Social Networking Symposium - April 10, 2008 8:30 AM - 6:00 PM

It's easy to dismiss the whole social networking phenomenon as a bunch of teens getting in trouble on MySpace, but there's a lot more to it than that. There are literally hundreds of thousands of social networks on the Internet today, from educational study groups to grassroots activists. Even the presidential candidates are getting involved. Andy Carvin, senior strategist for social media at NPR, will take participants on a tour of the world of social networking, exploring its history, its future and its relevance in education.

Explore the future of health care practice in a 2.0 world. This presentation will address the current uses of social networking tools and examine trends, including the potential for developing new tools for the clinical setting out of these technologies. Hear how patients and health care providers benefit from this evolving environment.

Online video represents the most dramatic development in public relations at universities in the last decade. No longer reliant upon mainstream media to share news about research, events and other university happenings, staff, faculty and staff are now using popular online video sharing sites such as YouTube to tell their stories themselves, and also to bring viewers around the world right into the classroom. This discussion will include an overview of the types of video being produced by universities, the benefits of video for public relations, instruction and recruiting, and also some basic nuts and bolts on how to get started with a branded YouTube channel.

In this presentation, we will cover how social networking can create a multi-directional, education network that allows people to both learn from its members and contribute to others' learning.