Social media offers a new way of recruiting

More college students seek employment by using social network such as facebook, LinkedIn. Other than campus recruiters, students intend to go beyond physical location and finding the opportunities they desire through social media. Not much hard statistics supports how important the role social media is playing in college student employment. But students have been increasingly using all the possible sources for building contact network, especially social media which is taken as a new potential way for searching job. LinkedIn is reviewed as going forward on professional contact and information exchange. With the interactive and dynamic feature of social media, students may consistently update their personal profile or job-related information. And before application or interview, students are able to evaluate the employer by reviewing their websites, professional profiles, comments or blogs from current/former employees through the network presence.  With better preparation on job-related information, students may make a better impression to the potential employer. It probably even works better for technology/media-related job fields. There is also a growing trend that recruiters go social network to find candidates for their companies. Students are recommended to establish a better professional “self” for attaining a potential opportunity.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2011-04-04-social-media-in-job-searches.htm

Kindergarten learning with iPad in the classroom – “Revolution in Education”?

Back in 2002, Maine was the first state starting the program that distributed Apple laptops to all 7^th and 8^th graders.  Now, in the central Maine city of Auburn, the school board unanimously approved the plan to give their nearly 300 kindergarten students iPad 2 tablets for learning the basics such as ABCs, numbers, and music. Tom Morrill, the district’s superintendent, thought iPad as a powerful education tool which lead to “a revolution in education”.

Many questioned if kindergarten students are old enough to appreciate the efforts and expense after $200,000 is proposed to be spent on these high-tech tablets for classroom usage. Some are thrilled. Young kids have been surrounded by PC and high-tech. It would not be a surprise to see a 3-year-old surfing on the internet or playing learning games on laptop. And no doubt the technology has the ability to impact the way we teach and learn. And holding young students’ attention would help their mind practice and enhance learning experience. Beyond the new equipment called iPad, we are looking at its ability and the potential that could make a difference in education.  But the worry remains if the technology would be appropriately used to enhance these young students’ computer-enhanced learning process.