Flickr user Kevin Jarrett
Technology, what a beautiful thing, am I right? For years, people have been working on improving it. The television, the internet, and eventually social media have been showing up in our lives, and they have stayed. Some people say they damage us, while others assure they are the best thing ever invented. Truth is, if used right, they have a lot of benefits for education. The number of companies, that use social networking to interact with possible clients keeps growing. They use them inside the business, contact partners, or send an important message as fast as possible. And outside, to advertise their product or service, and maybe even sell it through different web pages. We, as internet users, are constantly exposed to this type of process, and as students, we must learn how to manage them and get involved in order to use it to our advantage.
Facebook is one of the most used social media ever invented. I dare you to go out and find ten people who don’t have a Facebook profile, it will be hard to do. At first, its purpose was to help regular people connect with friends or family who lived far away. But it has been improving and now it also used in education. More and more college classes, create profiles in it to have an easier communication process with classmates. These profiles are used to share homework, study guides, class notes, and ask questions that weren’t answered in class. Some people even sell their old textbooks for a lower price on the site.
Twitter is a microblog used to share short messages (not longer than 140 characters). This tool is seen by students as a way of distraction, but many teachers use it for other purposes. Professors share due dates, articles of interest for the class they teach and even advise. My political sciences teacher, for instance, used it to share important news that would be discussed in the next lecture. The pros of sharing these kinds of things through Twitter is that students spend a lot of time scrolling through tweets, so they will probably see their professor’s. I can assure you, as a student, that reading long emails is just boring. If professors can summarize what they want to say into a tweet, there’s a higher chance the student will pay attention to it.
Linkedin is an amazing platform that will help anyone connect with businesses. You get to create your profile, and explain where you graduated (or are currently studying), your grades, your interests, skills, and former (or current) jobs. You can also specify your major and people from all over the world get to see it. It is an amazing tool for those students who are on the lookout for a job or internship because its kind of like an online resume. Companies and businesses can get in touch with you and vice versa.
Google Docs
Google Docs was created with group projects in mind. It is the best way of creating documents, presentations, forms, and drawings and sharing them with teammates and classmates. It allows you to download them and save them if your hard drive, or just save them in your profile so you can open them anywhere. It’s also a great way to ensure they’re saved, just in case your computer crashes or runs out of battery—since Google Docs auto-saves with every few changes made, you never have to worry about losing anything. A plus? It is absolutely free.
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Another great internet tool? College Raptor, of course! With it you can discover personalized college matches, acceptance odds for schools around the country, potential financial aid benefits you could receive from colleges, and more! Use our free match tool today!
