Mixable combines Facebook and academics

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - The balancing act between study time and Facebook time is going to become one step easier for students at Purdue University. A new computer and phone application called Mixable is helping to combine the two.

Kyle Bowen is the Project Manager of Mixable. He said it makes sense to extend the widespread use of social networking into the educational realm.

"Social networking has only been around for a few years. It's seeing unprecedented growth in terms of web technology. We're seeing large numbers of students opting these platforms as a key part of
their life," said Bowen.

Bowen said 150 students are a part of the pilot program testing Mixable. He said Facebook allows students to connect to others for social purposes and now Mixable will allow them to extend to the same network, and perhaps provide answers to homework questions.

Kevin Van Dyke is a student that uses Mixable. He said the community of answers is small right now but the potential is unlimited.

"If there is something that you didn't understand and you didn't want to wait until teacher hours, office hours, or ask a teacher in front of the class, you just post a question online. It's similar to how 'Hot Seat' works, you just post it to the masses and someone responds," said Van Dyke. 

Professor of Consumer Sciences Sugato Chakravarty said his class starting using an application combining Twitter and classroom inquiries called the "Hot Seat" last year.

"In the past before 'Hot Seat', I normally didn't have people asking questions because everybody would be too intimidated to raise their hands and stuff. Now we see a lot more participation in large lectures. To me that's great," said Chakravarty.

Chakravaty said there are professors who discourage the use social networking methods in the classroom, but he disagrees.

"I feel that if we take stuff that students are already familiar with in their day to day lives we should use it to try and enhance education. That's what we should do," said Chakravarty. 

Bowen said the concern of cheating will exist no matter what the technology, but no student can log on to Mixable completely anonymously: a student id is attached to every user.