IBM Joins with University of Arizona to Design Course on Social Networking

By Niladri Sekhar Nath

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

In a bid to help developers build online communities and social network systems using Web 2.0 technologies, IBM and the University of Arizona have joined forces to design an innovative course. With the help of the course, students will be able to create and manage online communities. Initially the course will be available to the Management Information Systems Department (MIS) and Marketing students in the university’s Eller College of Management.

“Our partnership with University of Arizona is designed to help draw more students into the exciting field of Management Information Systems while promoting the benefits of collaboration through the use of cutting-edge technologies,” said Gina Poole, vice president, Innovation and University Relations, IBM (News - Alert), in a press release. “By gaining skills on Web 2.0 and online communities, students can help businesses and employers better market and sell themselves using powerful online mediums.”

The course has been developed in collaboration with MIS department. IBM hopes that the course will revive the interest in information technology among undergraduate student. New generation of students familiar with online communities such as MySpace will like the course in particular.


Take Patricia Scull for example. She is studying MIS at the university and is among 40 students who participate in lectures, virtual class sessions, and experiential learning opportunities as part of this new program.

“This class opens the eyes of students by introducing them to the vast opportunities made available by the Internet's array of communication environments,” Scull said.

According to the press release, the course will help students explore various online collaboration tools and social software. The classes aim to infuse leadership qualities, collaboration, and peer-interaction among students. Students will be performing numerous group assignments and projects in addition to individual presentations.

At the end of the course, students will have to undertake a final project where each student from the class will work with their own separate group of students from Howenstine High School in Tucson, Arizona, to organize into many micro-communities.

Along with the course materials, students and faculty members will have access to developerWorks, IBM’s 5.5-million member developer community. The community will show how a company is providing clients with Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, wikis, podcasts and forums.

For more information, visit www.ibm.com/developerworks and www.ibm.com/university.

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Niladri Sekhar Nath is a contributing writer for TMCnet covering telecommunications, service providers and networking.