Birmingham City University is offering a year-long course in "social media": $5,700 for instruction on how to start a blog, record a podcast, and use Facebook, Twitter, and Bebo. Ridiculous, right?

About as ridiculous as charging tens of thousands of dollars to teach students how to pick up a phone, ask people questions, think about what they tell you, and write. You know, like journalism school!

Update: Lest you scoff at Birmingham City University's new-media credentials, Cal Henderson, the Flickr engineer with a surprisingly numerous geek-girl fanclub, would like everyone to know he's a proud alumnus. "No Twitter course in my day though," he adds, with a tearful emoticon.