The article mentions, among other things, that William & Mary has its own Fb account.:
The WM Facebook was not created by students but by Red Ant Hosting, an independent company which owns similar sites at over 500 colleges and universities.
In this article some students comment on Fb:
- ...many students see them as a way to contact people in their classes about assignments.
- For freshmen like Devan Barber, the WM Facebook was a way to get the lay of the land before starting at the College.
At the time of this article the W&M Fb network had, as of September 7, 2004 2,127 members.
As of March 3, 2008 W&M has 12,882 members.
These are some of the GROUPS I found within the W&M Fb network:
Vote for a Greener William and Mary on March 20th! 666 members
We Will Miss You Gene Nichol 2,090 members
TribeUnited.com 467 members
PLEASE PARTICIPATE IN STUDENT PROJECT: 32,280 members
I Support the List of Demands 192 members
W&M Conservatives 67 members
Ground Floor Audio/Visual Culture Collective 29 members
Swem Media Center 44 members
re.web 62 members
William and Mary Theatre 95 members
William & Mary Supports JENA 6 676 members
WM Remembers Virginia Tech 1,394 members
Activism in the Fight Against AIDS (AAFA)
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance (FMLA)
International Justice Mission (IJM)
One in Four (Description: One in Four is an all-male sexual assault peer education group)
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
Students for Fair Trade (SDS)
Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC)
Tidewater Labor Support Committee (TLSC)
Voices for Planned Parenthood (VOX)
Young Democracts
Note: Everyday I find newly formed groups.
Under the EVENTS tab in the W&M Fb site I found a list of wide-ranging activities:
Tribe Basketball v George Mason CAA CHAMPIONSHIP
Type: Sports - Sporting Event
Attendees: 310
Sperm Whales and Harmony at Homebrew
Hosted by: UCAB and the Sperm Whales
Type: Music/Arts - Concert
Where:
Attendees: 88
Is Diversity a Weakness? A Lecture By Jared Taylor
Hosted by: College of William and Mary
Type: Education - Lecture
Attendees: 59
Hammer No More the Fingers
UCAB kicks off Fridays @ 5 with some sweet off-kilter rock music
Type: Music/Arts - Concert
Attendees: 65
The Vagina Monologues 2008
Have fun raising funds for AVALON!
Type: Causes - Fundraiser
Attendees: 342
Gentlemen and No Strings Attached!
Hosted by: Gentlemen of the College
Type: Music/Arts - Concert
Attendees: 76
PHI TAU St. Patty's Day Live Band/Dance Party/Brett's 21st/Phi Tau's 102nd
W&M doesn't know what's coming...
Hosted by: Phi Kappa Tau
Type: Party - Erotic Party
Attendees: 274
St. Patty's Day Party
the holiday of Green
Type: Party - Holiday Party
Attendees: 30
Annie, Jess, & Talia's BOMBASS BIRTHDAY PARTY
...because they're bombass, and so are you
Hosted by: The women of 711
Type: Party - Night of Mayhem
Attendees: 73
Derby Days in Dublin
They're always after me lucky charms
Hosted by:Sigma Chi
Type: Causes - Fundraiser
Attendees: 45
24 Speed 2008 (Sponsored by The Film Studies Dept. & Swem Library)
Get up to Speed...
Host: Film Studies & Swem Library
Support the Media Center Concert
with the best music on campus
Host: Support the Media Center!
Type: Causes - Rally
Type: Music/Arts - Performance
W&M Middle Eastern Music Ensemble presents A. J. Racy
An evening of classical Arabic music
Hosted by: W&M MEME
Type: Music/Arts - Concert
Attendees: 13
Vagueness and the Revision of Logic
"John's not bald...but he's also not not bald."
Type: Education - Lecture
Tribe'11 Rocks the Vote
No rocks. Just Voting.
Type: Meetings - Convention
Attendees: 279
Bibliography:
Facebook/Networks//William&Mary. (2008, March). Retrieved March 2008, from Facebook networks: http://www.facebook.com/networks/16777293/William__Mary/
Silverstein, B. (2004, September 10). Online facebook connects students. The Flat Hat On Line , vol 95 Issue 4 . Williamsburg, VA, USA.
More later...
1 comment:
I suspect that this range of interpersonal networking functions that Facebook supports for W&M students is similar to what it supports for students at other universities. I'd be willing to bet that if you did a similar inventory in a year, you would find more evidence of exponential growth in both numbers and types of FB applications here at the College.
To me, this is a key question:
Is it advisable to try to create/encourage academic use of Facebook (and similar social networking tools)?
Consider, for example, the results of a Pew survey done with adolescents:
"The Digital Disconnect: The widening gap between Internet-savvy students and their schools"
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/
67/report_display.asp
"Students report that there is a substantial disconnect between how they use the Internet for school and how they use the Internet during the school day and under teacher direction. For the most part, students’ educational use of the Internet occurs outside of the school day, outside of the school building, outside the direction of their teachers."
This report was used by edtech advocates to encourage teachers to use the Internet more, and in ways that are more similar to what teens enjoy doing outside of school online, but increasing numbers of teachers report that their adolescent students resist using social networking tools for academic purposes, short of collaborating on homework and group projects.
Similarly, educational software developers have been trying for a long time to appropriate the engaging characteristics of videogames in educational software. The results to date, as far as I know, are not encouraging.
So -- should be try to figure out how tools like FB can support academics, or should we accept that they serve primarily nonacademic purposes? If we decide the latter, then does use of social networking tools have a recommended place in teaching & learning online?
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