To get a better idea of what today’s students lives are like, watch the video below:

Some interesting statements from the video above:

• 18% of teachers know their students names.
• Only 26% of the reading students are given is relevant to their lives.
• Students buy hundreds of dollars worth of textbooks that they never open.
• Most students read 8 books, 2300 web pages, and 1281 Facebook profiles in a single year.
• Students spend approximately 3.5 hours online each day and 2 hours a day on their cell phones.
• They are multi-taskers, because they have to be in order to get everything done.
• When today’s college students graduate, they will probably be working in jobs that don’t exist today.

Then Birmingham City University came out with a statement announcing that they would be offering a Masters Degree in Social Media for students who planned to enter a profession such as journalism or public relations.

The back to back release of this information is making the social media world leap with excitement. I assume much of the buzz is due to the fact that the people now using sites such as Twitter and Facebook wish they had been given access to such tools when they were in school, but nevertheless, the buzz persists.

Don’t believe me? Just check out some of the chatter I found through a Twitter Search on the subject “social media schools”.

I think this is just the beginning of the discussion regarding social media in our schools. Stick with us here at SocialMediaSchools.com as we continue to track to the issue of schools using social media technology to both communicate with and educate their parents, teachers, students, and community members.