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August 24, 2009, 11:00 AM ET

How Students, Professors, and Colleges Are, and Should Be, Using Social Media

S. Craig Watkins

The Chronicle spoke with S. Craig Watkins, an associate professor of radio, TV, and film at the University of Texas at Austin, about the new age of social networking and media, and what it means for the classroom of the future. His soon-to-be-published book, The Young and the Digital: What the Migration to Social Network Sites, Games, and Anytime, Anywhere Media Means for Our Future, touches on those ideas.

Q. How has technology made today’s students different from students a decade ago?
A. They’re really the first generation of teenagers who grew up with the household computer and the Internet as a kind of everyday experience and everyday technology in the household. So they’re used to a much more active way of engaging their environment, a much more active way of gauging the information landscape. Have they developed a set of skills? Have they developed habits that are simply out of step with those more traditional ways of conducting or modeling a classroom? I think they have.

Q. How has this changed student behavior in the classroom?
A. The students are walking in armed with this technology, from their mobile phones to laptops. Most college classrooms are now wired, so students can access all of their applications, all of their social networks while sitting in a classroom. It’s a very different technological environment, but it’s also a different social and cultural environment, too. Students are coming in with the expectation to have this technology, and they’re determined in some ways to use it while they’re in class.

Q. How has today’s student changed how professors prepare their classes?
A. It’s really forcing university professors to think about their teaching style and the pedagogical techniques that they use in the classroom. In other words, I’ve become increasingly dissatisfied with simply delivering a traditional lecture in the classroom. I’m beginning to debate whether or not it’s effective, whether or not it works, whether or not it’s a useful tool or a useful way to engage and create a kind of learning space or a learning environment. They’re active learners, as opposed to passive learners. That one-way flow of content -- I don’t know how effective that is anymore.

Q. Should college admissions officers be looking through student’s profiles when considering their application?
A. I don’t necessarily have a problem with that. The problem becomes if they start fishing for unflattering or potentially damaging kind of content -- pictures or wall posts -- sort of deliberately using it to hunt for that kind of content, as opposed to simply trying to make maybe a better informed, insightful admission decision about a student. It is an opportunity to learn about people’s interest, the kinds of things they are engaged in, in terms of community-related issues and social issues. In that sense, it does provide a window into a person’s life, and into a person’s interests that can be a value to an admissions committee.

Q. In your book, you write about the role colleges now have in policing material on social networking sites. Is it a college administrator’s responsibility to be checking up on students using those sites?
A. Should universities be scouring social-media networks as a way to police their dorms? I would encourage universities not to use technologies in that way -- as a surveillance mechanism or tool. There is this concern about privacy, about the blurring of the line between the private self and the public self. I would be reluctant to agree with or believe that’s an appropriate use of the tool.

Q. What about when students leave college? Should their prospective employers be searching through their online profiles?
A. That’s becoming more and more of a common practice. Graduating students, one of the things that they indicated is that when they went out for interviews for jobs, one of the first thing they were asked is, "Are you on MySpace?" or, "Are you on Facebook?" Their potential employers wanted to get access to their profiles. That caused a certain kind of panic among students. Students began to clean out their profiles, or just delete them altogether for fear that they would cause a problem when trying to go out and secure employment. That’s more and more common.

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Comments

1. bradjward - August 24, 2009 at 04:16 pm

My thought on admission offices using tools such as Facebook to learn more about applicants: If you're doing it for one, you need to do it for all. Since you don't have the time to do it for all, don't do it at all.

2. tammer101 - August 24, 2009 at 04:30 pm

All students need to be aware that ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING they put into cyberspace is public. There is no such thing as privacy online!

3. ericstoller - August 24, 2009 at 06:15 pm

I agree with bradjward...how can an admissions office utilize Facebook to learn about all applicants? That would take forever.

tammer101 - while there are students who have posted inappropriate content to their social media accounts, a lot of students do a great job of establishing a professionally accessible social media presence.

4. holly_jocoy - August 24, 2009 at 07:13 pm

5. alex369 - August 24, 2009 at 07:24 pm

There is no question that digital technologies have brought changes, but the constant hype about how revolutionary they are and how wonderful our world would be if we just all learned how to properly use them is not just annoying but outright dangerous. Universities are spending so much money on digital technologies and their rising costs of maintenance that they are forced to cut back elsewhere, e.g. faculty positions, thus leading to larger classes. As seems typical of proponents of digital media in the classroom and universities in general, Prof. Watkins tends to exaggerate.

6. mrsb83 - August 24, 2009 at 08:56 pm

In a recent study, it was found that baby boomers used less technology but felt it made them more productive, and Gen x and Gen y used more technology but didn't feel more productive. There is probably a happy medium somewhere in this debate.

7. istpsu - August 25, 2009 at 08:35 am

It is vexing that no one seems to have any new insights on this theme; just the same observations which are somewhat glib. This is becoming an academic echo chamber because we have all been saying these same things now for ten or so years.

What does it mean to learning and teaching when we simply repeat statements liek this one: "The students are walking in armed with this technology, from their mobile phones to laptops. Most college classrooms are now wired, so students can access all of their applications, all of their social networks while sitting in a classroom." Therefore what?

Social networking can also be thought of as "social notworking" in the classroom and dorm room. Is digital media making learning easier? Have people really changed how they learn? Do they really absorb more information faster? Or are they more distracted from learning?

8. jesor - August 25, 2009 at 12:04 pm

I've worked in a judicial role in a residence hall, and while we never used a facebook or myspace posting as evidence against a student, we did often have conversations with students about how once something is online, it is public, even if you didn't intend for it to be. This idea that because it's "MY" myspace page means it's private is not only foolish, but dangerous to propagate since it leads students to make decisions that can be harmful to themselves. The only blurring of the line between "private self" and "public self" is occuring in the mind of the student. The example I use is "if someone moons you through their front window while you're walking down the street, is it indecency, or is it covered in their right to privacy since they're in their own home?" Of course that backfired when one student responded with "was he cute?"

9. flipgonzo - August 25, 2009 at 01:41 pm

Other than authoring a book what are S. Craig Watkins credentials for speaking to the topic of social media? I concur with bradjward, first because his commnet is poignant and secondly because he has deomstrated a proficiency for the integration of social media in higher education.

10. weeties - August 25, 2009 at 06:24 pm

The assumption that the Internet leads to active/interactive communication, and the classroom, passive, requires defining the term, "communication," and flies in the face of my experience.
This should not be posited as either/or.

The self-satisfied presumption about the nature of current media, and its positive effects on the species' ability to communicate is a form of cheerleading I find enervating. Hitting keys obsessively, and phoning, checking e-mail, Twittering, and playing video games is not, prima facie, a higher form of human interaction.

11. chandlermedlib - August 25, 2009 at 06:31 pm

I beg to differ that these students are active learners. I am not alone - this is the exact discussion amongst our education initiative folks. There is a horrible pushback when you ask students - or force them really - to take a more active role in learning. They hate the active learning tools we employ in class ("what is the point of coming to class if I have to teach myself anyway") and trash our course evaluations for "making them work so hard" and having "expectations that are too high." All because we don't tolerate rote memorization and force our students to learn and apply knowledge ("the professors lie about material covered on the exam"). Thankfully, their performance demonstrates that these methods are working, but they certainly do not arrive at my classroom as active learners.

12. rocketb - August 26, 2009 at 12:36 pm

I do hope the days of sitting and listening to a pompous bore pontificating to a captive audience are ending with the advent of electronic technology. That being said, there will always be students who want to learn and are active learners and those who make faculty wish they'd chosen a whole different line of work.
How will technology change the nature of the student? Is someone looking at how to more fully engage more students with technology?And yes, there will probably always be pompous bores too...

13. y_lulat - August 27, 2009 at 04:25 am

The heart of the problem here is the confusion between "means" and "ends." I wonder if the author discusses this issue? Those who champion this new digital age stuff seem to be so overawed by the means and that they forget the ends. Most of my students may be adapt at using their cell phones, for instance, but seem to be clueless in imploying the web to enhance their learning. What is more, getting them to visit and navigate the class website is like pulling teeth.

14. bphil - August 27, 2009 at 07:00 am

I distrust the generational narrative that posits a new breed of "wired" student with fundamentally different needs and even differently structured brains. While brains do change, that's not the kind of change that brains do, and anyway, not all students have the same daily exposure to the same things. Are all your students wealthy, connected, and computer-literate?

That said, students do arrive with tools and skills that are simply better than the ones "we" had growing up. Thanfully, we all have them at our disposal (if we're lucky enough to work at a campus that invests in new technology). The article says "they" are "active learners," which is a truism. All "learners" are "active learners," as long as we make allowances for what "activity" means. I felt "active" when a good lecture made me squirm. But not all students were like me and they never have been. If new tools allow us to enhance, promote, and practice "active learning" rather than a learning environment in which the student is nothing, brings nothing to the classroom, and has to suffer through what we euphemistically call "rigorous demands" (I talk, you listen), then generational narratives are irrelevent and neither dangerous nor true.

15. paievoli - August 27, 2009 at 12:16 pm

Please read the article in US News and World Report.
http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/k-12/2009/08/25/a-kindle-for-every-student.html

16. _perplexed_ - August 27, 2009 at 04:39 pm

Biggest new media effect among students that I've observed: the now widespread belief that if it can't be found online, it can't be worth attending to do.

17. paldy - August 27, 2009 at 09:15 pm

This is definitely a higher ed comment section. I know I watch it all happen from first use of video tape machines to now. Guess what guys, were doing it. Probably the actual content, implications, sarcasm, and confidence (acting like we know and we are right) of the comments would be no more or less then a younger group, although I think the labeling is down. Like it or not it is here. I have had a great time on face book with friends, relatives, students, new online friends, and former students from each decade dating back to the 60s who have found me or I have found them . I think a positive an balanced approach to any new phenomena, and time to let it evolve and integrate into fundamental ways of teaching is best (and I'm right and if you don't think so then insults to you. Whoops I got a little bloggie there :o)

18. paldy - August 27, 2009 at 09:15 pm

19. paldy - August 27, 2009 at 09:16 pm

20. paldy - August 27, 2009 at 09:16 pm

21. gilfuseducation - September 04, 2009 at 08:45 pm

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By understanding its applications we can create a unique opportunity to improve student engagement, student retention, academic success and overall educational outcomes.

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http://www.gilfuseducationgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Social-Learning-Dimensions-Gilfus-Education-Group.pdf

22. zanders - October 05, 2009 at 02:13 pm

@tammer101 - It's not the case that there's no such thing as privacy online. If that was the case, Facebook wouldn't have partnerships with the CIA. There is a clear difference between data kept on Facebook.com (what's kept on their servers), and what happens on Facebook's platform (what's kept on non-Facebook servers). Colleges and universities are starting to understand the difference, and I agree that what happens on Facebook's servers (and other sites like Twitter) is public.