Third agers and social networking in higher education

Abstract

With an aging population and the social networking boom significant research has been performed in three areas. The first is the challenge higher education institutions face integrating social networking sites in class offerings. Students are embracing this medium at an accelerated rate; however, the benefits of social networking for students are not always clear. Secondly, this paper will look into the trend of seniors re-entering institutions of higher education; especially the challenges relating to Web 2.0 technologies such as social networking sites. Although a large number of seniors are online today; many are not comfortable using social networking [20, 14]. Finally, studies relating to the use of social networking sites by third agers outside the classroom will lead to a better understanding of potential challenges seniors and instructors may experience when seniors decide to return to the higher education roles. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.