Facebook strengthens school ties
| Monday, Jan 04 2010 10:04 PM
Last Updated Monday, Jan 04 2010 10:04 PM
WANT TO FACEBOOK ... ?
... but there's no kid around to show you how? Here's how:
Get an e-mail address if you don't have one. Free e-mail accounts can be obtained through popular host sites Yahoo!, Gmail and Hotmail.
Go to facebook.com, click "sign on to Facebook."
Fill out your information: first and last name, e-mail, password, gender and birthdate.
Follow and complete the next steps: adding and finding friends and personalizing your profile page. The personal information you include will be made visible to your friends, and the world if you don't keep your profile "private."
To find school pages, search for the name and become a "fan" or "member."
If the page you're looking for doesn't exist, you can create one by clicking "create a page" on the sign up screen. Then follow instructions.
There's a place where Bakersfield school reunions happen every day -- at elementary, middle, high schools and colleges.
Where boosters can raise funds for school groups. Where current students can learn and cheer for their school. Where some of the most exclusive school groups, like the Bakersfield High School Driller Band of 1979 and deaf students of Highland High School, can chat.
That place is Facebook, and hundreds of Bakersfield residents are logging on to the social networking website every day to discuss schools.
"Students build their social networks throughout their lives, beginning in elementary school and when they graduate college, continue to stay connected to their classmates using these types of applications," said Susan E. Metros, professor of visual design and clinical education at the University of Southern California and a social network expert.
Facebook, invented by a Harvard University college student, launched in 2004 and first catered to college students only. Soon it would open to anyone over 13 years old and would attract 350 million users worldwide -- currently the most of all social networking sites, according to Facebook.
Users can create pages and groups for nearly anything. Among the most school-related Bakersfield pages are for graduation classes, reunions and alumni. Nearly every high school locally has a Facebook page where students chat and show school spirit.
Facebook can also be used for schools in another way -- education. For example, students can use Facebook application "Courses 2.0" to work with classmates. Instructors can, if they so choose, add functionality to support learning.
But it's mostly used for social reasons. Bakersfield High School possibly hosts the most pages of any school. They include school graduation classes, sports and extracurricular activities like band and choir. There are also pages for BHS that cater to more specific crowds.
Gigi McGuire administers a page for Driller band members who were under the direction of Oliver "Colonel" Wesley Moore around the year 1979. Being part of the band during that time meant you were "a part of history," the page states.
"That was a unique era," said McGuire, who has gathered 22 members to the page, in an e-mail. "I must say it provided me with the best memories of high school."
One member shared a memory on the page: "One of my memories of (Moore) was of a time we were marching down the street and he yelled at Ronald McDonald to get out of our formation! LOL ... never seen a clown look so scared!"
Phil Scrivano created a BHS Future Farmers of America boosters page as a way to raise money for the group. He was looking to do a nontraditional fundraiser, he said.
"I did that more as an advertising scheme," Scrivano said. "We hope we gain more interest in it. I think it'll make for a viable fundraiser."
Courtney Velasco, West High's page administrator, graduated last year and is now majoring in psychobiology at UCLA. More than 1,000 page members discuss memorable teachers, reunions and post photos "so we can see how the school changes," she said.
Highland High's deaf alumni page was created by Toby Welch, an American Sign Language teacher and Highland alum, to try to reunite deaf students from 1970 to today, he said. Currently there are 16 members.
A handful of school pages is devoted to local elementary and middle schools. The Freedom Middle School alumni page, for example, has 180 members, many of whom recently graduated and are currently in high school. Others have been away for much longer.
Stephen Quashnick first created a 1989 West High School page to find classmates for the school's 20-year reunion. Some of his classmates who joined thought it would be a good idea to start one for Stine Elementary School, he said. So he did.
"It's a place to remember who your teachers were and compare to people from years before and after you," said Quashnick, who attended Stine from 1976 to 1983, in an e-mail. "And most of my old classmates don't live near me, so I am unable to connect with them in the physical world."
Nearly 90 members in the group, most students from the 1980s and '90s, also share nostalgic stories like "track meets with the tie-dyed T-shirts." Current and previous teachers are also members.
But the easiness of reuniting via Facebook for free has hurt business devoted to reunions, and also college alumni associations, according to a Time Magazine article published earlier this year.
Others, like Cal State Bakersfield's Alumni Association, have implemented Facebook. Its page has nearly 500 "fans," and news and events are updated there frequently.
Katy Rawson-Castro lives in Las Vegas now, but in the 1980s she went to Charles H. Castle Elementary School here. She said she used to use classmates.com, a social networking pay site for school reunions, but stopped after finding Facebook. She now administers the elementary school's page as a way to get in touch with old classmates.
"I've made connections with people who used to be best friends," she said. "It's kind of like you pick up from were you left off."
