Because an online college student might want to meet a classmate the old-fashioned way – face to face – Arizona State University (ASU) has a social networking platform that helps students spot each other on their laptops and smart phones.
More than 600 ASU Online students are connected to spark, a “geosocial” site that allows students to check in when they enter a library, coffee shop, or anywhere else in their community. The hope is that other ASU web-based students will see a virtual classmate in a nearby coffee shop and stop by to say hello.
The spark site, powered by San Francisco-based Double Dutch, is similar to other geosocial or geo-tagging services like Foursquare, Yelp, Gowalla, and Facebook Places.
Instead of posting your location on a vast social network – especially Facebook Places – spark is only accessible to ASU Online students with university-issued eMail address, creating “micro-communities based on place-based networks,” said Lawrence Coburn, Double Dutch CEO.
Read the full story on eCampus News
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