It makes sense if you think about it. Colleges and universities are refreshed annually with a new crop of young people. Young people get it. They want it. So it doesn't surprise me to find more and more colleges and universities experimenting with social media and producing great results.

Here's a news report by Katie Wilson of the Times West Virginian in which she features the West Virginia University (WVU) College of Law. She reports:

On May 13, 25 students from the WVU College of Law departed for a study-abroad program in Brazil. The trip ended June 2. They catalogued their experiences in blogs, or Web logs, that were posted at on the university's Web site...

Take a look at the site that was created, the posts that were written, the number of contributors enlisted in this effort and the overall quality of this University-sanctioned site. Amazing.

Now travel to the Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville (SIUE). Here's an Associated Press story from late May that reports about this university's creative application social media:

To mark the university's golden anniversary, administrators are asking alumni, students, faculty and community members to share their memories about SIUE through a blog.

This link takes you to that online site. In an email exchange yesterday with Ms. Barbara O'Malley, Executive Director of Marketing and Communications at SIUE, she told me, "The blog has been an interesting experiment." She didn't elaborate and I don't blame her for that, but I'm betting the emphasis is on the word interesting. I congratulate her and others like her because right now that's what social media is: a great and interesting experiment. College and university educators and staff like Ms. O'Malley that are willing to take the risks that attend any kind of experimentation should be lauded for their courage and creativity. Even when the results aren't what may be expected, everyone learns something and isn't that the idea?

[Photo credit and source here.]