Social Media Goes Academic

Social Media Goes Academic
Facebook may soon be coming to a classroom near you.

Or at least one of its companions on the social media market may be. Services such as Facebook, Twitter, and del.icio.us, which are quickly gaining popularity among Internet users, are not going unnoticed on college campuses. One University of Georgia professor has decided to work with those services in her courses.

Associate Professor Karen Russell, of the Advertising and Public Relations department at Grady College, uses several different social media platforms in her courses.

When asked why she requires her students to use the programs for academic purposes, Russell said: “Since I teach PR and social media is important [to the profession] I try to expose them all to social media.”

One of the main ways she connects with her students through the Internet is del.icio.us, social bookmarking Web site. It is a place for Internet users to share and distribute links.

“That’s where I put my readings,” Russell said, referring to the Web site. Each day of class she informs her students where to look on her account for their reading assigments.

While del.icio.us may be relatively unknown among many students, Facebook has more fame. The service allows users to make accounts and connect with people who they share history or interests with, creating an electronic social network.

“I don’t really like Facebook,” Russell said when asked which service she herself preferred to use. “My favorite by far is Twitter, [my students] will tell you I’m addicted to it.”

Twitter is a microblogging service allowing users to update their page with messages of 140 characters or less. Users can choose to receive updates, called “tweets,” from as many other accounts as they wish, as well as reply to tweets and hold conversations across the Web site.

Russell uses Twitter to communicate with her students, such as recently when she had them use their Twitter accounts to tell her what books they wanted to use for a class assignment.

“I could do the same thing by e-mail,” Russell said, referencing the assignment, “but doing it by Twitter forces them to use [the service].”

Russell thinks that applications like Twitter are important to the PR industry, and thus to her students. She says that it also allows her to connect to students on a more personal level, citing that her students often use their Twitter accounts to update about their personal lives, things she would not learn in class. In turn, her students also learn more about her life. What she values most is the ability to get to know students in a different way.

That may be a benefit to some people, but others are resistant to the idea. Ricky Contes, a third-year English major, said he would be uncomfortable if a professor required him to use social media for class. Even with services like Twitter, he would object to their use in a classroom setting.

Contes also said that if social media and academics were combined, “I would never get anything done.”

Russell said that student reaction to her early use of Twitter, which she began doing in the summer of 2008, in particular was along those lines. “Let me tell you,” she said, “at first they hated it.”

Students complained as late as this spring, Russell said. This semester, however, she has seen her students as more amendable to using the service. The Web site’s popularity has reached the point where her students already have accounts before coming to class. She also receives positive feedback about it, and the other Web sites she uses, including PROpenMic, a online community for public relations students, educators, and professionals.

A student who has not used social media in class before seemed to reflect that attitude. Katie Wyke, a fourth-year English major, said that she would enjoy using social media for coursework.

“It’d be easy to get on it,” Wyke said. “I’m on it anyway sometimes.”

Social media have already proven themselves to be useful and popular across the Internet. Convenience and a personal quality have extended that reach to desks in Karen Russell’s classroom.