Teaching and learning with decentralized social networks: Friendica and the Free Network
With social media such a central aspect of our lives, it is only natural that educators would want to utilize it as a pedagogical tool and educate learners about how to use it appropriately. But concerns about how large corporations like Facebook utilize personal data and user-produced content (not to mention age restrictions) has led teachers to avoid its use — but there are alternatives.
There is no doubt that social media has numerous applications in a learning context: teachers can post notifications, teachers and students can share useful resources, discussion forums can be created, documents can be shared and assignments submitted, collaborative projects can be completed — all of this can be done anywhere/anytime on mobile devices, the preferred technology of social media users, breaking down the boundaries of the classroom.
And given the fact that students are already using social media as a part of their everyday lives, not only are they already skilled in its use, we expect that they probably find the experience quite engaging as well.
There is also the argument that it is the responsibility of educators to ensure that students learn about how to use social media in a responsible way, to become responsible “netizens,” and to avoid making mistakes on social media that could affect their future lives.
However, with the increasing public scrutiny of Facebook over how they manage personal data and privacy, and the fact that it is apparent that they are particularly interested in the personal data of young people, it may seem counter-intuitive to argue that social media has a place in the classroom. However, it is for this very reason that students need to learn about the issues surrounding social media, and it is vital that educators take steps to ensure that learners improve their social media literacy.
Thankfully, there are alternatives to Facebook and other profit-oriented social media platforms that offer the same functionality from an educators point of view, but without the advertising, corporate control of user data and content, and privacy infringement. This article will focus on the Friendica social network, but there are various networks that all communicate with one another, all interconnected as a part of what is called the greater Free Network of social networking.
Teacher! If we are going to use social media for the class, why don’t we use just use Facebook or Instagram?
The Friendica social networking platform is a non-corporate, open-source, decentralized platform that, for the user, functions in many of the same ways as Facebook, but without all the profit-seeking activity. It doesn’t have any age restrictions, users don’t have to use their real names, and there are no concerns about corporate branding. It is also somewhat obscure, so it is disconnected from the social media that most students are already a part of, which they may want to keep separate from their school social media activity anyways. That being said, Friendica can be configured so that users can post on Facebook, communicate on Twitter, and get Tumblr, Wordpress or RSS content, so it doesn’t have to be totally cut-off from other media platforms.
When you go to sign-up, the first step is selecting a “node.” Because the network is decentralized, you need to choose a location to host your data. The nodes are located all over the world, so you can choose a country that has digital privacy laws that you are happy with. For Canadian educators this is especially significant because the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) (a federal law, but many provinces have similar acts), doesn’t allow government-related organizations to store or share personal data outside of the country. Schools can opt to use a node hosted in Canada, or can even set up their own pod using the open-source software provided by the network. This option is ideal for both educational and safety reasons: the node administrators are the only people that can look at a user’s data, and they have the ability to block other users or even entire nodes, which means that a school has a lot of control over the network. The node can be restricted to members on the server, such as the school community and invited participants only. It can be opened to communication with specific nodes on the network, such as other schools who have their own Free Network site, or specific nodes that represent a particular area of interest such as an NGO, a particular community, or some other organization.
Teacher! I signed up, but my wall is so boring!
Once you have selected your node, you sign up. You are not required to share any information about yourself other than an email address where your initial login password is sent. You assign yourself a handle and login. There are no terms and conditions (that we usually don’t read and then agree to) — they aren’t necessary — you have absolute control over your data to do with as you will: you can make it, change it, move it (in case you want to change nodes) or delete it forever. It is not subject to surveillance, data mining, or profiling for the purposes of targeted advertising or demographic data. Once it is deleted, it is gone forever.
This makes Friendica a space where students can make mistakes on social media that can be taken back; where our younger selves can post things that our embarrassed older selves can delete; where we aren’t 100% accountable forever.
When you finally arrive at your wall, it looks a lot like a Facebook wall, minus the advertising and constant stream of buttons and notifications competing for your attention. Friendica feels like walking down a sleepy side street to Facebook’s downtown entertainment district on a Saturday night; and that’s nice: it gives you room to breathe, room to think. This is especially useful for educational purposes: students can use the space without being interrupted by targeted advertising, status updates and personal messages; they can take a moment to breathe and think about what they are looking at, or about to post. That is not to say that students can’t or won’t use their Friendica account for socializing, it is made for that, but because it is outside their usual social media networks they may treat it differently, carefully considering their comments and posts because it is a part of their school environment, and this behaviour can transfer to their usual social media use.
Teacher! I don’t like how the ____ function works!
Friendica is totally open-sourced software, which means that if the students don’t like something, they can learn how to change it. This means that they can learn to become active developers of the social media software themselves, adding an entirely new meaning to the concept of critical social media literacy. Class projects can include a redesign of the home wall, re-engineering a particular plugin or designing a new one, or creating an entirely new Friendica mobile app.
Teacher! If Friendica doesn’t have advertising, doesn’t collect my information, doesn’t make me pay anything, how does it make money?
Perhaps one the most valuable lessons the students can learn from all of this is that by comparing Friendica with the social media they already use, they can see how Facebook generates profit from a very unique product — the data and content of the users themselves. This critical awareness about the nature of social media, in addition to lessons learned about privacy, control of personal information, and ownership of content, facilitates an informed decision about whether or not to participate in certain forms of social media, how much of themselves they are willing to share, or even if they want to advocate for changes to how social media works in the future.
In addition to a valuable educational experience, perhaps the students who learn with Friendica will even hang on to a Free Network profile with an app on their mobile device, representing just a small corner of their digital life not subject to corporate scrutiny and exploitation. Without advertising. No bubble. Not nudging. Their own. Maybe that’s enough of a reason to use it.
The Friendica main page can be found here: https://friendi.ca/
