Over the last few months I’ve had input from hundreds of people about how they were using Twitter and Facebook as social networking tools around their various academic programs.

In some cases it became quite a contentious issue whether tools such as Twitter were beneficial, when used in conjunction with academic programs. Obviously some of this divide was along age lines of the target student community. Clearly students in elementary school aren’t going to be sending tweets out from their classroom, but many mentioned Twitter’s use outside of classroom in high school or along with blended or distance learning programs.

Facebook also has a massive following worldwide and many in academia have indicated usage by individual schools, programs or even departments such as business development, career services or alumni relations in Higher Ed settings.

Many have also indicated that Linkedin has offered them benefits, especially in the Higher Ed area. School specific alumni groups abound on Linkedin and are useful tools for member interaction, event posting, discussion threads, referrals and more.

Aside from the business and service oriented uses by schools, and focusing on the pure academic utilisation, many have mentioned the above sites as opportunities for informal learning for their students, augmenting the formal instruction the school offers.

I’m looking for your ideas. Do you feel the opportunity is there to augment your formal instruction with a variety of social networking tools / sites?

Please let me know what you think.

TOPYX is a revolutionary eLearning solution that incorporates Facebook, Twitter and other social networking resources right into the learning platform to enhance the learner’s experience. Through TOPYX, students can gain access to the tools and resources that they are asking for. It’s time to learn more about what TOPYX can do for your classroom and distance learning programs!

Please feel free to join our upcoming free, live webinar:

Social Networking around the Classroom
Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009
2:00pm – 3:00pm ET
Register Here – Space is Limited

We are going to cover a lot of ground in the webinar, but if you would like to discuss your unique eLearning needs, feel free to contact me at patrick.batty@interactyx.com.

Patrick Batty
Vice President, Academic Solutions
Interactyx Limited

patrick.batty@interactyx.com
www.interactyx.com