Communicating with Students Outside the Classroom

I keep thinking it should be easy to communicate with students outside of class. (What did we do before email?)  I keep all course information in a Moodle, update the course announcements weekly, and force-subscribe posts to student emails.  Sounds good in theory... But apparently students no longer communicate through email - they're texting, tweeting, or connecting on facebook.  (Actually, word has it facebook is getting old, so maybe they're playing farmville.)

At any rate, I seem to be losing my ability to connect with students outside of the classroom about academic topics.  In response to my laments, I have discovered that one colleague is sending text reminders through email and another has established a facebook page for her course.  For me, this has served as a gentle reminder that just when we feel comfortable with our technology practices, we realize we're behind the curve again! As one responder to the twitip twitter versus facebook explains:

One of the big differences for me is how my generation uses Facebook versus Twitter. I’m 24, so Facebook has been popular since my freshman year of college...Those coming to Facebook late use it as a professional social tool first, and a local social tool second. My generation is the opposite... [twitter] has become a professional networking tool rather than a way to communicate with friends.

OK, my students aren't 24 and aren't making professional connections online, but I think this illustrates well that it's not only the technologies that change quickly, but how those technologies are used.