‘Online Social Networking on Campus’

Student affairs administrators are increasingly debating how to use Facebook and other social networking tools — and whether and how to monitor student use. A new book — Online Social Networking on Campus: Understanding What Matters in Student Culture (Routledge) — aims to offer some guidance. The authors are Ana M. Martínez Alemán, chair of educational administration and higher education at Boston College, and Katherine Lynk Wartman, resident director at Simmons College and a Ph.D. candidate at Boston College. Alemán responded to e-mail questions about the book

Back-Channel Communication: Web 2.0 Technologies for Social Learning | EDUCAUSE CONNECT

For both on-campus and distance education students, cell phones and social networking tools contribute to active communication outside class. This presentation will report on a study of the purposes for which graduate students use such back-channel communication; the technologies they use; the value they perceive it contributes to their learning; and how their choice of technologies relates to factors like age and course delivery format (online vs. face-to-face). Join us to hear what students say about their use of these technologies and share your own experiences along the back channel.