Nudging Students Through Social Media and Communication Tools

Jeffrey A. DodgeAssistant Dean for Administration & Operations

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Our Goals

• Communicate more effectively and directly with students• Bring the student experience to life via online tools• Provide a central source for information about Law School events, programs and departments (24/7/365)• Decrease email volume with reminders and unnecessary announcements• Build a sense of community beyond the facility• Avoid getting caught in the “here today, gone tomorrow” situation of social media tools• Provide a tool for the professional use of social media that connects to existing, currently popular tools

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Existing Communication Tools

Blogs: Blogger, LiveJournal, Open Diary, TypePad, WordPress, Vox, ExpressionEngine, Xanga

Micro-blogging / Presence applications: FMyLife, Jaiku, Plurk, Twitter, Tumblr, Posterous, Yammer, Qaiku

Social networking: Facebook, Geni.com, Hi5, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, Orkut, Skyrock, Qzone, Vkontakte, RenRen, Kaixin, ASmallWorld, studivz, Xing, RunAlong.se, Bebo, BigTent, Elgg, Hyves, Flirtomatic

Social network aggregation: NutshellMail, FriendFeed, dillidost.com

Events: Upcoming, Eventful, Meetup.com

Existing Collaboration & Media Tools

Wikis: Wikimedia, Wikia, PBworks, Wetpaint Social bookmarking (or social tagging):[8] Delicious, StumbleUpon, Google Reader, CiteULike Social news: Digg, Mixx, Reddit, NowPublic

Photography and art sharing: deviantArt, Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa, SmugMug, Zooomr Video sharing: YouTube, Viddler, Vimeo, sevenload, Zideo Livecasting: Ustream.tv, Justin.tv, Stickam, Skype, OpenCU Music and audio sharing: MySpace Music, The Hype Machine, Last.fm, ccMixter, ShareTheMusic Presentation sharing: slideshare, scribd

• Social media outlets ebb and flow in success and popularity. For example, Friendster -> MySpace ->

Facebook -> ???• Institutions can invest and control.

• Social media as a method is here to stay, how we use it and invest time and resources is what is

important.• Drive them to us for their time here and beyond.

• Fully integrated with other media tools.• Must have value to make it worth return visits.

Driving the Flow of Information

What is Ning?

Ning is an application platform that allows users to build social networks and websites for public or private use. Hofstra Law School has used this to launch Lex Lounge.

Ning allows the user to choose a combination of features to create a customized social network including:• Activities • Blogs• Discussion Forums• Groups • Media including audio, images, and video • Music • Photo Sharing• Member Profile Pages • Podcasting• Polling• RSS Feeds• Video Sharing

Ning also allows seamless intergration with internet applications such as:• Email: address book importing • Facebook/Myspace• Google Analytics • Flickr• Social Bookmarking Sites• YouTube

Introducing Lex Lounge

Using Social Media as a Teaching Tool for Professional Development

Hofstra Law School’s Acceptable Use Policy

Professional Development Tool

Assessing Lex Lounge After the First Year and for the Future

• Enough is enough, is there such a thing as too many social media tools?

• Student organizations had pre-existing tools and are slow to give them up

• Third year students did not want to invest• Buy in from all administrative departments• Other tools already being used by groups,

like Symplicity, Wiki’s, blogs etc

Launch Challenges

• 50 Administrative Departments and Students Organizations on Lex Lounge

• 847 individual members and only 5 students left Lex Lounge

• Hundreds of events advertised in 2009-10• SBA weekly email directs students the Web

• Successful launch with a great set of services available

Successes in the First Year

• Get more leaders to actively use Lex Lounge•Expand group page functions to meet the needs

of student organization leaders• Increase use by administrative departments• Sign up new class and try to get more upper

class students to create logins• Limit decentralized communication tools• Consider the benefit of folding in alumni• Add more value and content to drive use

Building for the Future