The leaders of Social Media Charlotte invited me to speak at the December 2010 breakfast meeting titled, “Social Media & Education: School, Teacher, Student & Classroom.” The panel – which included Dr. Jeri Langford (Associate Professor at Johnson & Wales University), Adam Brooks (Communications Director for Central Piedmont Community College), and Brian Baute (IT Director at University of North Carolina – Charlotte) – spoke on issues related to higher education and social media in three areas: institutional use, pedagogical use, and student use.

Here’s a brief synopsis of my contributions to the dicussion:

The conversation began with a discussion of the efforts of Queens University of Charlotte in the social media arena (which are led by the staff of the Marketing and Community Relations Office). You can see all of Queens’ social media efforts on the university’s social media page.

We continued with questions about the use of social media in our graduate and undergraduate programs. Professors in the Knight School of Communication and across the university are beginning to implement social media into classroom instruction in courses ranging from art to environmental science to business, nursing, and communication. Students in the Digital Strategic Communication course in the Knight School’s Master of Arts in Communication program attended at the event.

http://twitter.com/catherinewhitt/statuses/12502995166035968

Finally, we discussed student use of social media and preparing students for the jobs of tomorrow, suggesting that learning intellectual curiosity and the ability to craft successful messages may be more valuable than learning technology trades.

People interested in continuing the discussion should visit the #SMCEDU chats which are hosted each Monday at 12:30 pm, Eastern. Topics of the chats vary based upon current issues for higher education and social media.