Social Media at UGA and an Outside the Box Idea

OK so it was just brought to my attention that Kaye Sweetser at the University of Georgia is teaching a social media course. I couldnt believe it either, but it's happening, schools are starting to see the value of teaching new media techniques to its students. Sweetser has opened up the syllabus of the course to students, keeps her own blog, as well as has started a blog for the class. It's so refreshing to see that this is actually being adopted in the classroom and that students are latching on. I hope it turns out really well, it looks as if they are all excited about it and participating in the learning process more than ever. Check out both sites above for more information.

So now to an outside the box idea. It occured to me that many universities require their incoming students to invest in laptops for their collegiate tenure. My school, Ohio University, doesnt require this and I personally dont think they need to, but maybe it's time to mention the next step. Hear me out on this: incoming students invest in PDA's, whether Blackberries or other device. There it is, I said it. Just another hit to the parents' thinning wallet. Maybe it has some real benefit though as well:

• Students are constantly in connection to the class, peers and professors nomatter where they are
• Students can recieve class updates at all times
• It gives some sort of real world experience as we all know many corporations have certain level employees carry PDA's at all times
• If something such as blogging was instituted to the class it is an opportunity to practice moblogging on a regular basis

So those are just a couple thoughts. Students of course already carry their MP3 devices on them at all times, so while I imagine this suggestion will get many negative reviews, it might be time to think that this is one way to take things to the next level.