Inside Higher Ed had an interesting piece last week on The future of social networking as an educational tool.

According to Inside Higher Ed, a study conducted this year at Arizona State University sought to take a closer look at first-year students' use of social networks, mainly Facebook and MySpace. The result was some good ideas about dealing with both students and college applicants.

The study's main focus was on how undergraduate students use social networking on a daily basis and on how using social networking tools affects retention and recruitment.

The Arizona State survey was administered in September over the Web to all freshmen in the university's campus residence halls; about 21 percent responded. Asked whether they use a social networking site, 93.2 percent said they do actively, 4 percent had in the past and 2.8 said never. For Facebook, the percentage of active users is 88.6, compared to 3.4 former users and 8.1 percent who said they have never used it.

Most of the students surveyed used MySpace, but about a third used Facebook. Students who used Facebook generally said they'd switched to it because ti was safer and "more mature."

Almost 40 percent of the Facebook users said that it enriches academic life, and 70 percent said it enriches non-academic life.


Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Judson Lane