Online social networking, wikis, blogs and a host of other technology-based tools are transforming the ways that students interact. In March 2011, New Delhi Television reported that one Australian teenager had to cancel her birthday party after she received over 180,000 responses to the open invitation she posted on Facebook.
The classroom has also gone online. Notecentric and CollegeBanana are Web-based notetaking platforms that help students maintain and share their notes with others on the network. Combining course notes improves accuracy, comprehension and makes for better grades. Collaborating on team projects is facilitated with wikis that allow documents to be created and then edited by others on the team.
Social networking sites are increasingly used by students and job recruiters. In 2010, the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth conducted a followup study on the usage of social media in fast-growing corporations. Data revealed that 57 percent of employers reported using search engines and social networking sites to recruit and evaluate potential employees.
Alumwire provides an interviewing platform that allows recruiters and students to engage live online. In addition to providing advice on employment strategies iHipo connects users to internships, jobs and graduate programs abroad.
Sites such as CollegeClassifieds and CollegeBanana allow students to buy, sell and trade all kinds of items. A multitude of websites have sprung up addressing the demand for used college textbooks. Among its many services, Uloop helps students find roommates. RateMyTeachers and RateMyProfessor allow students to share information about their teachers and professors.
CampusReader, a five-year project funded by the National Science Foundation, targets students who have difficulties with reading, comprehending and integrating information.
It provides a place for users to view and share educational material made of small knowledge chunks called modules that can be organized into reports.
The future will be shaped by students and the social networks they frequent. Even children under the age of 10 are gathering on Togetherville, a social networking site that mirrors Facebook. Marc Prensky, an educational software designer and author, identifies today's students as digital natives. They are born and raised in a world of computers, video games and the Internet, he says. Those not born into this age, digital immigrants, will have to adapt with the new ways of social networking and world as seen by the digital natives.