Facebook Econ With Javaman Experiment

Being on the front lines better known as the classroom, I noticed the students are more interested in their mobile device than my lectures. My lectures deal with a boring topic but I would assume the incentive of getting a good grade would make them fight the boredom.
Being an unorthodox faculty last year, after class, I asked some of these students to show me what were they looking at?
They were worried that I would give them another lecture but I promised them extra credit for complete honesty.  3 out of 8 were texting friends but I was surprised to find the other 5 were on Twitter and/or Facebook.
They were checking in at Rio Hondo with status updates such as

"in econ class"

"this guy is funny"

"this is boring"

"i hungry"

As a result of this I created a twitter account to communicate with these students. Next when facebook came out with the page feature, I created the following page on facebook.

. Economics with Javaman

Promote Your Page Too

This semester I promoted it on the class blackboard site and quickly I got over 20 new fans.
Next I have noticed something new. The students who are dead silent in class are speaking on Facebook. Let me repeat that: students who do not speak in class are speaking on facebook.
Here are some of the comments. I have blocked out their profile picture and names.

I recognized this student as someone who speak in class

 This next post by me got many responses. I would classify it as the teacher accidentally showing concern using their medium of communication!! 

I meant to remind them of the test but by asking if they are reading seems to have touched a nerve.

 Usually, I do not get responses and or comments on my posts. In my post I wrote "Are YOU reading the Textbook?"  Could it be that they viewed the "you" in the post as a personal message to them? After all I am reaching them on their personal Facebook account. This is where they express how their (imaginary and/or real) identity .
In online courses it is very difficult to get participation on the Discussion Board. However, here within 2 minutes of this posting by me I had two comments.

I have a favor to ask of YOU the reader.
Do NOT tell my students that I am study their behavior. They may stop behaving naturally! ;-)
 

A New Facebook Page

We the contributors to this blog have created a United to Educate facebook page. We hope you will like our page on facebook. By liking our facebook page our post will show in your timeline.  We will limit our posts. so that we do not clutter your timeline. We hope to use this page to reach out to the Community, Classified Staff, Faculty, Students of Rio Hondo College with the latest on campus.
In keeping with the name of the page we have granted access to a representative of the Classified Staff to post. 
Please click on the link provided and click on the Like Button! All are welcome and we look forward to your comments, for we want to hear your opinions too.