Cutting-Edge Technologies and Social Media Use in Higher Education

International contributors to this work include those in higher education instruction and administration, career counseling, and social media. They draw on disciplines such as pedagogy, social capital theory, information technology, and legal studies in their exploration of the use of social media in higher education classrooms. They focus on the use of social media as a networking enabler, as a marketing and recruitment tool, as a form of collaboration, as a teaching and learning tool, and as a medium presenting career management and entrepreneurship opportunities. Much discussion centers on Facebook, with chapters on how and why college students use Facebook, and leveraging Facebook as a peer-support group for students. Other areas explored are leveraging new media for diversity, enhancing student employability through social media, and social media for knowledge workers. The final chapter touches on justifying the return-on-investment of social media investment in education. The book's readership includes researchers, instructors, and administrators.

This book covers the application of Web 2.0 in higher education core activities, i.e., teaching and learning; but it goes beyond to touch on surrounding areas like collaboration, employment, marketing, professionalism, and building and maintaining social capital. The book is useful to researchers who want to know more about frontiers of knowledge in this area so as to decide what area of research to take up. It would also benefit higher education practitioners at policy, marketing, and pedagogical levels.

A must-read resource for higher education and businesses professionals, as well as for college students. Impressively pragmatic and authentic besides its pedagogical and academic focus. Based on information derived from real-life case studies, quantitative research data, and personal and professional experiences and observations of the authors, the book embodies highly interesting subjects that allow for a ubiquitous insight into the role of online social media use in higher education and businesses from multiple entry points. Highly Recommended.

Some of the surprises of this collection are that there are so many institutions of higher education that are still hesitant to engage social media in constructive ways to enhance the higher education experience. While there have been years of research into some of the salutary uses of social media in education, the political buy-in at various institutions of higher education has to be arrived at locally through whatever processes are legitimated in that context. Indeed, there has to be confidence in the resilience and security of the selected platforms before any institution will trust its students and reputation to a particular social media platform. There are real costs in having individuals invest themselves in social media, and such social connections can be fleeting and fragile. The global community, though, is important for learners to engage.