Using social networks to engage computer science students (abstract only).

Social Networking continues to be a popular past-time among high school and college students. In this birds of a feather session, we will share ideas on integrating social networking topics into computer science courses at the introductory and non-major levels. Additionally we will discuss approaches to integrating social network programming into upper level courses. Finally we will attempt to address the following questions: will social networking draw new students into the computing disciplines the way that video games did in the previous generation? Will it attract new types of students with different expectations? Is social networking just a fad that will have no effect on Computer Science programs? Or is social networking a topic that is better left to other academic disciplines?