Posting time tables

Keerat Kaur,who teaches Communication Studies and flaunts a Facebook profile with most of her batch on her friend list,says,”These sites have made communication easy and handy. I have used Facebook a lot of times to inform my students about any change in the schedule or an extra class,and its amazing how this system never fails you. I have no hang ups in using technology to make my work better.”

Interestingly,researchers also back this up,with a recent study indicating that close to 40 percent high school teachers in the American continent use the social networking sites to stay in touch with their students and also understand the ever changing mentalities of students in the western world. Picking up from there,even teachers in India are using this tool in their professional gamut. Joseph Melville Pinto,who teaches developmental and civic journalism,says ” I have been using Facebook to get in touch with my students. The time has changed now,and we need to realise that teaching has gone beyond classrooms. In fact,I use Facebook around four-five hours a week in an average.”

It is no surprise then that teachers have found out new ways to use this social tool to that advantage,putting in any delays in schedules,last minutes changes and important information on the internet. ” It simply ensures that the information is circualated well,and its far easier than clinging on the time table on the notice boards. In fact we followed a SMS chain system also,using which we would send important information to the whole batch – this was more or less initiated by the faculty and then through a pre-decided system we would conveiniently pass on the information,” says Salil Sangra,a recent MBA graduate.

An interesting blog entry by Michael Staton,a technology writer who works with the Abilene Christian University states that they are working on an oracle based programme that will enable the teachers to actually even teach on Facebook. While this may seem far fetched taking the Indian context in mind,it is a concept that should not be altogether ignored. Displaying the diverse use of the online media is Anupam Siddhartha,who teaches film studies at a prominent media college. ” I feel social networking should be mutually beneficial,and therefore for me a good way of keeping in touch with my students is by keeping them posted about job and internship opportunities,” he says.

Stat-a-file

* Other online content that works to wards developing such ideas wherein social networking sites like Facebook can be used to teach students is the Web CT Classroom Management system

* Facebook is one of the most popular online social tools on the Internet with more than 68 million active users and over 55,000* regional,work-related,collegiate and secondary school networks.