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Social Networking
[Your College Here] Wants to Be Your 'Friend'
9/6/2007
GETTING BEHIND SOCIAL COMPUTING
YOU MAY HAVE HEARD the term "social computing," but who really knows much about it? Students in the Master of Science in Information program at the University of Michigan now can study the ways that computation around social processes can inform our understanding of them, and ways that computation can be harnessed in support of those social processes, as well. In fact, they can major in Social Computing, which includes a focus on online communities, social networking, and user-contributed content.
According to Paul Resnick, professor at UM's School of Information (and the force behind the university's new program), "One of our courses is on 'social network analysis,' which provides techniques for analyzing patterns of interaction among people; that's an example of computation about social processes. Other courses on recommender and reputation systems deal with techniques for supporting social processes: in particular, information sharing and exchange among people who don't have strong personal ties." Resnick has researched and taught social computing for a number of years and in 2001 was the founder of the Community Information Corps, an organization created to allow students, faculty, and community members across disciplines to explore the changing role of information and technology in a civil society.
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"Students are already massively engaged in social networks. It's part of their discussion environment to talk about different parts of their life. You need to put [their academic work] into the context they're familiar with, and that they understand," says Daniels. In the next generation of VitalSource's Bookshelf (just released this summer) users can rank each other's notes. That way, when studying, users may, for instance, rely most heavily on those notes/highlights that were ranked highest by their classmates, and create their own social or study groups.
But institutions are finding even more ways to engage the already Web 2.0- savvy student: They're using social networking to recruit the new generation of students, and they're using it in all sorts of new ways to keep students connected and collaborating—in and out of the classroom.
Campus Community 2.0 Recruitment
According to E-Expectations: Class of 2007, an annual report of 1,000 collegebound high school juniors conducted by the higher ed enrollment management consultancy
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