The Universal Appeal of Facebook©: Providing Access to Tertiary Students from Australian Aboriginal Communities

Abstract

The positive and negative aspects of using Facebook© as a crucial communication tool between Aboriginal academics and their Aboriginal students will be discussed within this chapter. Initially, the authors’ use of Facebook © was to provide support for our Australian Aboriginal students within their own communities. The original intention was to supplement existing electronic forums provided by the University to maintain contact with students between study blocks, encourage reluctant technology users to interact online, and build links to the students’ own communities and families. In 2009, the authors’ students were involved in a research project (Milton, Gruppetta, Vozzo & Mason, 2009) and their use of Facebook © to interact with students was recognised as innovative and the authors were encouraged to investigate the potential within another research project (Vozzo, et al., 2011). From a peripheral practice conducted by two Australian Aboriginal academics, the importance of utilizing Facebook © to build social capital and support an Indigenous Academic community has become crucial to the success and retention of our Aboriginal tertiary students. The authors’ most recent research project relies heavily on Facebook © as the main communication tool due to the vast distances between Aboriginal communities in Australia and the variety of technology provided by each state/territory.