Kenya’s Ministry of Information and Communications is set to endorse social media clubs in the nation’s universities to promote social media as a tool for learning and communication by both lectures and students.
SocialPro Clubs will be launched on October 25 at the University of Nairobi School of Business, before being spread to other universities in the country.
“The core objective of these clubs is to teach, educate, create awareness and impart knowledge and skills of various disciplines of social media and platforms to the university students,” Muthuri Kinyamu, founder and business director of Social Edge Africa, told HumanIPO.
The 24-year-old also said that the initiative seeks to develop a talented pool of graduates with a solid understanding of new media to bridge the knowledge gap and demand that exists today for people with skills and expertise in various disciplines of social media.
“These clubs will help students unlock the potential of social media, expose them to the limitless possibilities online and help academic departments use social media networking sites to teach and share content and make learning more fun,” he said.
The clubs will enable students to learn how to create, optimise and share digital content in various formats with students across various platforms, in order to make them embrace social media to gain feedback from other students.
Kinyamu said that they intend to use the clubs to campaign for peace as Kenya draws closer to the March 2013 general elections.
The launch comes a few weeks after a Kenyan student was suspended from the university for allegedly tarnishing the university’s name on social media. This shows that university management is yet to fully embrace social media as a tool of communication and an avenue to receiving feedback from the stakeholders.
