Facebook Groups for Schools
I was reading an article the other day which got me to thinking about how useful Facebook can be to you school.
Any here are a few idea
Student Groups
Problem
Most colleges have students groups like AMA, BSC, blah blah blah Lots of acronyms. Anyways they usually have a site for the group lets say http://myschool.edu/ama. It sits on some random server that IT hates to touch. They provide no support for it. So each semester you have to find one student in an organization that can hack up some kind of html. The level of experience varies each semester so sometimes the site is great, sometimes not so go. Some times the last person to do the site drops off the face of the earth and doesn’t pass on login or general info about the site.
Solution
Use Facebook for student group sites. All the things that are commonly on student groups sites are available on Facebook. Forum, pics, officer listings, member lists. All with no need for knowledge of html. It stays consistant, easy to maintain, multiple admins.
Hurdle
I told people at my school about this, they said why dont we make a facebook for our school. *Counter* No that is making another thing to join. Much less something run by the school. We should learn from Walmarts attempt at a Facebook and PASS! Everyone is already on facebook or can get on if need be. Facebook is open to everyone so there is no barrier to entry.
Groups for School
You can have a group for your school in general as opposed to student groups mentioned above. *NOTE* You cannot have a profile for your school. You can however create a group for your school. This can be a way to get in touch with prospective students. Some schools are slow to adapt these sites, personally I am all for it. Facebook and Myspace can make connections with students that you may otherwise not hit. I have lots of students connected to my profiles and have been asked questions regarding admissions, classes and various other topics. You can also syndicate things such as your student blogs on facebook using “Notes”.
on December 4, 2006 on 4:43 pm
Perhaps you guys could work on a pattern catalog for content management.
on December 4, 2006 on 4:53 pm
I think coming up with a microformat for courses would be awesome.
on December 8, 2006 on 5:10 pm
There’s been some discussion on that already.