This article “Taking Facebook Back to Campus” in the Oct. 24th edition of Inside Education reminded me of the unclear technology assumption of the learning organization perspective. With all the technology out there it’s hard to keep track of it all. This article talks about universities using Facebook to attract new students and keep track of alumni. I think it is great to use all the new thing that are out there, but it sure adds to the chaos of a learning organization. Not only do students learn in different ways making different technology difficult for students to use, but also students have different levels of experience with the new technology. Older students, international students or low income students may not have access to the new technology.
This could also be seen from the human resource perspective as having a focus on people and making decisions to use the new technology to meet the needs of the students. Students are already using this new technology, so universities are adjusting to the times and using the technology to attract new students.
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I am doing a paper on this topic (college use of social networking sites), but not for recruitment but for policing student activity. It's a slippery slope - in my opinion - that schools would spend time and workforce hours monitoring these pages. I am doing a paper on Stacy Snyder, a 27 year old mother of two who is suing Millersville University (a public university in PA). She posted a photograph of herself dressed as a pirate, drinking out of yellow plastic cup. The title of the photo reads, "drunken pirate." According to Stacy, school officials saw the posting and told her that they would not issue her a teaching certificate, but gave her a BA in English instead. They initially cited the photograph as being their reason for doing this. The photo is pretty benign - she is dressed as a pirate but you cannot tell if she is drunk or even drinking alcohol out of the cup. Using FaceBook as a way to bolster a college application or to police activity (directly or indirectly) is pretty tricky stuff.
Interesting. . . I know of several instances where residence life or housing departments have used pictures that were posted on social networking sites as evidence against residents and student workers. It has also become an acceptable practice to screen social networking sites when hiring potential student workers and even professional staff.
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