The emergence of the Facebook generation - networking application

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Prof Seema Shah, acting principal, Vidyalankar Institute of Technology, explains how the networking application has made a difference

To make a difference, a change, a new beginning we need to interact, speak to different people, bring new ideas together and take it further. If Vidyalankar Institute of Technology had to make a difference, there was a need to communicate that the college was for the students.

I needed to know exactly what the students wanted! And Facebook was where I would find them all. That is how eight months back, I signed up there and until date I login regularly.

Facebook has helped me interact with students, the present and the past. Sometimes their status updates tell me all, whether it is a positive which tells me I am on the right track or a negative, so I can look into and resolve it. Sometimes it is the photographs that tell me an inside story. Every aspect of Facebook has assisted me. The 'Vidyalankar Institute of Technology' page on Facebook was born about 7 months back and today it has 1600+ fans. It helps me and the rest of the college team update every fan with an event, a meet, an exam or literally anything.

There was once during the vivas, a student let me know that they were instructed to wear formals, it was hot and needed a comfortable cool place to sit. Air conditioned classrooms was the need of the hour. The next day I spoke to the security, got the rooms opened up, so they could sit there and revise for the vivas. 
There are many more such instances where Facebook has made a difference to get in touch with the senior decision makers of the institute at the click of a button 24x7, 365 days a year.

Once an alumnus told me how teaching methods should be altered in college based on his industry experience to help the future corporates studying here. A lot of prospective students have contacted us at VIT, clarified their doubts, got more information about the college, spoke to existing students and have made a much more confident choice about their college. FB is surely one of the best ways to communicate!