Comments on: Are Student Blogs Really a Good Idea? http://www.erelevant.net/2006/08/08/are-student-blogs-really-a-good-idea/ A blog about electronic marketing, culture, and life on the digital frontier. Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:47:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 By: Authentic? Questioning the value of student blogging at the Sam Jackson College Experience http://www.erelevant.net/2006/08/08/are-student-blogs-really-a-good-idea/comment-page-1/#comment-17 Authentic? Questioning the value of student blogging at the Sam Jackson College Experience Thu, 17 Aug 2006 20:33:10 +0000 http://www.erelevant.net/?p=4#comment-17 [...] Morgan Davis is the Web Director at Warren Wilson, a small liberal arts college in North Carolina. He has a blog called erelevant which purports to be his “off-the-cuff blog about electronic marketing and working within higher education.” It seems to more or less fit that bill. I found it while snooping around on Technorati, and it has proved very interesting. On August 8th, Davis wrote a post titled Are Student Blogs Really A Good Idea? which is question which I answered earlier by saying “sorta depends, but yeah.” [...] [...] Morgan Davis is the Web Director at Warren Wilson, a small liberal arts college in North Carolina. He has a blog called erelevant which purports to be his “off-the-cuff blog about electronic marketing and working within higher education.” It seems to more or less fit that bill. I found it while snooping around on Technorati, and it has proved very interesting. On August 8th, Davis wrote a post titled Are Student Blogs Really A Good Idea? which is question which I answered earlier by saying “sorta depends, but yeah.” [...]

]]> By: Sam Jackson http://www.erelevant.net/2006/08/08/are-student-blogs-really-a-good-idea/comment-page-1/#comment-16 Sam Jackson Thu, 17 Aug 2006 20:10:36 +0000 http://www.erelevant.net/?p=4#comment-16 Your last paragraph here really sums up my own experience as a rising senior with student blogs and their (limited) perception among my friends. More would read them if they knew about them (when I point a friend to a blog from a student / adcoms at a school they're interested in, they tend to become frequent visitors) but at the same time, my friends and I are more inclined to trust the statements of bloggers who maintain a strict independence from the institution they are blogging about. They can still be joyous and excited about it, of course, and even overtly promoting--but so long as it's perceived to have been completely student-driven, that's just a metric which counts in the schools favor. "Kids are so happy here, they make websites to try to entice others to come." Alternately, "Though X writer describes X university as a mixed bag, I feel my doubts have been smoothed over by his/her honesty." For the admissions-flavored blogs, we look at them--or at least, I look at them--and regard them as a different type of marketing. Something else to be looked at and considered when thinking about schools and admissions, but something which has to be looked at in the same sense that the viewbook or postcards that inundate are mailboxes are received. ALL THE SAME, I still wish more admissions officers would keep their own blogs (for those are particularly interesting) and also that they would facilitate student blogging, however questionable the motivation in doing so. As the volume of information increases, it can be hard to sift through the increasing noise--but at the same time, there's more opportunity to find some very revealing gems. on which note i'll also add this your site here is a gem (thanks technorati!) and i'll be reading it from now on. Your last paragraph here really sums up my own experience as a rising senior with student blogs and their (limited) perception among my friends. More would read them if they knew about them (when I point a friend to a blog from a student / adcoms at a school they’re interested in, they tend to become frequent visitors) but at the same time, my friends and I are more inclined to trust the statements of bloggers who maintain a strict independence from the institution they are blogging about. They can still be joyous and excited about it, of course, and even overtly promoting–but so long as it’s perceived to have been completely student-driven, that’s just a metric which counts in the schools favor. “Kids are so happy here, they make websites to try to entice others to come.” Alternately, “Though X writer describes X university as a mixed bag, I feel my doubts have been smoothed over by his/her honesty.”

For the admissions-flavored blogs, we look at them–or at least, I look at them–and regard them as a different type of marketing. Something else to be looked at and considered when thinking about schools and admissions, but something which has to be looked at in the same sense that the viewbook or postcards that inundate are mailboxes are received.

ALL THE SAME, I still wish more admissions officers would keep their own blogs (for those are particularly interesting) and also that they would facilitate student blogging, however questionable the motivation in doing so. As the volume of information increases, it can be hard to sift through the increasing noise–but at the same time, there’s more opportunity to find some very revealing gems.

on which note i’ll also add this your site here is a gem (thanks technorati!) and i’ll be reading it from now on.

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