Anyone over the age of 30 tends to think in terms of the real world vs. the online world; young people make no distinction between the two. Social networks, where youth connect with their friends, research information, hang out, shop, listen to music, and discuss news and events, are the real world to most young people.

The stats speak for themselves:

• Nearly two-thirds of all online teens aged 12-17 use social networks like Facebook and MySpace on a monthly basis, and almost one-third do so daily. – Forrester Research, “Coolhunting With Teen Social Networkers”, October 2009
• 22% of teens check social networking sites more than 10 times a day and 51% of teens check social networking sites more than once a day. – Common Sense Media, “Is Social Networking Changing Childhood?”, August 2009
• In April 2009 alone, teens spent 21 million minutes on sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. – Nielsen Media, April 2009

The complete integration of social networks into their daily lives is not only impacting how they socialize, but how they learn. A recent article by a teacher and citizen journalist talks about how young people are increasingly using Facebook and Twitter to learn, share ideas, and complete class projects – yet educators are still forbidding use of all social networking due to fear kids are wasting time or getting into trouble online. Some high schools are beginning to experiment with online learning programs and controlled access to social networks to enable students to engage in group learning online, but these schools are still few and far between.

This disconnect between most educators (older people) and students (young people) is starting to narrow, however, with more discussion around how social networking and the Internet can play a key role in education. At Maveron, we’ve been thinking a lot about these issues. Our highly successful investment in Capella University, home of the world’s leading online-only university degree programs, and our recent investment in Altius Education, a provider of technology and services that enable real-world universities to offer programs online, shows how committed Maveron is to evolving education in the next decade and beyond.

College-level institutions have been much quicker to understand the power of online learning and social networking to enable students to collaborate on projects and studying, and reach professors in online office hours sessions. Online degree programs are extremely popular, in large part because young students can learn in an environment where they are entirely at ease: on the Internet. According to the a higher education market research firm Aslanian Group, nearly 12% (2.1 million) of all students at degree-granting institutions in 2007 were enrolled solely in online programs – and that percentage has climbed significantly in the past two years as college costs continue to soar. Enrollment in online higher education is projected to nearly double by 2013.

Altius Education’s first partnership is with Tiffin University. Together, they established Ivy Bridge College, the first online-only, two-year degree program that provides students an accredited path to admittance into a four-year university program.  Ivy Bridge students have access to 24×7 online tutoring and learn with faculty and other students in chat rooms, message boards, and threaded discussion groups. Ivy Bridge refers to its students not as a “student body”, but as an “engaged online community”.

Teens and young adults don’t separate their online and offline lives, so it makes sense that they would comfortably adopt social-networked learning – extending the classroom, study hall, and discussion group into the online realm where they already hang out. At Maveron, we’ll continue to look for promising investments in educational companies that are successfully leveraging the link between social network and education.  After all, for young people, there is no ‘offline’ and ‘online’ – just ‘life’.