Facebook for courses

Two things pulled up alongside each other yesterday. I watched All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace - the Adam Guest documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz2j3BhL47c. The documentary pointed to Carmen Hermosillo's statement about us turning ourselves into commodities for the Internet. (See http://alphavilleherald.com/2004/05/introducing_hum.html) The same evening I was reading the information literacy discussion list (ILI-L) with a discussion about librarians using Facebook for courses - either as a complete replacement for a school's learning management system or as an enhancement. Librarians who questioned Facebook's privacy record were called nervous Nellies. Get with the program! Use the popular tools at our disposal! Students are there! I was trying to think of how to compose a response - but Colleen Harris beat me to it with a a nice post warning against blind use of popular technology without considering the implications of giving over all one's information to a corporation - especially a corporation with a checkered past when it comes to privacy. Yeah! That's what I was thinking! I'm also thinking that I'm getting pretty darn tired of ads, ads, ads! I know learning management systems cost money - and the money might be going to a corporation like Blackboard - but once I'm in the various LMS' that I use...no advertising!