That’s a bit too broad of a statement, but as this handy infographic shows, the use of Facebook in the classroom doesn’t harm grades that much. In fact, a high school GPA better predicts the GPA of college students than Facebook use does.

For a bit more in-depth study, they found that sharing links and checking up on friends had a positive relationship with grades. The only thing that had a negative relationship with grades was making status updates.

As a final coup de grâce to the Facebook is bad for students argument, there was no strong link between using Facebook and the amount of time students spent studying.

I can personally confirm that Facebook never impacted the amount of time that I studied. I had video games for that.

Via: OnlineEducation.net

Whether you agree with this path of least resistance and prefer some other course of action so as to amicably resolve the potential problem, there is one thing you should most certainly not do: act shady about being Facebook friends with your students by telling them to keep it on the down-low or, worse, set up fake accounts altogether in order to befriend students.

A couple of teachers in England apparently missed this policy memo and are now being investigated for maintaining inappropriate relationships with students via Facebook. One teacher who, incredibly, exchanged comments with a former pupil about posing for erotic photos over a webcam received a 12-month suspension. Another teacher received a reprimand for using a decoy account in order to interact with students via Facebook.

This isn’t exactly breaking news because everybody knows there are creeps on the Internet. That’s not even to say that these teachers are explicitly creeps; they could very well be decent humans who just happened to make some very questionable decisions this time. It happens. It’s happened in the United States, it’s surely happened elsewhere, and it’s a pretty safe bet that it will continue happening in places. But if you’re doing something that makes you self-conscious enough to try to obfuscate your actions, then what you’re doing is more than likely not a good thing.

In the world of journalism, there’s this thing called a breakfast test. It goes like this: when determining whether the material you’re about to publish is appropriate, you ask yourself, “Would this be too shocking for someone to read while eating breakfast in the morning?” The metric here is that if the material is offensive enough to cause someone to choke on their Cheerios or spit out their bacon, then you probably shouldn’t publish it.

Similarly, if you’re a teacher, consider how some of your colleagues would pass the breakfast test if they were to discover in the morning news some day that you’re being investigated for how you’ve been corresponding with your students on Facebook. If you think your colleagues might require the Heimlich maneuver upon hearing the news, then you might want to re-evaluate the importance of those Facebook interactions with your students.

Word processors were the most popular software, with 76% of students ranking them as the most important software tool they used. Eighty-one precent rated the laptop as their most important device, followed by the printer at 73%. The study also showed a sharp divide between students and their instructors: only 67% of instructors used laptops. While 33% of students use a smartphone, only 17% of instructors do. More importantly, students are aware of the gap. Forty percent said their instructors did not use technology effectively, and only 59% said that their institution as a whole uses technology well. Wifi was one of the most important pieces of technology for students: 75% said that wifi access improved their grads, 90% said it was as essential to education as a classroom or computer, and 60% said they would not go to a school they knew did not offer free wifi. The study also estimated that wifi will be present on 99% of college campuses by 2013.

The full infographic is below. Take a look, and let us know what you think in the comments.

Features include:

- Permissions: Parents can set permissions for individual teens to designate how the account can be used. They can also require that their approval is required when a teen receives money in the account.

- Mobile Features: Parents can use their mobile phones to check account balances and transfer money to their teens’ account. Additionally, teens can check their account balance and easily request money from their parents via simple text message.

- Alerts: Parents can receive alerts notifying them when their teens’ payments exceed a certain amount or when a specified low balance is reached.

- Built-in security: As with all PayPal accounts, the Student Account allows teens to shop online without exposing any financial information.

"As a parent I understand the challenge and stress of raising kids that are financially responsible," says Don Fotsch, PayPal vice president of customer experience and design and parent of six, ranging in age from 8 to 19. "With the Student Account, I know I can give my kids a level of financial independence while remaining on top of my kids’ spending."

Parents have full visibility on the account, and can establish up to four PayPal sub-accounts and transfer funds as needed on a one-time or recurring basis. PayPal giving account holders some back-to-school savings opportunities as well.

To qualify for the workshop, applicants must:

- be a female computer science students currently enrolled in a Masters or PhD program at a university in the United States or Canada. Graduate students in any year of study are encouraged to apply.

– demonstrate academic excellence and leadership in the computing field
 
– maintain a cumulative GPA of at least 3.3 on a 4.0 scale or 4.3 on a 5.0 scale or equivalent in their current program

The event is three days long and will be all-expenses paid for as many as 75 applicants who are selected to participate in the workshop. It is being held at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View January 22-25. It will include technical alks, career workshops, and of course networking opportunities.

Participants will also get to tour the Googleplex and meet Google engineers. The deadline for applying is this coming Friday – Decemeber 5.

The majority of bloggers are 25 – 44 years of age.  One in five are self employed (versus 8% of Internet users). Three out of four U.S. bloggers are college graduates, and 42% have attended graduate school. More than half have a household income over $75,000. 59% have been blogging for two years or more.

As a group, they are educated, affluent, and influential.

Read the posts every day this week for the full picture

Comments

If you’re in the Boston area, you can check out the event (and RSVP) at the Facebook event page for Underground 2008. It’s free and open, but seating is limited so please RSVP on the Facebook page so the organizers can plan accordingly.

Having been a student entrepreneur myself, I’m a strong proponent of current students and recent grads starting companies. I wrote about this in an earlier article titled "Why Student Make Great Entrepreneurs".

One of my points in the earlier article was the value of the network students build (or have the opportunity to build). Personally, I’m not a particularly social guy and networking is one of my weaknesses, not my strengths. But even then, I’ve ended up working with over a dozen people that I met during my undergraduate days (University of Alabama, Birmingham) or my more recent graduate school program at MIT. If I could turn back the clock, I’d make a concerted effort to try and connect with even more of my academic peers — regardless of how uncomfortable it might have been to hang out at "networking events".

The Boston area has some of the best academic institutions in the world. Even then, I don’t think we’re yet doing enough to encourage student entrepreneurs. Scott Kirsner, who writes for the Boston Globe, recently wrote about this on his blog in an article titled "How Do We Better Connect Students to Boston’s Innovation Economy?" Scott’s been doing a great job himself helping interconnect the Boston entrepreneurial community. He was even nice enough to post recently about the upcoming Underground 2008 student entrepreneur event mentioned above.

If you’re a student entrepreneur, UNITE! Connect with your peers — particularly those not in your immediate circle or discipline. You’ll be thankful you did.

If you’re going to be attending this Saturday’s event, leave a comment and let me know (or grab me at the event). If you have topics you’d like me to cover during my presentation, let me know what’s on your mind.

Also, if you’re looking for online networking with fellow entrepreneurs, I encourage you to request access to the OnStartups Group on LinkedIn or join the OnStartups Facebook group.  It’s a great way to find entrepreneurs in your area or at your school.

Comments