Using social media for learning, teaching and professional identityHelen Beetham, May 2014bit.ly/DLsocialmedia

Which social media...

... do you use regularly? ... do you know about and

wish you used (better)?

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social networking sites e.g. Facebook, Google+ professional networking sites e.g. LinkedIn, academia blogs e.g. wordpress sites | microblogs i.e. twitter content sharing sites e.g. youtube, slideshare, prezi, flickr,

instagram, community repositories news/link sharing sites e.g. pinterest, paper.li, quora,

pearltrees, storify reference/link sharing / social bookmarking services e.g.

zotero, delicious specialist networks e.g. tripadvisor, mums.net virtual worlds and gaming worlds e.g. geocities, world of

warcraft email discussion lists? ... (boundaries are blurred)

Social media include...

personal AND/OR scholarly AND/OR professional (are you an integrator or a segregator??)

identity / reputation as well as community / connection very varied in focus, rules and norms,

community, scope, preferred media... increasingly important to building

social, academic and professional capital(but this varies by profession/subject area)

Social media are...

73% of employers currently use online social networks or social media to

support their recruiting efforts.

‘caring, climbing and campaigning’

DiMicco et al 2008

a success story

a horror story

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Thinking about how you use social media, share...

what are the opportunities? what are the risks?

Thinking about how we all use social media...

This is an activity in pairs that you can also try with students

At least one of you will need access to a digital device (smartphone, laptop, netbook etc)

If you are using your own device, do not log into any social networks (e.g. Facebook)

Find out what you can about each other using only material that is publicly available online

You can guide each other to relevant sites but don’t give away information you can’t see online

Do not sign in to social networks (private material will be visible)

Auditing your owndigital reputation

Reflections How much of what is visible online is under your control? What could you find that surprised you? What couldn’t

you find (easily) that surprised you? How would you like to appear online? What could you do to create a more positive digital

identity?

Auditing your owndigital reputation

Creating a positive digital identity

Tips and tricks Always protect the privacy of your personal information Integrate and cross-reference your public brand Use one public profile and update / propagate it regularly

e.g. about me, blog, employers’ profile, prof network Layer information: broadcast headlines, let people find

the detail if they are interested Use tagging to create or join a story Limit the time you spend on personal ‘branding’ - make it

intrinsic to what you do and interesting to you When new to a network, LARC (Lurk and learn, Ask, Re-

tweet -view -post, Collate and comment)

These slides showed examples of individual professional profiles and networking activities which have been removed

Instead, find someone in your field who has a successful online profile and see how many networks they use, and how well integrated you find their use of digital media and branding.

Examples

What three things will you do now to enhance your professional profile?

How will you know whether you have been successful? Further resources: bit.ly/DLsocialmedia

Reflections

How are social media changing academic practices generally and in your subject areas?

Social media and practices of learning and teaching

What are the opportunities and risks of using social media for learning and for teaching?

Social media and practices of learning and teaching

Students develop their own public professional identity Practice communicating in a public space (feedback,

critique, motivation) Practice working across personal/professional, public/

private boundaries Genuine contribution to the discourse of the subject Get authentic feedback from beyond teaching team Leave positive digital traces for revision, review,

showcasing, self-belief Work in a reasonably familiar setting (social media) ...

Opportunities

Legal infringement (copyright, consent, privacy...) Cultural infringement (university regulations, policing of

public/private boundaries...) Reputation - staff and students May be pushing students out of their comfort zone

(walled garden) May be harder to monitor, assess, review student

progress than in closed environments? Staff may fear students more proficient than they are? ...

Risks

Break out of the walled garden: students contribute to original research or data sharing

projects, edit academic wikis and blogs, share learning materials, showcase creative work online

Digital identity work: focus on building a professional profile e.g. through

LinkedIn, twitter, or subject network or focus on reflection and personal development e.g.

through a blog or e-portfolio Amplify learning support:

encourage students to use existing social media accounts - or open new ones - to share ideas, links, references, resources and encouragement or to collaborate on projects and outcomes

Designing social mediainto the curriculum

In pairs/small groups Discuss what you already do with students that could be

done (better) with the use of a social medium or network Design a learning activity that you could use with

students tomorrow Consider: learning outcomes; access; setting up the

activity (solo, pairs, groups?); supporting the activity; assessing the activity; possible problems and solutions

Designing social mediainto the curriculum

Conclusion

What will you take away?

bit.ly/DLsocial media