College 2.0

The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation recently invested $850,000 to the Chronicle of Higher Ed to support websites that help students and parents make sound decision on college admissions. The article here provides an overview of the websites, College Completion and College Reality Check. College Reality Check informs future students and parents on the financial requirements of school and what the data means for jobs after college. College Completion offers users the chance to see graduation rates of schools and compare metrics with other college programs. Students may engage in produsage by creating different plans and metrics while collaborating with peers through Facebook and Twitter on what colleges have the best bang for the buck. Both of these interactive websites represent tools suited for the digital age in which users can create comparisons of schools and map a framework for graduation. Many students feel overwhelmed with the many nuances of college, and these two web 2.0 tools offers students a chance to make the best financial decision and what job sectors are hiring graduates from their respective programs. The more informed students and parents become about their educational future, the better we become as a society with an intelligent and informed electorate. Progressive web tools like this will have an enormous impact for future generations, I wish this existed when I were entering school almost 12 years ago.