This semester my interest has really been sparked by web 2.0 and finding ways to implement those techniques into my role as an academic adviser. A colleague of mine had an idea last semester of a program where students could come together with academic advisers and their peers to discuss any issues they wanted to that were related to their academic lives, future careers, or just things that were bothering them on campus.
She asked me to assist her with this project and I thought this might be an opportune time to integrate a Facebook academic advising community (something I had been thinking about for awhile). At first, it took a long time for the group to get off the ground but when it did it thrived!
Students responded to discussion board questions and videos. They also took some initiative and posted things of their own that they wanted us to discuss. Overall, we currently have more than 100 members signed up and around 20 who are actively participating. When the Facebook section of the group took off, we were contemplating disbanding the in-person portion of the group. When we posed this question to the students, however, they told us not too! They wanted in person interaction and were really enjoying the group dynamics.
This was not the response I was expecting from these students. I am curious if anyone else is surprised by their reaction?
The other project that I have been working on this semester is the implementation of a delicious account specifically to help the students that we serve in our center: undecided students and students who are interested in changing their major. Since I love delicious with all my heart I wanted to give my students access to that same interface if they wanted it.
My delicious page for academic advising has everything from general advisement information to information on career fields that might be of interest to students. It is my hope that if students can get a taste of what they can do with a particular major or learn how to better network early on in their academic lives, they will be better prepared for their futures. I also hope that by introducing them to this website, they will better be able to organize information that is related to their academics.
As far as I know, no other academic advisement center is using delicious in quite this way. If anyone is out that that is, I would love to see it! Maybe we could share some ideas!
Please feel free to take a look at my delicious account. Any comments or feedback on it are appreciated.
1 comment:
Good Morning! (A few months AFTER you wrote this post...)
I'm work at Michigan State's College of Business (Academic Advising unit) and have been given the task of expanding our office into the Facebook realm (which I am very familiar with already). I found this site doing some research on how Facebook is already successfully being used.
However - I was intrigued by the use of del.ici.ous (with which I am less familiar, although I know what it's about) and wondered if you had any success so far. I'll be doing some poking around of my own, but if you have any tips to share, I'm all ears!
(My blog is a personal blog, so if you come visit, keep that in mind), :)
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