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College Professors Get in Students' Facebooks
Las Vegas Review-Journal via Yellowbrix
November 03, 2009
College professors who want their students to be engaged and informed are turning to social networking sites to stay connected.
“I find it’s easier for me to distribute the information where they are. And where they are is Facebook,” said Rebecca Wood, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Wood is UNLV’s prelaw adviser and counsels students who are considering law school. She created a Facebook page for posting information for prelaw students. She figures it’s a whole lot easier to do so on Facebook than it would be to e-mail or call every student who would benefit from the information.
And, she said, the social site is more effective than posting information on UNLV’s Web site or pasting notices to a bulletin board. Facebook’s news feed feature keeps them informed in real time, even if they aren’t actively seeking out the information.
Facebook, which has become nearly ubiquitous in recent years, constantly updates users on the status of their friends and the organizations they follow as fans.
The prelaw Facebook page that Wood created has more than 200 fans. Her prelaw Twitter page, a micro-blogging service, has nearly 100 followers. Unless a user specifically opts out, their Facebook and Twitter home pages record every new post from Wood.
“It lets me give complete information to a large number of students, as opposed to doing it one on one,” she said.
She also has produced a podcast — an audio program posted to the Internet — that explains the ins and outs for prelaw students.
