Social Networking with VU Communities

VU Communities is an online social networking platform specifically for use in education. An online social network consists of communities of people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. This type of online activity has become extremely popular recently through websites such as MySpace and Facebook.

VU Communities tools and services

Users of VU Communities have a high degree of control over their activities and can choose which other users to give access to. VU Communities can be used by teachers and students for:

• blogging
• bookmarking
• networking
• community-building
• creating groups
• aggregating RSS feeds
• building webpages
• file sharing

The benefits of using VU Communities

There are many benefits and possible uses for such a technology in education. VU Communities:

• provides an easy method for effective communication and resource sharing between students and teachers
  
• is a casual forum where users can locate others with similar interests
• allows users to create and share content with others
  
• is similar to technologies most students use outside of class for social purposes so they should easily adapt to it
  
• is hosted locally within the University network, so staff and students are required to login and can make content viewable to the general public.
  

Log in to VU Communities

Students log in via MyVu:
https://myvuportal.vu.edu.au

Staff log in via the Staff Portal:
http://staffuportal.vu.edu.au/

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