Educational institutions can benefit enormously from social networks. Lecturers can provide reading lists and notes for students online, upload videos or mp3′s of lectures and keep students informed about changing timetables using the events function. There is an obvious appeal to students who can use it to communicate with one another for social and study purposes. Eventually all universities and  colleges will make use of online networks as a crucial form of mass communication in the 21st century.

Another aspect of social networking that benefits students is the ability to stay in touch with their families while they are away. Ridley college parents network serves this purpose, as well as being a promotional tool for the school itself. This puts anxious parents’ minds at rest and allows them to socialise with other parents of students at Ridley and to form a community.

Parents are reassured of the quality of the institution by the appearance of this neat and professional site which has video advertisements explaining the benefits of the college and telling the story of its history. There are students from 30 different countries attending the college, so realistically a parent association which didn’t make use of the Internet would be impossible to maintain. The events function is great for keeping all the parents informed about activities and events at the college. Although Ridley college parents network is merely an informal way for the parents of students to learn more about their child’s education, it illuminates the startling potential that socialGO networks offer as an administrative tool for educational institutions.