I was talking with Laura Gallagher, of Inspiration, this morning and she mentioned that the University of Michigan is now offering a program in Social Networking. So I did a Google News search and found this article from Campus Technology.
U Michigan Unveils Master’s Degree in ‘Social Computing’:
The University of Michigan’s School of Information (SI) announced a graduate-degree specialization in “social computing” through a Master of Science in Information. The university said the program is the first in the country to focus on social computing, the term describing the wave of open technologies that enable masses of people to interact and exchange and sort information.
The program is a specialization under their Master of Science in Information degree. UMich’s description starts with…
Social computing, including online communities, social networking, and user contributed content, has been the darling of Silicon Valley for the past several years. It has also gained currency in library circles, as venues such as library Web sites incorporate blogging features and sites such as LibraryThing bring recommender technologies to personal book collections.
Here’s the URL to the UMich SI site – http://www.si.umich.edu/msi/sc.htm
As I was perusing their site though, I could find no reference to whether or not any of it is available online. I have my M.Ed., would consider this program but wouldn’t it seem to be something that would lend itself quite nicely to an online delivery rather than exist as a place-based offering?
Thanks for the heads-up, this is an interesting program and I’ve no doubt that it will begin to permeate higher ed.
Cheers,
John
This is a really exciting first step into a new academic arena. As students continue to grow up in the age of social networking, it seems a shame that their realities do not translate into the college environments. What a great merger between the new realities of our students and an academic tract that validates these realities as learning. I hope that they have a lot of space in the program!
I must live on some other planet… while I see blogging, wikis, etc as a valueable tool, I don’t see why we need a Master’s Degree in it. Maybe if it focuses on the programing skill to design sites, but not the general concept.
If we really want to keep times with the changes in society, wouldn’t this type of coursework fall into the Communications program or for that fact every degree program.
I don’t recall a Master’s programming in Post-it notes… and just look how the changed the world
http://www.bolender.com/Humor/Office/Office%20Humor.htm
I agree with Molly that this could be a wave of the future and well ahead of its time, but after purusing the UM website for the School of Information, I feel that they have several specializations that are very narrow in focus. It seems like several of the specializations would be better suited as classes in a combined program similar to what Jeff says.