Community colleges in Galveston County are using wikis, blogs, discussion forums and chat rooms to engage students well versed in social networking.
The colleges also are using social networking tools to boost communication and marketing.
“We twitter,” Jim Higgins, director of communications at the College of the Mainland, said. “We’ve got a Facebook page, and we encourage people to post little items on it.
“But we don’t do Second Life,” he said, referring to an online virtual world where residents interact with each other through avatars, computerized models of themselves. “We have our hands full with the real College of the Mainland, without having a virtual College of the Mainland.”
Galveston College has plans for a Facebook page on the drawing board of a soon-to-be hired web specialist.
“We realize this is a way to connect to more traditional students ages 17 to 25, Joe Huff, director of public affairs and Galveston College Foundation, said.
Both colleges also have ratcheted up online interactions using closed learning management systems that can offer high-tech twists to traditional learning.
The tools can bring video and additional dialogue into the learning equation.
“These tools, blogs, wikis, discussion forums, chat rooms give an opportunity for students to work together,” Jenni Opalenik, Galveston College distance and continuing education coordinator, said. “We know from research and anecdotally that collaborative learning is very effective with all different ages and types of students.”
Opalenik, who has worked in computer-aided instruction for more than 20 years, has seen a growing interest in online classes, as well as hybrid, or blended classes.
“It’s a huge resource for students to be able to balance school with the rest of their life,” she said.
Both Galveston College and College of the Mainland have online efforts and visions that include:
• Class content and demonstrations posted online, including video content.
• More online collaboration tools linking students together, along with their instructors. Students may attend a traditional class, listen to a lecture, then outside of class, work on a collaborative project that involves a discussion forum or helping create a wiki entry. A wiki is a Web page that can be edited by its users.
• Associate degrees that can be completed online. Both colleges now offer complete general studies degrees online. College of the Mainland offers an associate degree in criminal justice and several certificate programs online.
• Facebook and Twitter communications posted to interact with students and report on events and programs. “If somebody is coming on campus to speak or there’s a concert, you shoot out a quick little blurb,” Higgins said.
Staff members also monitor the Facebook page to resolve complaints posted by students.
Opalenik said she does not foresee a future in which colleges forsake face-to-face interaction.
Higgins, who owns up to both an AARP card and a Facebook page, keeps this story handy: A professor who eschewed technology and e-mail was confronted on campus one day by a student.
“I’ve been trying to reach you,” the student said. “You don’t have e-mail; you don’t have voice mail.”
The professor said, “Well, I’m standing here. What do you need?”
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Vocabulary
Wiki: A Website that allows multiple users to create, modify and organize Web page content in a collaborative manner.
Chat room: A text-based conferencing, in real-time, online. It might be compared to a party line on a telephone, or a conference call.
Discussion forum: An online bulletin board, where messages and responses are posted.
Blog: A type of Webs ite, usually maintained by one person, with regular entries of commentary or video.
Twitter: A free social networking service that allows users to send and read brief messages (called tweets) among a circle of friends or subscribers.
Facebook: Social networking Web site where users post personal news and profiles to notify friends.
