Technology and Engagement: Making Technology Work for First Generation College Students

<i>Technology and Engagement</i> is based on a four-year study of how first generation college students use social media, aimed at improving their transition to and engagement with their university. Through web technology, including social media sites, students were better able to maintain close ties with family and friends from home, as well as engage more with social and academic programs at their university. This ‘ecology of transition’ was important in keeping the students focused on why they were in college, and helped them become more integrated into the university setting. By showing the gains in campus capital these first-generation college students obtained through social media, the authors offer concrete suggestions for how other universities and college-retention programs can utilize the findings to increase their own retention of first-generation college students.

Computers & Technology

Rowan-Kenyon, Heather T.

Savitz-Romer, Mandy

Martínez-Alemán, Ana M.

Computer Science

Rutgers University Press

Technology and Engagement is based on a four-year study of how first generation college students use social media, aimed at improving their transition to and engagement with their university. Through web technology, including social media sites, students were better able to maintain close ties with family and friends from home, as well as engage more with social and academic programs at their university. This ‘ecology of transition’ was important in keeping the students focused on why they were in college, and helped them become more integrated into the university setting. By showing the gains in campus capital these first-generation college students obtained through social media, the authors offer concrete suggestions for how other universities and college-retention programs can utilize the findings to increase their own retention of first-generation college students.  

Social media is central to postsecondary education. It is how students engage with the campus community, and campus leaders and practitioners are interested in how an institution can employ social media to impact instruction, student services and institutional effectiveness in an increasingly competitive market. This volume presents the current research and scholarship on social media that provides a view of the higher education landscape in this new digital age and it demonstrates how social media influence behavior and campus culture.  Drawing on a critical synthesis and analysis from recent research on this rapidly evolving phenomenon, this monograph examines:  some of the assumptions and presumptions around social media, how social media is used and how it shapes the student experience and student development, and best practices for enhancing curricular and co-curricular communities of practice.  This is the 5th issue of the 42nd volume of the Jossey-Bass series ASHE Higher Education Report. Each monograph is the definitive analysis of a tough higher education issue, based on thorough research of pertinent literature and institutional experiences. Topics are identified by a national survey. Noted practitioners and scholars are then commissioned to write the reports, with experts providing critical reviews of each manuscript before publication.

Social Media in Higher Education: ASHE Higher Education Report, Volume 42, Number 5 (J-B ASHE Higher Education Report Series (AEHE))

Education & Teaching

Higher & Continuing Education

Jossey-Bass

Social Media in Higher Education, AEHE 42:5 (J-B ASHE Higher Education Report Series (AEHE))

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