Judy Southwell

I thought I'd share the link for an article on a recent survey conducted by Pearson.  It has some interesting points that include:

• "More than three-quarters of all faculty visited a social media site within the past month for personal use, and nearly one-half posted some content during that period.
• Faculty with more than 20 years of teaching experience are less likely to visit and less likely to post than are faculty with less than five years of teaching experience.
• Just over 90 percent of faculty use social media either for professional purposes or in their classes—or both, although in some cases the frequency is only monthly (20 percent) or rarely (19 percent).
• Nearly two-thirds of faculty have used social media in their courses— either during class or as part of an assignment— and those who teach online are more likely to do so." ...

...However, despite the broad awareness and varied use of social media, many faculty are unconvinced it has a place in the college classroom and have concerns regarding its instructional value, privacy, and the time commitment. " (Bart, M., "Survey Says 80 Percent of Faculty Use Social Media in Their Teaching", Faculty Focus: Trends in Higher Education, April 22, 2011, downloaded from http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/trends-in-higher-education/survey-says-80-percent-of-faculty-use-social-media-in-their-teaching/).

It would be great to hear your thoughts.

Judy

Hello Hilda,

I haven't used social media when instructing, but I have used various social applications when working on group projects with colleagues located in different cities, and also when involved in team projects when studying.

Googledocs was useful in both of the above instances to asynchronously update portions of the project that had been assigned to me. I seem to recall that content could get overwritten or lost when a group of us were working on the same document synchronously. There was another application, similar to Googledocs, that a group of us used for a team study project and I seem to recall that the 'free' application was changed or withdrawn part way through our project, which caused some consternation. I have also used Basecamp for group project work amongst peers.

I have dabbled with blogs, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but feel I would like to know more about controlling how much of my information goes 'public'.

Second Life is an application that I have also spent some time exploring, but did not do much socializing with other avatars. I can certainly see its potential for students participating in trades and applied applications where it would be difficult for an activity to be carried out in a classroom.  I also enjoyed attending conferences in this environment.

Finally, I was involved in a project to develop a handbook for faculty to help students consider their responsibility when using social 3rd party web-based applications, and also for faculty to remain in compliance with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act  (the handbook is available from the BCcampus SOL*R repository).  I think there might be an element of concern and fear amongst faculty about being in compliance and that this may detract from their more widely using 3rd party applications for teaching and learning activities.

Judy

Many thanks, Bonita, for sending the link.  Nice to know group tweets can be done with relative ease.

Cheers,

Judy

With a variety of applications potentially being used for different purposes, it could be more difficult to have one or a couple of central places from which to access coursework.  With so many of us using cell phones today, I wonder if this medium could be used more as an 'on the hip' device from which to access a variety of applications?

Also, should we consider what we want to accomplish when using social applications/technologies and have this guide us in working out more efficient ways to access, use and upload information? 

For example, if information is to be relayed for organizational matters, e.g., a reminder that a project is due, then perhaps a quick tweet to students would be effective.  Though, at a conference I attended yesterday on mobile technologies, I hear that group tweets are not possible--so for those teaching large classes this might not be a good application.

If we want to use social applications for learning activities, then we would probably want to look closely at pedagogy and which technologies would be best suited.

Level of user technology skills, internet access, and costs to be incurred by students in order to use social apps/technology would be something to think about, too.

Bates' SECTIONS framework (and others) has helped me in my work in considering technologies...Students, Ease of Use, Costs, Teaching and Learning, Interactivity, Organizational Issues, Novelty, and Speed.

Judy

Great points, Roxanne.  When I studied online, motivation did boil down to largely getting assignments in on time.  Though, web conferenced sessions that some instructors set up created opportunities to reconnect with my cohort, improve understanding, ask questions, etc. So, I think effective use of technology and artful facilitation play key roles in helping learners stay motivated.

It would be good to hear more about distinctions between task-specific motivation and course-specific motivation.  While tasks can be planned when a course is being developed, well placed questions or thought provoking feedback can reignite interest/motivation.