We held two education session during Digital Capital Week last week, and there were plenty of topics up for discussion. One that has stuck with me was a quote from Steve Radick during our panel discussion where he noted that we need "more fighters" to push for social media skills and knowledge to be taught in colleges and universities.

It still kind of surprises me when I see the current generation of college students, people in their late teens and early twenties, who have grown up with social networking profiles but still don't know how to apply SM to business.

It's not a criticism or a complaint, but as more business become aware that they should be using SM (both internally and as a way to interact with their customers), it's an observation that somehow people are being left in the dark. When you're taking a full load of classes, your focus is on those classes. Unless the need to learn SM is a part of your class, it takes an outside influence to make you aware that there's something you should be paying attention to that isn't on your syllabus.

We need, as Steve Radick said during the Social Media in Higher Education panel, more fighters. We need more people, whether they're students, professors, or professionals, that social media should be something that's taught in schools.

What's the best way to get that message across, to both schools and the students within?