Issue date: 10/30/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Fred Lambuth [Click to enlarge]

While many students use Facebook as a way to keep in touch with friends, post pictures and meet new people, an increasing number of faculty members are using Facebook for many reasons.

Keith Swim, a clinical assistant professor of management, uses Facebook to communicate with his students.

Because some of his classes have several hundred students, he said, it can be difficult to know who they are if they send him e-mails.

"If they send a [Facebook] message, it helps me put a face with a name," he said.

Swim creates a Facebook group for each of his classes and posts messages to his students using these groups. He said he cannot contact them all at once using the Neo system because he has so many students. The Facebook groups allow him to contact a larger number of students at once.

"I think it's a great tool to get in touch with people," he said.

Swim has also created groups for causes with which he is involved. He organizes a canned food drive, a present collection for children in need during Christmastime and a program in which students make cards for people who are sick or in need of comforting.

He said that with Facebook groups, his former students can stay involved with projects even though they are no longer in his class.

Swim said he tells his students at the beginning of each semester that they can add him on Facebook and join their class group. He even includes it on his syllabus and on the answering machine in his office.

However, he said he has no problem if a student does not want to add him as a Facebook friend.

Swim said his biggest annoyances about Facebook are the News Feed and invitations for applications. His favorite feature is the groups.

He created his account in 2006 when some of students showed him how to sign up.

"It's kind of snowballed from there," he said.

While some faculty members find Facebook to be useful and fun, others stick to alternative means of communication.

Drew Vastano, a professor of oceanography, said that while he has never really thought about creating a Facebook account, he would not be against getting one.

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