Social Networking and First Year Students
At a recent National Conference on the First Year Experience (FYE), there was a lot of discussion about the impact of Social Networking sites on student learning and development. This is a fascinating discussion since it so multi-dimensional (technical savvy, privacy, time management, Web 2.0, the list can go on…).
Does it enhance student learning for faculty and staff to be friends in facebook or communicate via twitter? Or are these applications just another technical “time sink” that will fade away over time? Time will tell, but at Babson many of us are active in Facebook, utilizing it is an effective way to interact with students in many productive ways. Twitter is the latest application to generate a lot of buzz, I joined last week to see what all the talk was about (Follow me at http://twitter.com/rkmajor). I must admit, the application is simple and intriguing all at the same time (you can follow David Gregory and George Stephanopoulos and receive their daily insight on Washington D.C.) How will it impact my work with first year students? I do not know yet, but I will thinking about this from now until the fall semester begins.
My personal feeling (which I expressed at the conference), is that we are at the tip of the iceberg when it comes utilizing social networks in a college learning environment. We must not intimidated by these applications, we should embrace this as golden opportunity to interact with students in ways not imaginable just 5 years ago.
Stay tuned for more on this subject.