Higher Education Research - Forthcoming ECS Research Group Seminar

Colleagues - Welcome to 2008! Here is advance notice of three seminars over the next few weeks. As
these seminars are all based on the Higher Education sector I thought that it would be appropriate
to circulate to all SOCSI staff.

1. Next Wednesday (23rd Jan) at 1.00-2.00pm Prof Sally Power will be talking about 'Comprehensive
Schools and Elite University Entry'. This seminar will be in room -1.77 (Glamorgan Building).

2. In addition to our monthly lunchtime seminar (and due to popular demand) Dr Neil Selwyn will be
back in Cardiff on Thursday 31st January to present: '"omg tha Neil Selwyn bloke is a cock!" -
exploring students' educational use of Facebook' (full abstract below). This seminar will be in
-1.56 (Glamorgan Building).

3. The last in the current series of Cardiff University Education Research Seminars (organised
jointly with the Welsh Assembly Government) is on Wednesday 6th February at 4.00-5.30pm. Professor
John Fitz and Dr Chris Taylor will be presenting their research on 'Widening Participation in Higher
Education'. This public seminar will be held in the Council Chamber (Glamorgan Building). Professor
Miriam David from the Institute of Education, University of London, will be the discussant.

Please make every effort to attend these seminars. And feel free to pass on details of these to
anyone you think may be interested.

Best wishes
Chris

Neil's Abstract
"omg tha Neil Selwyn bloke is a cock!" - exploring students' educational use of Facebook
Abstract: Facebook has been the social networking success story of recent years - especially
amongst populations of university students for whom the application was initially developed. With
the majority of university students actively maintaining profiles, educationalists are currently
exploring the potential of Facebook as an educational application. Growing numbers of educators
are
celebrating the potential of Facebook to (re)engage students with their studies, whilst other
commentators fear that Facebook compromises students' engagement with traditional university
education.