4
checking the backgrounds of prospective employees (Youngwood 2006). In the same vein,
students can use the site to post evaluations and commentaries on college classes, professors, and
campus life. In a sense, students can utilize Facebook to perform their own background checks
on those items important for course scheduling and other university related items. Some students
have requested that city officials use Facebook to communicate and clarify laws and city
ordinances in college towns and campuses (Westervelt 2007). It appears as though students
recognize the teaching potential of Facebook and are encouraging city and university officials
and instructors to utilize the social communication network. What is perhaps more interesting is
how students use Facebook as a class-related tool. While Facebook is touted as a social network,
we argue that it is a potentially valuable resource for college instructors to build a classroom
network among their students by tapping into the existing social framework already established
by Facebook. With the increasing usage of facebook.com, a sense of community and culture has
emerged that is unique to Facebook users alone (Faimon 2006).
Technology and the Classroom
With regards to pedagogical effectiveness, questions surrounding technological resources
are as prevalent as the resources themselves have become in the last two decades. The
increasing popularity of the Internet has led many social science scholars to search for answers
about the link between technology and teaching. Political Science has devoted a generous
amount of print space and conference time to this endeavor. A certain degree of consensus exists
within the field that such multimedia, technological, and web-based instructional (sometimes
referred to as CIT (communication and information technology) resources have significant
potential (Curtis and Lawson 2001). Favorable responses by students to these resources in the
Convention