Case Study: Oberlin College and Social Networking Sites

Curious about how other liberal arts colleges are leveraging technology, I spent the past weekend checking out the websites of several colleges. Oberlin College seems to be ahead of the game. Let’s see where it’s leaving its technological footprints.

Facebook? Check. Oberlin’s Facebook account has over 2,000 fans. Kind of low for a college with a long history, eh? Well, not when I found out that Calvin’s Facebook group has a grand total of… 136. Calvin 0, Oberlin 1. Moving on.

Twitter? Check. Oberlin maximizes the beauty of Twitter, a site that uses one-line teasers and leaves it up to the reader to find out more. Many of those posts highlight students’ achievements in winning prestigious fellowships and scholarships. Twitter’s unique selling proposition and Oberlin’s excellent academic record make a good looking couple. Even though Oberlin only started to use Twitter earlier this month, it might want to work on getting more people to know about its Twitter account and creating a broader base of loyal followers. Calvin’s official Twitter page (http://twitter.com/CalvinCollege), on the other hand, has about 9 times more followers than Oberlin. Calvin 1, Oberlin 1. Yay, go Knights!

Blogs? Oh boy, Oberlin beat us hands down. It almost seems like Obies – faculty, staff, and students – are a community of bloggers. Check out http://blogs.oberlin.edu/. Calvin 1, Oberlin 2 :/

So Oberlin is using major social networking sites in the market. Even though Calvin is moving towards the same direction, Oberlin is racing far ahead of us—Oberlin is #5 of all liberal arts colleges that truly understand how to use technology (http://www.languagemonitor.com/college-rankings/college-rankings-april-2009). In summary, Oberlin knows what the internet world of consumers are looking for and it knows how to be the producer of information in a presentable and efficient fashion.

What’s the lesson here? Calvin and Oberlin understand that the unlimited reach of technology stretches to the ends of the earth. Calvin and Oberlin realize that there is the physical community that we reside in, as well as the virtual community called the web. Social networking sites are the gathering space for virtual communities to come together like the situation room for readers and bloggers to share information, the virtual laboratory to test hypotheses that advocate social change, and the boardroom to re-gather and re-strategize. Therefore, social networking sites allow web administrators to be relationship weavers who keep the collegial fabric intact. Oberlin, with its extensive and sophisticated use of technological tools, could reap greater benefits if it can get its alums engaged and involved in its technological endeavors. Our S-LC blog draws alums and new friends in. Somehow, we are doing something right somewhere. Calvin 2, Oberlin 2.

Shh... Don't Tell, But We're Trying Twitter

http://twitter.com/servicelearner

A Better World

September is quickly wrapping up, with just a couple more days left. Many initiatives by the office are already happening, or completed. Some of these events include the successful completion of StreetFest, the first blood drive of the academic year that concluded last Thursday, the continued cultivation of community partnerships between residential dorms and their respective agencies, and students doing their Academically-Based Service-Learning at various neighborhoods in Grand Rapids. We sure have lots of real people doing real service.

I thought it would be a good idea to marry our two themes for this month, technology and communities, through this post. Announcing its latest program on the CNN last Wednesday, Google has put in place a $10 million program to fund ideas that have the potential to make this a better world. Check out this YouTube clip.



The “Community” category fits best with what we have been discussing this month. Maybe we should all sit down and proposal an idea?

Technology: Our Friend or Foe?

Technology brings people together. It shapes the way how we, of this (privileged) generation, interact with one another. Phrases like “Google that” or “Facebook me” pretty much grew up with us. We probably didn’t realize such phrases gained meaning only recently. Ask Shakespeare or Aristotle. Then ask your 4-year-old niece. Consider where you are right now on this planet, reading this blog. You probably don't know who its author is. In a way, technology unites people of common interests and promotes community. If online communities do exist, how should such online communal relationships be cultivated? Can technology function like strong and deep roots to keep relationships growing? Isn’t technology amazing and scary at the same time?

Technology can keep people apart too. Some people would rather text or Facebook message their friends even though they live just down the hall. Could this be a cause of many people's fear of public speaking? If so, how are advocacy and lobbying affected? For its powerful society-shaping potential, those before our generation either have to learn how to keep up with technology so to keep up with their children or grandchildren, or they are left sitting on the sidelines.

Thanks to technology, human communication received a facelift. Shakespeare could have been a billionaire when he was alive; Aristotle could have started an online school. Wow.

CAVEAT: I have nothing against Facebook. In fact, I occasionally use it to ask people to lunch... and perform counter-intelligence on identified stalkers.