Social networking used to be two very bad words in schools, colleges and universities across America, but all that is changing. A recent Social Media Adoption study conducted by The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, found that social media is now at the heart of school communication and teacher student interaction.

The most used tool by school administration is Facebook, with a 98% take-up. Twitter and LinkedIn were not too far behind in terms of popularity among school administrators. Platforms like Facebook are being used to drive engagement with current students as well as recruit new students. Harvard University, one of the most active universities on Facebook, uses the platform for virtually all its student engagement. Its page currently has over 1.2 million likes and all university events are showcased on its page.

Despite this heavy use of Facebook by Harvard however, it is not the most ‘social’ university. John Hopkins University, University of Notre Dame, Ohio State University, Columbia University in the City of New York all featured ahead of Harvard in terms of its integrated use of social media.

At this stage of the take-up by universities and colleges the rules of engagement are not very defined and many are predicting that unless these are cleared up quickly, the practical use of social media will be soured. Aside from privacy issues, the interaction of students and teachers in a non-professional manner on sites like Facebook are a cause for concern among many experts.

Do you think the use of Facebook in schools is a good idea? Let us know below.

(Source: sitetrail.com)

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