experiences with social media
TRANSCRIPT
Experiences with Social Media
Terry McAndrewJISC TechDis
“Confucius, he say…”
Conference Aims
• overview of the use of social media and technology in teaching, learning and support services.
• highlight the challenges and opportunities that social media brings to disabled students.
• enable delegates to gain a better understanding of how disabled students use social media.
• enable disability services to contribute to their institutions social media strategy and develop an effective and accessible social media strategy for their service."
Personal History
• Techie – if it’s on a computer you can do it for me• Created infrastructure – built kit – organised• OU + Leeds Met + PGCLTHE through p/t and tech• Early hypertext project (IBM funded)
– Web – “it’ll never catch on though”• Disability awareness – family and teaching
experience• Technology constraints – senior colleagues?• TechDis and HE academy.
Yesterday I learned ‘Today I learned….’
The brain consumes 20% of the body’s energy, despite it accounts for only 2% of a person’s weight or about 1.4 kilograms.
Social Synthesis?
http://conceptlinkage.org/
An example ‘constructor’ building on information compiled socially. Discovering what you don’t know you don’t know.
Example using http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS
Patterns of adoption
Reputation management
The Modern Professional?
Networks of common interest
learner empowerment – actively involving students in learning development and processes of ‘co-creation’;
future-facing education – enabling people to think critically, creatively and flexibly to generate alternative visions of the future;
decolonising education –extending inter-cultural understanding and experiences of students so they can be sensitive to global ways of working;
transformative capabilities – seeing capabilities not just as abilities but being able adapt a skill to be used in both familiar and unfamiliar circumstances;
crossing boundaries – to support inter-disciplinary, inter-professional and cross-sectoral learning;
social learning – developing cultures and environments for learning that harness the emancipatory power of spaces and interactions outside the formal curriculum, particularly through the use of new technologies and co-curricular activities.
HEA: ‘New Pedagogical ideas’
What does JISC TechDis do?
• A leading UK advisory service on technologies for inclusion. We explore and promote inclusive practices, resources and advice for learning and teaching in UK post-16 education, and the wider further education & skills sector
• Work with networks and support projects
How does it do this?
• Pedagogic approach - access to tools and techniques through networks for staff who work with students with disabilities
• Provides access to online resources directly for students – to support personal development with appropriate digital literacies
• Illustrates areas where design improvements can be made – i.e. to avoid ‘bolt-on’ accessibility fixes that are common in H.E.
Institution inclusion maturity model
• Discuss with your colleague - Identify 3 separate (current) examples which sit on this scale. Write separate examples on paper.
Pass to another colleague to suggest ideas on same note.
Raising Awareness
• “Accessibility is a continuum – we are all along the line at some point in time so be inclusive to your fellow citizens and your future selves” Mozfest Keynote
• We ask: “How does your role promote a more accessible experience?” and “What change could you make in an adjacent role?”
• My view – the roles are key, not posts.
What they said…
• Feedback from students showed many had informal support networks outside of education environment.
• It also showed that in the wider skills area, there were a lot of gaps in people’s knowledge, and the informal support networks were the only real way of obtaining ‘training’
So we created mini-videos
• Inspired by the Commoncraft videos – parents and carers told us they were ideal.
• Here’s an example:– http://jisctechdis.ac.uk/techdis/multlinkres/detail/CC_Wiki
• We commissioned similar videos to ‘fill the gaps’ in basic digital literacy skills. Here’s one example:– http://jisctechdis.ac.uk/techdis/multlinkres/detail/PDF_Re
adOnScreen
• Focus for social discussion
JISC TechDis: typical activities
• Staff development– TechDis Tuesdays– Xerte Friday– Accessible IT Practice
Support Programme
• TechDis Toolbox– Aimed at learners– Working smarter with
technology
• TechDis Voices– Jack & Jess– Text-to-speech
• SBRI• Discover JISC
‘Social’ risks
• Personal • Professional• Process and
practice (i.e. typical activities)
• Discuss with your neighbour– Two key risks for
each (example environment e.g. twitter + Issue)
– How might disability factor into this?
Promote sharing of solutions
Exploring social media
Gathering articles for a specific community using Scoop.it
Inclusive Learning Special Interest Group
Highlight Practice of key roles
Web 2.0?
Social media - Blog
• TechDis blog to provide commentary and provide guest posts
Physical CharacteristicsContext specific
advice provided through ‘User Needs’ section
Main 3 factors
Communities: Accessibility vs Usability
• Ask the community…• Technically accessible? – can I access the
community - sign-up, read and contribute?• Usable - does the community software allow
me to read and contribute in a way I can use and understand?
• Satisfying - can I get the real feeling of being a “part” of the community?”
Models of use
• Prensky’s ‘Digital Natives’
• Visitors and Residents model (White & LeCornu)– Age – Disability
Progress limits
• Within the range of guidelines and laws– Most focus has been on web accessibility– ‘web accessibility is not an intrinsic characteristic
of a digital resource but is determined by complex political, social and other contextual factors, and that ‘it would be inappropriate to develop legislation or focus on metrics only associated with properties of the resource ‘(Cooper et. al. (2012)
Accessibility tests for social (web 2.0)
• Web2access• Tests for
highlighting issues
• Comprehensive tests
http://www.web2access.org.uk/test
Digital Literacies and the Padagogy Wheel
Use with http://www.web2access.org.uk/test
Mozilla – a ‘commercial’ competitor/ collaborator?This organisation sits outside education but supports it. It tackles a domain it can totally address by selecting web literacies rather than digital literacies. Establishing the domain of control is important to reduce dependencies.
Web 2.0 support
• LexDis• Technology
strategies for study
Further needs
• People with disabilities / age-related difficulties may need additional technology to access the community – Hardware and Software advice needed particularly FOSS
• http://www.jisctechdis.ac.uk/techdis/technologymatters/FOSS
• Cognitive load issues significant – community norms important
• Mobile technology convergence – range of apps/features may improve situation
Online Community A&U issues
• Clarity of links• Confusing terminology• Unclear navigation, content organization• Pages too cluttered to read easily• Menus difficult to understand and control• Level of distraction – too much unfiltered
content• “Ageist attitude” of residents – cf. Visitors and
Residents project
‘Remember’ Design
It is useful at this stage to consider accessibility and usability as being part of design. Design covers visual appeal, how well it fits the tasks and goals of the intended users, and its complexity or simplicity (as measured in how much users must remember to use it effectively).
http://wiserusability.com/
Trust and Safety
• Internet safety, online safety and internet security are used for adults and older people and are all used on the AGE UK site with online being used more.
• Online may imply a wider range of devices – an older person may be quite likely to access an online
community via a mobile device such as a phone or tablet.• E-responsibility term for youth educators• Social pressures in participation – privacy management
complexity• Lack of consistency in terminology• Spam and scam advertising
Key aspects
• Communication and family networking (older users)
• Design advantages – involve the users• Skills support – TBX approach to end user• Lifelong learning broadens the profile of users
with disabilities
ILSIG notes
• Mobile accessibility significant but training issues – very powerful for key users
• Social not popular if it amplifies disability• Not used to share issues but to hide them
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ILSIG: “Student experiences of disability and Facebook”
• Research by Sarah Lewthwaite reported through ILSIG
• Social networks matter to students: “If you haven’t got Facebook, you don’t exist” (Edward).
• Methods: 34 internet-enabled interviews with 19 students
• Over-the-shoulder, co-located, participatory accessible methods
Facebook (cont’d)
• Drivers:– Necessity of Network for Social Information– Critical Mass– ‘Network Creep’
• Effects:– Unknown audience/Context collapse– Consolidation of Identity / Loss of anonymity– Extent of the Network / Contraction in Degrees of
Separation
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Disabled Experience• So could you show me your profile page?
Yeah. I hate it. I really, I worry about it all the time. I just, I just hate the thought of being judged so much.
(Gemma, student with unseen spina bifida)
• Yeah, I mean during the, the time that I was not very well, my Status didn’t show that at all. You know, it was 'Naomi is.' I never put 'is so depressed she wants to go home and never come back to uni'. It was just left blank, it wasn’t, I never put anything, it was just dot dot dot.
(Naomi, student with visual impairment)
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Conclusions• Facebook is normative. It propels users towards disabled or non-disabled
perspectives. • Users are compelled to adopt non-disabled interactions or maintain disability
within strict discursive limits. • For those who adopt non-disabled interactions, disability is confirmed as a
deficit, discredited identity. • For those who cannot or will not perform a non-disabled self, the network is
experienced as punitive and disabling.• In each case, experiences of impairment and the recognition of disability as part
of normal human experience becomes inhibited. • In this way, social networks produce disabled subjectivities whilst systematically
erasing them from view.
Dr Sarah Lewthwaite: [email protected] @slewth http://www.slewth.co.uk
General ‘age’ factors
• Older people proportion highly significant– 16 million <65 by 2030 who are IT era. 45% disabled. – Adaptive interfaces developing. – Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Blogging and Skype and Google+. – Aged: Financially ‘ripe’ and “under threat”. Scam targets– FOSS ideal. Cloud users.– TBX helpful. TechDis facebook page– Have expectations– Don’t suffer from age, just a higher prevelance of conditions and
difficulties. Not homogenous.– Older people are often busy, not sedentary. Active. Free social time – Family and community connectivity important
Is the future better role and discipline networking?
