Friends?

Just about every college student is on Facebook, no?

More and more faculty members are on there as well.

Should faculty members 'friend' students and vice versa?

Facebook profile pic - old folks usually include their kid

Some research from the Gartner Group, The Business Impact of Social Computing on Higher Education makes the following observations: 

1. The current popularity and continued growth of higher education users' (students) participation in social software suggest (these tools) should be added to the existing range of collaboration support options.

 2. Many innovative and interesting intersections exist between institutional structures and  extrainstitutional environments.

If every student in your class is already on Facebook, with at least some of them connected to each other, doesn't it make sense to try and engage them there?  Would possibly some students prefer that to the more sterile, academic course management system?

It is amazingly simple to post content, make comments, recommend sources of information there.  Additionally, the wider audience of past and potentially future students can also be engaged.

I started this blog as a class example of how simple it is to set up and begin a blog.  I (mostly) tailor the content to students and really expected most of the readers would be students. 

The reality is when students do read the blog, they almost always do via a posted item from Facebook (or once in a while from Twitter).  I have had more student interaction on Facebook Wall posts than on Blog comments.

Marketers need to find their target markets, if your target is college students, you'd better start on Facebook.

So to answer my original question, I am not seeking out students to 'Friend', but if one reaches out to me, I will certainly accept. Would some students prefer not to have an Insructor poking around their posted photos from some college party?  Probably, but students also need to understand the same photos they might not want their instructor to see, are probably going to be checked out by a recruiter or hiring manager down the road.

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