Social Media and Education Panel at Social Media Week New York
On Friday, February 5 I attended another panel which was part of Social Media Week called, Future of Social Media in Higher Education. Panel attendees included:
- Yianni Garcia, Marketing Specialist at GradeGuru.com (also was the Moderator)
Below is a summary by those on the panel:
Dr. Kathy King
– Community colleges are able to adapt more quickly and respond to the economic crisis offering new programs/certificates on campus and online.
– Distance education is a good connection for social media and provides a platform.
– Need to address needs of non-traditional students (students between the ages of 30-60 that are again returning to school for training during a career transition.)
– Recent demographics show us that these non-traditional students are outnumbering traditional students.
– Faculty has to learn how to connect with students with technology.
– Use Google docs as online learning system.
– Skype used for virtual office hours.
– Working students at jobs can set up a Skype chat and find it to be more comfortable than just talking on the telephone.
– There is no incentive at most universities for faculty to engage students via new technologies. The school needs to make it an incentive for faculty. Excellent teaching means good evaluation at the end of the course.
– How can we use Facebook for professional and education purposes?
Vineet Madan
– There is a lack of engagement getting students into the system.
– How can we use more social media tools to drive the state of learning?
Greg Verdino
– Distance learning university is not using more social media tools.
– Students want to be able to send and receive text messages with dean of students, administration.
– University needs to connect with students as the students connect with themselves.
Mary Casey
– Blackboard has limitations as all your work is deleted after the semester.
– Work of students and faculty is becoming collaborative.
– Students are using Facebook course application and Dropbox.
As with the Healthcare panel during Social Media Week opportunities with education seem to be very promising as well. I believe education will move more quickly with adopting social media practices since the young student demographic is willing to engage in new technology in their daily college life.
You may also be interested in these posts:
Allison Fine and Beth Kanter The Networked Nonprofit: Connecting with Social Media to Drive Change
Gary Vaynerchuk and The Thank You Economy
Gary Vaynerchuk and Robert Scoble Discuss Business and Social Media
Ray Jordan on Johnson & Johnson’s Social Media Strategy
JetBlue’s Social Media Strategy with Jenny Dervin
David Meerman Scott, Author of Real-Time Marketing and PR
John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing and The Referral Engine
The Mike Johnson Blog 
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