This week I have run across some very interesting articles on social media and how their use is evolving. These two articles struck me as interesting because they discuss requiring people to use Facebook or Second Life in order to perform in classes or on the job. I think these use-cases highlight that we desire to use social tools available to us, and use them in ways that are beneficial to clients, colleagues, and students. But they also highlight that, as with any new system we adopt, there should be measures of their effectiveness, a case made for why they are our top choices, and clear guidelines for requiring people to join and provide personal information to  third party applications.

An article in The Chronicle of Higher Education revealed that Penn State’s online campus is now requiring student advisers to offer meeting hours in Second Life for students.  Advisers are required to offer at least 2 hours a week of availability in Second Life for meeting with students in addition to the other regular methods of communication. This will be an interesting case to watch, as it is requiring advisers to join a third party application to do their jobs. It is also curious because it is bringing something personal–student advising–into an open forum where privacy could potentially be an issue. Quotes from the social-networks adviser at Penn State indicate that, once trained in the basics of Second Life, the advisers are enjoying their time there. So far, I have seen no mention of success such as the students finding it beneficial, or finding it beneficial in ways beyond what other communication channels offer them. Perhaps the program is too new for analysis of its success at this stage.

A blog post, also from The Chronicle, discussed a teacher who has his students friend him on Facebook as a requirement for his business course. The Illinois State University professor uses Facebook as his course management system and requires students to friend him on the first day of class. The professor will work with students to adjust privacy settings on Facebook if they have some reservations about the set up. Assignments are submitted through students’ profile pages and questions can be asked by posting to the professor’s wall. At the end of the semester the professor de-friends all of his students and claims that he does not peruse their profiles.  Again, currently I don’t see any discussion of whether or not the students find this as or more beneficial than a school supplied course management system, which operates behind a firewall, out of the public space.

In this case, the professor states that part of his point in using Facebook is teaching students that their online presence becomes part of their digital resume and that the World Wide Web doesn’t forget what you’ve posted or put into the public forum online. In this case students are required to belong to a third party application (one that has been criticized for its privacy measures in the past) in order to successfully complete their course.