Social Media Theory and Practice: Lessons learned for a pioneering course

Social media are more than just a buzzword or an interesting phenomenon to our teenagers, they are a way of life. Research shows that active participation on sites like Facebook, communicating via texting and chat programs, and creating blogs are everyday occurrences for a generation of students. Yet these same students do not consider the impact of these tools on their lives for good or ill. Furthermore, they have not seriously considered the design, development and application of these tools; either as support systems throughout their professional careers or as a field in which they could find employment. This paper describes a course created to examine design and use of social media while evaluating the use of CMS and social media tools as part of the course itself.