Supporting Student Transition Through Social Media

Views about the role of Facebook and other social networking sites in\ud education are extremely varied. Facebook threatens academic success and yet “certain\ud kinds of Facebook use” can support study; indeed, Facebooking students may perform\ud better than their unwired peers (Ellison, Steinfield, and Lampe 2007). Facebook is\ud emphatically a social network site but trends using it for teaching are increasing. Given\ud increasing numbers of students “on” Facebook, the temptations for universities to enter\ud that space is strong.\ud Paradoxically, as some studies blame the social networking phenomenon for increasing\ud failure rates at universities, universities are simultaneously exploring ways to engage\ud students via that medium. Victoria University (VU) in Melbourne uses Facebook to\ud engage students. This article examines the Faculty of Business and Law’s Facebook\ud site at VU and offers a general analysis of Facebook usage and some student perspectives\ud on the faculty site. The discussion explores Facebook as an interactive point of\ud engagement to support student transition to the university, yet it questions the ethics\ud of using Facebook and recommends that it be used only as an additional point of\ud engagement