By now we realize that some of us really cannot live without social networks. Great places like Facebook keep us in touch with friends and contacts, even though those little applications might distract us from work for an hour or two, its all good.
Stanford University has jumped into the Facebook game and opened up a course for students to learn how to build Facebook Applications. Given that there are a number of people that are developing tools for the social network it seems like a great idea. The course will not focus on building the applications themselves, it will focus on designing persuasive and engaging user experiences within Facebook.
The Stanford course is still in an experimental phase, and will not be rolled out over videocast or podcast sessions like some Stanford courses do until it gets sorted out and fine-tuned. It is being taught by Dave McClure, the well known software developer, angel investor, internet marketer and of 500 hats fame, and BJ Fogg who operates a Stanford lab and runs YackPack an online group connector.
In keeping the school theme we have been running with, a newer educational tool to enter the market is Edu 2.0. This web based education website that holds features for teachers, student and parents that aid in learning wherever the user is connected.
There are four main sections to the site. A teaching section where teachers can host a class using a specially designed learning management system. The learning section where students can participate in classes at their own pace. A resource section where contributed resources complete with quizzes, experiments, projects and self paced course can be followed and taken. Then there is the community section. This allows for collaboration between members, sharing and collaborating on educational interests.
Edu 2.0 is free to sign up to, and provides a wide range of topics including art, computers, english, foreign languages, health, math, science, and physical education.
Social networks are huge, and Yahoo knows this, that's why they have been working hard to develop the next level of social networks, KickStart.
Yahoo! KickStart is aimed at matching college students with relevant employers. This new service will give users a profile page where they can post a resume similar in style to LinkedIn. The companies listed in the service can then start up groups which users can join, start a discussion and hopefully get hired.
The service is still in a concept only phase, and might never make it to launch. Sounds like it could defiantly be a good way for students to enter the job market, we hope something comes out of this study.
We know, it's the middle of the summer, but it's never too early to start looking at what you might need for the upcoming semester. And if you are looking for another way to get, and stay organized while off at school, Notely might be your lecture note savior.
This online tool allows users to organize data from meetings, appointments, class notes, lectures, accessing it anywhere. There are a number of free features that the Notely application supplies, including:
Calendar
To-Do
Homework Organizer
Course Manager
Notes
Link, Contact and File Organizer
Notebook/Lab book
Notely is a pretty powerful online application that can aid in keeping all class information together, in an easily managed interface. One main thing we wish it had, search. It would be nice to search for a phrase or keyword and have all related notes, calendar items, and course information show up. All of the content that users store in Notely can be exported as PDF, DOC, TXT, Excel and synced with iCal.
Developers are jumping on the new Facebook API, creating sometimes 'useless' add-ons for the social network. Zoho has stepped in and added the ability to GTD while peddling through Facebook.
Zoho tries its best to stay on top of wherever their users might be, they were the first online office productivity toolset to announce they had an iPhone compatible application ready to go for Apple's newest users, and now users of Facebook are able to see the light. Facebook can get a little distracting at times, whether it's at school or work, so why not build in the ability to create and work on documents directly through the application that you spend the most time on throughout the day. 30% of Zoho's users are students so it's a perfect fit, chat with friends and get work done at the same time.
Zoho's new integration to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations directly from Facebook accounts is a simple add on available here. Creating a new document or viewing one opens up another browser tab, or window, allowing you to do your Facebook thing while working in another tab.
Many people are now heading back to school, for the fall semester. A new service aims to make the learning experience a socially-sharable one. NoteMesh is a collaborative wiki-like way for students to share their class notes, helping other students who missed a day, are out "sick" or help for exams and term-papers. Finally the collective knowledge of the masses is put to good use in the classroom. I could see online-only students benefiting from the service as well, since the service caters to students who are online anyway. One thing I don't like about the service is that you can't use it if you don't have and use your school's provided email account. I understandd the need for authentication, but they can't possibly verify that each person is a part of a certain class anyway, so what's the point?
Social video sharing powerhouse YouTube has taken a tentative step into Facebook's neighborhood with the introduction of Colleges on YouTube. The new Colleges feature provides closed communities for students, staff, and alumni of a number of U.S. colleges and universities to share videos only with their fellow students, staff, and alumni. Like Facebook, to gain access to a college's YouTube site, you must have an email address from that school. It also promises Facebook-like groups for people in the same student organizations or who share interests. Right now the services is limited to 30 major colleges and universities. As with Facebook, the social implications of this are interesting. It's only a matter of time before students begin posting videos that are potentially embarrassing, if not incriminating, including videos of other students who might not have given their (sober) consented to being taped. In all likelihood we're on the verge of a flurry of editorials describing employers who have turned down promising young graduates, students getting disciplinary action, and parents getting all in a huff over things seen on YouTube. But it'll be fun to watch.
Check out the full list of schools currently on YouTube after the jump.
By now we realize that some of us really cannot live without social networks. Great places like Facebook keep us in touch with friends and contacts, even though those little applications might distract us from work for an hour or two, its all good.
