How University Administrators (& Faculty) Should Approach Facebook: 10 Rules
November 9, 2007
This is a useful article on how our students are using Facebook and things that we should consider as college educators. Listed below are rules 1 and 2 in a list of 10. For more information, please click here: http://chimprawk.blogspot.com/2006/01/how-university-administrators-should.html
1. The Facebook isn’t going away. While Facebook.com may not last forever, a service like the Facebook will always be present and useful on a college campus. The logic to this is quite simple: students are forced to renegotiate their social networks every semester. The Facebook supports and answers the student’s information needs. Put simply, our students are curious; they want to know anything and everything about the students around them. If you had the Facebook when you were an undergrad, wouldn’t you have wanted the same?
2. Almost all of your institution’s undergraduates are on the Facebook. I found that 94 percent of UNC’s Freshman class was on the Facebook. Techcrunch reported in November that 85% of all college students were on the Facebook, and surely that number has increased. You can’t fight numbers like this. More importantly, you can’t ignore them.
Both of these services can provide useful tools that can be utilized from home, office, or dorm room.
Do you have a Facebook account? How can Facebook be used to stay in contact with our students?…Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!
Entry Filed under: Uncategorized. Posted in Uncategorized Tags: Tech Tips, Web 2.0 Tools.
CR | November 18th, 2007 at 5:23 am
I just heard a faculty member at another university mention that he uses Facebook for his advisees/majors. He posts general information and updates to help direct these students about upcoming events, appointment scheduling, and changes. By using Facebook, students receive (and read!?) the information within 2 minutes, rather than using Blackboard and only get the information after they log in (and if they read the Annoucements). Are any BGSU advisers using Facebook in this way?