm in a group called "I'm a Fermata -- Hold Me."

poking - On Facebook, you have the option to "poke" friends. All this does is notify them that you have poked them and asks them if they'd like to poke you back. This doesn't really have a function. It's basically the online equivalent of annoying someone by repeatedly poking them in the arm with your finger. Sometimes, people get into "poke wars," where both parties refuse to stop poking, so they just poke back and forth for months.

Facebook stalking - Looking through all the details of someone's profile to find out more about them. This can be harmless or creepy. You may simply be catching up on a friend's life. Teenagers often scope out people they have crushes on via Facebook. Some people, though, obsessively read every single item on someone's profile, notes, pictures, and wall posts, and then it gets rather creepy. Fortunately, you can always un-friend or block someone so they can't see your profile any more.

applications - These are optional, fun features you can add to Facebook. Applications can range from a cat macro sharing system to a game of Scrabble. The most common applications are games and quizzes. One of the most popular games right now is Farmville, a game where you tend a virtual farm, growing crops and collecting animals.

chat- Facebook chat works like any instant messaging system, allowing friends to type messages to each other instantly while logged into Facebook. You can switch the settings on Facebook chat so that only certain friends can chat you, which is useful when you want to avoid getting sucked into conversations with chatty acquaintances.

becoming a fan - Somewhere between Liking and joining a group for something. More often than Liking and groups, becoming a fan often refers to a specific organization or product. There has been talk of Facebook removing this feature, but right now, it remains.

How to Use What You Know About Facebook in the Classroom:

You probably shouldn't use the real Facebook website, as it's hard to monitor content, and many school computers have the site blocked. You can, however, refer to Facebook and do activities using a Facebook profile template.

For example, students can complete character biographies as Facebook profiles or Facebook feeds. They can create bios for fictional characters, historical figures, or even personified concepts. For some fun examples of fictional Facebooks, see the Facebook feed of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and the Facebook profile of Spock from Star Trek. Learn how to create a blank Facebook template from a real history teacher here. (His blog also has good info on teaching technology). You can, of course, simply have students write as though they're on Facebook without the fancy template, but I do think it's more fun when it really looks like Facebook.

You can also take a look at some Facebook groups and refer to them in discussion. If you're a music or science teacher, you might mention the group "I'm Glad Pluto's No Longer a Planet; It Makes Gustav Holst's Suite Complete." And I think all Chemistry teachers should be familiar with "Carol never wore her safety goggles...NOW SHE DOESN'T NEED THEM." Band, orchestra, and choir teachers will appreciate "People who DON'T clap between movements."

Just search "grammar" under Facebook groups and you'll see a huge debate going on: "Grammar Police," "Good Grammar is Hot," "Grammar Sucks," "Good Grammar is Oppressive," "I correct your bad grammar in my head while you're speaking," "The Elements of Style Sucks," "Facebok Shuld Halve Spell Check," and more.

And of course, there are education groups on Facebook, too! I'm part of the National Council of Teachers of English Facebook group.

Next entry: Twitter, or "Do Tweets Make Us Twits?"