Why I'm on Facebook
I'm just as surprised as you are to see that I'm so active on Facebook.
When I first heard about academic professionals on Facebook, I rolled my eyes and thought, what a waste of time.
One day I took a look, and just out of curiosity, I did a search for students in Toxicology and Immunology and Infectious Disease, the majors which I oversee at Penn State. I was surprised and happy to see that every single student on my roster had a page and identified themselves with their major.
But I was astonished to see that nearly as many students were identifying themselves as students in the majors, but without ever having gotten in touch either with my department or my college.
Right then and there, I realized that whether I liked it or not, I needed to be reaching students with Facebook. (This realization came almost two years ago, and today almost all of my faculty and staff colleagues who do advising and recruitment have a Facebook presence.)
Facebook has been an enormously important tool for me. It humanizes me to students in a way that email never can.
And it's a great way to reach prospective students who aren't at Penn State yet. They will never send me an email but they contact me on Facebook.
Finally, students don't think of me as one of them, but they see me as part of their community on Facebook. So when they're seeing my updates every day, or occasionally getting a friendly comment from me on one of their photos, it's a tanglibly powerful lesson on building a professional online persona. My lecturing, literally lecturing them on the same point never had the same impact.
When I first heard about academic professionals on Facebook, I rolled my eyes and thought, what a waste of time.
One day I took a look, and just out of curiosity, I did a search for students in Toxicology and Immunology and Infectious Disease, the majors which I oversee at Penn State. I was surprised and happy to see that every single student on my roster had a page and identified themselves with their major.
But I was astonished to see that nearly as many students were identifying themselves as students in the majors, but without ever having gotten in touch either with my department or my college.
Right then and there, I realized that whether I liked it or not, I needed to be reaching students with Facebook. (This realization came almost two years ago, and today almost all of my faculty and staff colleagues who do advising and recruitment have a Facebook presence.)
Facebook has been an enormously important tool for me. It humanizes me to students in a way that email never can.
And it's a great way to reach prospective students who aren't at Penn State yet. They will never send me an email but they contact me on Facebook.
Finally, students don't think of me as one of them, but they see me as part of their community on Facebook. So when they're seeing my updates every day, or occasionally getting a friendly comment from me on one of their photos, it's a tanglibly powerful lesson on building a professional online persona. My lecturing, literally lecturing them on the same point never had the same impact.
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I completely agree. Students may still be able to contact you via email, but it's not "personal" the same way Facebook and other social networking tools are. It's not 'threatening' to students to contact instructors, staff or faculty with a tool they use constantly. It takes away the hierarchy and brings everyone to the same level where connections and conversation can happen.
It's definitely in how you use it...you very actively post stories, photos, and useful information. It's fun to look at your profile, even for someone who doesn't have anything to do with your college.
Of course, posting photos of the cutest little baby on earth doesn't hurt, either...
So true! Over here in Admissions, we've been searching for the "right way" to use Facebook. Whether that's an office presence (Page), a Director's personal profile, a group for tour guides (already in existence, but not "official" according to the office, or what.
I think the person-to-person is most powerful, but the Page is likely what the office would be most comfortable with. I'd also hope to inspire more faculty to, like you, communicate with prospective students using it. Thanks for being a point of contact there! I'm sure the folks you're talking to (and we over here, for that matter) appreciate it.
posting photos of the cutest little baby on earth doesn't hurt
Yeah. I guess I'm kinda cheating.
This topic would actually make a very good discussion topic at the Learning Design Summer Camp. There seems to be enough interest from other people and I think that Facebook is a service that is often misunderstood and undervalued.
Would you be interested? If so, you can add something to the wiki or I could do it for you.
As much as I like to be fluent and early-ish adopting tech; I'm still in the "eh, facebook, whatever" mindset. But. Like I always preach, it's not the tool, it's the task done with that tool that matters. Your point would make me find it quite easy to re-evaluate.
it's not the tool, it's the task done with that tool that matters.
Exactly. If you want to reach students, it's Facebook---for now. The proof is that two years after I jumped in, absolutely every person in my college who is connected to recruitment or retention jumped in too.