Editorial: An academic faux-Facebook won’t catch on

Although your professor will probably still yell at you for tweeting or checking Facebook during… Although your professor will probably still yell at you for tweeting or checking Facebook during class, it seems that schools are warming up to the idea of social media or even incorporating the new technology into academics. Unfortunately, they’re doing it wrong.

According to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, the City University of New York launched a new online resource called Academic Commons, which strives to connect faculty, staff and students through a social network of blogs, subject groups and academic discussions. The network only has 1,300 users out of a potential user base of 10,000. The University of Pennsylvania has a similar network for its College of Liberal and Professional Studies.

These sites sound like they have about the popularity potential of Blackboard.

In case that needs clarification, we’re pretty sure students only use Blackboard when they are forced to for an assignment. Actual social networking sites are used on a more voluntary basis and actually prove to be mildly addicting in our experience.

We agree that schools should incorporate social networking into academics, but they should use the resources that are already available to them, such as Facebook, Twitter, and WordPress. Students are more likely to have a site like this already open in their browser, rather than an academic Blackboard-like site, and therefore would see academic updates such as discussion boards and classmate blog posts along with social updates.

People are already comfortable with and know how to use current social networking sites like Facebook, making them more likely to use them for academics rather than sites specifically for academic networking. Formats of already established sites also allow more personal connections, possibly providing a better opportunity for professors to get to know their students.

If students are wary about academic authorities having access to their social-networking shenanigans, they can consider altering their privacy settings or creating one account for professional networking and another for ex-boyfriend stalking.

Ultimately, there is already a ridiculous amount of social networking sites available. We feel that students don’t need another one. Schools should stop trying to compete with current online networking giants and instead work with them.