Social Media Week New York Panel: The Future of Social Media in Higher Education

On Friday, McGraw-Hill hosted a panel discussion on the future of social media in higher education. The panel included:

• Adam Ostrow Editor in Chief, Mashable.com

• Dr. Kathleen P. King Professor, Fordham University; Professor, Transformation Education, LLC

• Greg Verdino VP Strategy & Solutions, Powered; author of microMARKETING

• Mary Casey NYU Student and Founder of Jatched.com

• Vineet Madan VP Strategy & Business Development, McGraw-Hill Education

The panel was moderated by Yianni Garcia, a marketing specialist at GradeGuru.com. Tweets from the discussion can be found under #smwmcgraw.

Video 1

Video 2

The central topic of the discussion revolved around how how social media is affecting the classroom now, and how it will change the classroom of the future.

There is a growing recognition among universities to adopt social technologies to enrich the learning experience. Friday’s discussion revealed that educators and the tech community are acknowledging that concern, and George Washington University’s Andrea Genevieve gave a thoughtful perspective on the issue here.

Some of the points that really registered with me during Friday’s discussion:

• Two-year colleges are leading the way in advancing distance learning (in terms of both programs and adoption of new technology). This is due largely to the speed in which these schools can adapt to changes in demographic and economy, along with other student demands. Also, two-year institutions face fewer levels of bureaucracy than their four-year counterparts.
• Non-traditional students (students not in the 18-21 age group) are outnumbering traditional students. This is relevant to the growth of social media in education because the fastest growing demographic for popular social media tools (such as Facebook and Twitter) are part of the non-traditional set.
• There is a large debate over how to monetize the use of social media in academic institutions, just as in business. While many believe that intellectual property should be protected, others believe that in education, knowledge should be shared. This is a very high-level observation of the argument, but it’s obvious that copyright issues are a concern that will grow.
• One of the great things about social media is that it promotes engagement. Of all the students that enter a college or university today, only about half of them will earn a degree within six years. The biggest reason has nothing to do with the ability to do the coursework, but rather, lack of engagement in their studies. As panelist Veneet Madan stated, “Lack of engagment is one of the biggest problems we have in getting students through the college and university system…if we don’t tackle the engagement problem, collectively, we’re not going to get more people through the system. If we don’t get more people through the system, we’re not going to have a more educated workforce, we’re not going to have economic growth, then we have all the other problems and issues that ends up raising.” (17:00 min mark of the first video)
• The best question from the audience was the final one (at the 35:05 mark of the second video): “I keep hearing tech is the reduction of friction. How are we going to align the incentives of both the teachers AND students to adopt it?” I recommend you listen to the exchange, it was an enlightening piece.

The fact that more discussion is starting to take the tone of not only “What if we did take on these technologies,” and are leaning toward “Why haven’t we done it already?” speaks to a level of increasing acceptance and hopefully, realized potential.