Facebook as a Boundary Object in Industrial Design Studio. A SoTL Study

Abstract

We introduced Facebook groups as instructional tools in our industrial design studio courses. One of us experienced the effects of Facebook on freshmen while the other examined it with sophomores and juniors. Our analysis of the data focused on the content of students’ posts on Facebook groups, informal student interviews, our experiences in studios, and our reflective cross-evaluation. Our comparative analysis showed that Facebook better serves as a boundary object in the later years of design education. The freshmen, and partly sophomore, were not able to make effective use of this medium for exchanging knowledge. From the perspective of SoTL, this study not only helped us to experiment ways of advancing our pedagogy but also served as a platform for us to discuss and exchange knowledge on teaching and learning that is taking place in studio.