I've been up since early this morning (5 a.m.) and have my world music playlist going on my iTunes. It puts me in a cheery, global frame of mind as I head into the next couple of weeks. Right now, I'm enjoying?Ang?lique Kidjo from Benin.?
Next week on Friday, 30 May, I'll be presenting — along with Corrina Lewis from Cornell University (Voices from Cornell Abroad) and Penny Schouten from?Academic Solutions?(formerly of SUNY New Paltz and still working with their?AbroadBlogs) — a session?titled "Blogs, Facebook, and Instant Messaging: How Social Media Can Work for?You" at the?2008 NAFSA: Association of International Educators conference. This is the largest association for international education — the exchange of students and scholars between countries and cultures — in the world. There will probably be more than 8,000 professionals attending! (The conference, not our presentation…)
We'll be helping international educators from around the world learn some basics about social media and how to develop a presence in cyberspace and assist the students and scholars they work with through blogs, social networking sites like Facebook, tools such as instant messaging, etc.
Corinna, Penny and I already have our own experience and research to share, but we want to go further. Many (but not all!) of the people who will be in our audience are committed professionals in their field who may not be familiar with "how this social media thing works". I don't want to just tell them, I want to show them.
So I have a request of my readers today. Let's demonstrate.
Share with me.?Share links. Share information. Share your thoughts about how you think social media applies?to and/or has implications for the field of international education — the exchange of students and scholars between countries and cultures.?
To get you started, here are some ideas of examples you could share:
- A blog or a blog posting
- that relates to cultural exchange or global understanding
- by an international education association — such as the Forum for Education Abroad
- by an international student and/or education abroad office at a college/university
- focused on advice for student travelers – such as StudentTravelBlog
- by an organization or company involved in international education — such as World Learning?or?InternationalStudent.com
- that's a collection of blogs — such as the Center Director blogs at IES
- that's a personal blog by an international educator — such as Srah.net?and Terrapin Station
- or an individual blog of student who is studying in another country
- A social networking page or group
- NAFSA's Join the Movement for Study Abroad?or GoAbroad.net Network, both on Facebook
- the MySpace (beta) news section on Study Abroad
- or?Hazaras Abroad?on Ning.com for students from the Hazara ethnic group of the Hazarajat region in central Afghanistan
- Any other type of social media tool that you think would work
If you'd rather not share publicly by making a comment below,?contact me directly?with your thoughts or links!
Oh, and while you're at it, consider Digging up?my posting on the Simon Foundation Act?– a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and now stuck in the U.S. Senate that would create a program to send one million USA students to other countries. Help bring attention to NAFSA's efforts!
{ 25 comments }
CEA just started their own social network on Ning: http://studyabroadcea.ning.com/
Do RSS feeds count as social media? I’ve been following study abroad news for a few years with these:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=%22study+abroad%22&ie=UTF-8&output=rss
http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=%22study+abroad%22
srah’s last blog post: So I send people Moustache Trees on Facebook instead
Thanks to Penny’s tremendous help, The University of South Carolina’s Study Abroad Office just launched our own Student Blogs last week! We are very excited to start following our students’ time abroad. The link to these blogs is http://www.sa.sc.edu/sa/osc.htm. I look forward to attending your session at NAFSA.
Amizade Service-Learning & Volunteering Abroad has a Facebook page at:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2217246761
Hi Ruth! Fantastic – and timely, since social media seems to be an all-encompassing trend, given web 2.0, etc.
We have a new community site for traveling educators, called http://www.WanderingEducators.com. It is new, we’re still looking for additional editors – and it will be driven by user-generated content and bookmarking. It is very exciting!
Wish I could be at NAFSA. I’ll look forward to your blog. I’d like to know more about new trends and ideas, if you’re keeping your eyes peeled. Thanks!
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The University Of Kentucky’s Education Abroad Office’s Facebook account is called “Ed Abroad”.
Temple University Study Away has a Facebook page at:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9847737450
and a blog at:
http://templeindublin.blogspot.com/
You can find University of Cincinnati International Programs on facebook if you search for UC-International Programs, or click here if you’ve got an account: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=735110175. I’m on there personally as well, and it comes in handy every once in a while to see what some of our students are posting!
HI, this is great!
We have set up Facebook pages for our high school students and for our company (see below). The pages are set up by country and links to the pages and information are added to student material. This year we are ramping up our web 2.0 initiatives and will be adding student projects, bloggers and continuing the facebook pages. Our Japan Facebook pages are very popular and students are actively using this site to exchange information and give advise to each other. Also, this year, we have three returning students on our Japan High School summer program. They have taken it upon themselves to act as trip mentors and are explaining the trip to the new students, giving recommendations for exchanging money,etc. Basically doing some of my job. It is great!
We have also found this to be a great marketing and selling tool and have seen a jump in the popularity of our programs.
Some of our facebook pages are: Japan-Intrax Study Abroad 2008
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=24055025356
Intrax Study Abroad
http://www.facebook.com/pages/San-Francisco-CA/Intrax-Study-Abroad/6299853660?ref=s
And others can be found by searching for Intrax Groups.
I look forward to seeing how others are using Web 2.0 options.
The Overseas Opportunities Office at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor has very recently published the following Facebook “Page:”
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ann-Arbor-MI/International-Center-Education-Abroad-Peace-Corps-Offices-U-of-Michigan/17766508972
Marymount University has a Facebook group “MU Global,” however it is open only to people within the Marymount network. (http://marymount.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2214014840&ref=mf) If you would like to talk about it or see screen shots, please feel free to send me an email at rebecca.proznick@marymount.edu.
My student’s mostly use it to post pictures (we have 412!) and we are trying to get them to write more on topics. If anyone has suggestions on how to get them to write (preferably not with bribes like money or gift cards), I would appreciate it!
BlogAbroad.com, a part of StudyAbroad.com, chronicles the adventures of students each semester as they study abroad in different countries. You can interact with the students and give them advice or learn from their journeys.
You can find the IIEPassport Study Abroad Directory Facebook page at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/IIEPassportorg-StudyAbroadFundingorg/6196909093
You’re being featured on Five Star Friday:
http://www.fivestarfriday.com/2008/05/five-star-friday-edition-6.html
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Hi Ruth! Great topic.
Yes, you can definitely find GoAbroad on Facebook, but the bigger news is that we’ve launched the GoAbroad Network, “the social networking site for travelers.” It’s geared toward student and experiential travelers, and was created for the purpose that you mention — to use the power of the user-driven social site to support study abroad and meaningful travel. As Sue Strow mentioned upthread, it’s a great way to get students promoting and discussing the program with each other and through their huge online social networks.
What sets GoAbroad.net apart is that it includes communication tools created for Study Abroad advisors. They can send messages and bulletins to their students; they can post documents, syllabi, itineraries, and other resources; and their program page features student travel blogs and photos that can be accessed by anyone. International students use their blogs as a postcard home.
We are encouraging all study abroad advisors to open a free account on the GoAbroad Network, create an Advisor Group, and add blogging as a course requirement for students abroad. There are numerous positive benefits to this, all at no cost and with little effort for advisors. One of them is — as Kurt Olausen mentioned upthread — that when advisors get all students blogging on the same site, they can easily monitor what’s being posted. Group advisors can also correct any false, inaccurate, or offensive journal entries about their program. However, most student blogs will be very positive, and advisors tend to get their best testimonials from student journals.
To check out the site, click here: http://www.goabroad.net
To create an Advisor Group, click here: http://www.goabroad.net/register.php?advisor
We’ll be at NAFSA, booth 717, so stop by!
Thanks again, Ruth, for this topic – I look forward to your presentation.
Cheers,
Eileen
MacQuil.com (http://www.macquil.com) is a study abroad and travel portal website that will soon be converted into a blog. Its articles are currently shared through social bookmarking and network sites such as Digg, delicious, facebook and yahoo answers.
Aloha Ruth
I saw your posting on the yahoo listserve. I am an IEP Coordinator for a community college in Hawaii. We use a blog in Japanese:
http://iep.blog.mo-hawaii.com/
and blogs in English:
http://iephawaii.blogspot.com/
We also have a facebook page (just started it):
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hilo-HI/Intensive-English-Program-Hawaii-Community-College/14699762190
And we are part of the Hawaii group in MIXI ( a Japanese language Myspace/Facebook)
The blogs have been very successful, and through blogging, make personal connections with potential and current students.
Regards
Sherri
We’ve just started a Facebook page for Green Passport, a program
designed to promote environmentally responsible travel:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11785966731
Also, a professor at Middlebury, Barbara Ganley, started a project a
few years ago called Blogging the World, which is now no longer
active but I believe was really the first project of this kind. See http://mt.middlebury.edu/middblogs/ganley/bloggingtheworld/
(note: be sure to view this with Firefox, not Explorer, or you
won’t see the links to student blogs on the right-hand side of the
page). Blogging the World was really designed for reflective,
analytical writing about the study abroad experience, not the diary
sort of blogs you so often see with study abroad (see About the
Project: http://mt.middlebury.edu/middblogs/ganley/bloggingtheworld/about.html).
InternationalStudent.com has been blogging for a long time:
http://blog.InternationalStudent.com
and we have student bloggers from all around the world:
http://www.internationalstudent.com/blogs-forums/
Plus we also run:
http://www.internationalfinancialaidblog.com
We also have a facebook page, which has nearly 700 members from all over the world:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2254670655
Looking forward to seeing you at NAFSA, Booth 1406
Ross
Ross’s last blog post: Issue 111 – International Student News
Recent blogs I’ve found…
* The Ethiopian Students Association, International: http://www.esai.org/myESAi/
* A University of Oregon (USA) student who is preparing to study abroad in Japan: http://everfangomanga.blogspot.com/
* The University of Georgia’s (USA) Terry College of Business Institute for Leadership Advancement (ILA) program in Tanzania: http://ugaintz2008.blogspot.com/
* Texas A&M’s (USA) Student Study Abroad: http://tamustudyabroad.wordpress.com/
* A Keystone College (USA) student studying in the Czech Republic: http://czechlucas.webs.com/
* Western Kentucky University’s (USA) “Communications Disorder Study Abroad Blog”: http://blog.wku.edu/~haven.porter/
I assume “communications disorder” refers to the subject of the study abroad program and not something else…
* Argentina’s COINED (Comision de Intercambio Educativo): http://www.coined.com.ar/blog/
* State University of New York (USA) Broome Community College Study Abroad: http://bccstudyabroad.wordpress.com/
* The blog of what appears to be a future Gettysburg College (USA) student who doesn’t understand the point in studying abroad in non-western nations:
http://andyllc.wordpress.com/tag/study-abroad/
* A USA student who will be on a three-week study abroad program to China: http://randiriel.wordpress.com/
I have a blog that focuses primarily on international education issues . My blog is a companion to my side consulting activities in international education and links to my International Higher Education Consulting webpage
I work with international students at James Madison University
I have started an ISSS group on Facebook to advertise some of our main events. I have not worked on it enough to draw enough students (as in, I should be putting more pictures, and start some conversations… make it more interactive and more people in). I have found it to be a great means to relate to the students who have befriended me. i can connect with them on a more personal level.
Our office in collaboration with the office of residential life has created some blogs for our non- US and US students residing in the same residence hall to share their experiences volunteering for different service learning projects related to their assigned committee and topic of choice. The residents also rely on Blackboard to communicate with one another for internal program announcement, etc… once again both of these medium are very practical and can be very meaningful but require a bit more investment on my part to make them more meaningful which is something that I definitely intend to do. By the way it was interesting the read the “Blackboard syncs with Facebook” article that Ruth M. Sylte posted (http://manitouheights.com/blog/2008/05/14/blackboard-syncs-facebook/)
Duquesne University has a study abroad Facebook page at:
http://duq.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6509446734.
Hello,
I work for an Italian language program in Siena, Italy. We’re actually trying to use Facebook as a communcation tool to get our students in contacts and communicating with local Italian students at the University of Siena. We’ve already got a language partner project that’s run bu local Italian students, and we actually encourage our students to use Facebook as a means of communicating in Italian with the Italian students….. if you can’t beat them, join them!
The Director of our program, Lavinia Bracci, will be at NAFSA this week and can be reached by email at lavinia.bracci@sienaitalianstudies.it
Hi Ruth
University of the Arts London uses Facebook to raise the profile of our programme; get future, current, and past students talking to each other (most of this happens off the message boards but our Facebook group provides a way of them finding each other to start with); and answering questions from potential students. You can find the group at
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2879264140 .
All advisers welcome to join as well as students!
The NAFSA Creative Industries SIG Facebook group is for all those working in international education in the fields of the visual arts, performing arts, media, architecture, design, dance, music and theatrical arts. Again, all wecome, and you can find it at:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=26983010224
Yes, this is really a help for students in working through blog and using social networking sites like Facebook, intant messaging etc.
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