From Social Communication to Mathematical Discourse in Social Networking: The Case of Facebook

Though some studies describe attempts to integrate Facebook in education, little is known how to use it in mathematics education. This article describes an attempt to populate Facebook with mathematicians from the past, as well as strategies to involve friends with the mathematics of the mathematicians. The experiment shows that Facebook can attract friends to content knowledge, beginning with social talk, and transiting gradually and smoothly to mathematics content knowledge through cultural discourse. The experiment implies that Facebook, representing social networks not intended from the beginning for education, can be adopted successfully for mathematics education.