Creepy treehouse is a

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

term, or internet slang, referring to websites or social networking platforms that professors use for educational purposes, but students regard as an invasion of privacy.

History

The term was first described in 2008 by

Utah Valley University Utah Valley University (UVU) is a public university in Orem, Utah, United States. UVU offers master's, bachelor's, associate degrees, and certificates. Previously called Utah Valley State College, the school attained university status in July ...

instructional-design services director Jared Stein as "institutionally controlled technology/tool that emulates or mimics pre-existing technologies or tools that may already be in use by the learners, or by learners’ peer groups." This was when social media such as

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

was starting to become mainstream and professors would try and get students to interact with them on the site for educational purposes. Some professors would require their students to use Facebook or

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

as part of class assignments.

Usage

The term was first described as "technological innovations by faculty members that make students’ skin crawl." The term also refers to online accounts and websites that users tend to avoid, especially young people who avoid visiting the pages of educators and other adults. Author Martin Weller defines creepy treehouse as a digital space where authority figures are viewed as invading younger people's privacy. One such example is a professor giving his students an option to use a popular video game to learn about history instead of writing an essay. Students in that class chose to write the essay instead as the method was previously unmentioned and it was not an unnatural method of interaction. Another example given was Blackboard Sync, a feature that was used to connect the school website

Blackboard A blackboard or a chalkboard is a reusable writing surface on which text or drawings are made with sticks of calcium sulphate or calcium carbonate, better known as chalk. Blackboards were originally made of smooth, thin sheets of black or da ...

with students' Facebook accounts.

Solutions

University of Regina The University of Regina is a public university located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded in 1911 as a private denominational high school of the Methodist Church of Canada, it began an association with the University of Saskatchewan as a j ...

professor Alec Couros suggests that instead of "forcing" student participation with their own digital platforms, professors should use methods like online forums. Jason Jones of chronicle.com suggested letting students create social media groups for the class themselves and explaining why using technologies is required and important.

References

Internet culture Internet forum terminology Social media {{Internet-stub

History

Usage

Solutions

See also

References