Class,
This week we are on e-blogger to discuss on our next assignment. In the face to face class we will be covering Web 2.0 tools such as Google Docs, Google Sites, Blogs and Wikis. To see how a blog works, read the article on Social Media in Blackboard Week 4 folder, watch the video and post what you find most interesting about Social Media tools and the research behind it.
Here is a short video on social media, do you agree with it?
Looking forward to your posts!!
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16 comments:
Great video, I'm doing a marketing lesson in my ftf class this week, and will use the video clip as a starting point to a group activity.
On the positive side, social media offers the opportunity to collaborate, to share incredible amounts of information, to be engaged in anything at anytime, and to hold accountable anyone from a restaurant to an Egyptian leader.
But... I continue to struggle with both feeling overwhelmed by the volume of opportunities and how to a) select the best ones for teaching, b) ensure my students will use it and know how, and c) do so with a reasonable amount of time commitment.
I love google docs because of its emphasis on information sharing and collaboration, but facebook and twitter and blogs continue to feel to me like people are mostly talking 'at' one another rather than 'with' one another, though that may be my own inexperience using them.
I look forward to hearing how others use these in their courses.
And on a side note, if students are no longer using email, what medium (s) do professors use to communicate individually with students outside of class?
Wow--this video left me exhausted although it was entertaining and I had no idea that Wiki meant quick in Hawaiian.
I agree that social media can be a valuable tool. I'm trying to keep up with a blog for the MA students in Economics, and maintain contacts with our alumni on Linked In.
However, I also struggle with how to choose the best tools for teaching and, perhaps more importantly, how to teach students to use social media correctly. For example, although I often use Wikipedia myself as a starting point, I don't think it belongs in a reference list for an academic paper (and certainly shouldn't be copied, obviously). I also think that texting and tweeting has led to some very sloppy verbal communication from students. I am sometimes shocked at the informality at which students address me, and I can only hope that don't use this same informality with potential employers.
I dislike the question that Paul gave us "Here is a short video on social media, do you agree with it?"
On the face of it, I reject the notion that social media is the biggest revolution since the industrial revolution. I think that something else big is going to come along, and this is just an extension of the computer revolution. We also need to keep in mind the digital divide.
I also dislike the lack of citations in the video. These facts sound good and they sound compelling. However, I have no means of evaluating them external to the fact that some random video said so.
I tend to agree with PDubya. I see social media as tools, some of which are very useful, and some that are not - it's very situation-dependent. These tools improve and change regularly, becoming more and more specialized on the one hand, and more all-in-one on the other. The all-in-one types remind me of the technological device that can do everything, but isn't the best at any one thing.
My goal at this point is to figure out which one(s) will work for my particular course, and will be a valuable addition to the learning process. I like the idea of using Google docs, and might try a wiki. Still exploring the other options.
Twitter is an example of something that isn't useful for most academic purposes. In-depth courses can't be compressed into 140 character bites.
I tend to fall in the same mindset as the posters so far.
I feel that while there has been a trend in developing this type of technology, that does not necessarily mean that all of the technology needs to be applied to the education field. Many of these applications are situational, and appropriate given a certain context.
However, I am concerned that in reaction to the proliferation of such varied technologies too many will be forced into a syllabus. The end result is then a fractured, piecemeal course that doesn't have a coherent framework.
Personally my most rewarding experience with an online course was when it was focused around a single, cohesive project. For example in a doctoral seminar on public administration. The course revolved around the creation of a Public Administration Wiki. The intent was to create a place on the web that could serve as both an annotated bibliography and a study guide for a doctoral comprehensive exam in public administration.
The "revolution" discussed in this video can be overwhelming in its variety, and I feel that projects designed with restraint in mind can maintain the focus in a course.
(and I agree with PDubya I am curious about some of the statistics. Particularly the fact that 80% of companies are using Linkedin as their primary tool to find employees.)
I've learned two things:
1) it's probably better to create a professional sounding blog name and not use the one that was given to you by your fraternity brothers in undergrad. (This is Peter Brusoe by the way.)
Should we make our students create a new blogger ID or should they use the regular one they use to blog about life, music, and the basketball team?
2) I love the fact that by subscribing to comments that I get a direct email into my inbox about what was said and who said it. This makes it much easier to follow the conversation and to carry on.
As a sociologist, I agree with the premise that social media is changing the way we interact. It is also changing the ways we receive and synthesize information.
As Kara notes, we have to deal with some of the "fallout" to include sloppy communication, professional boundaries, and inappropriate emoting!
I can certainly see how our students would come to expect social media to be integrated into higher learning. And, I firmly believe they will come to expect it.
Like many of you, the issue for me is how to integrate it with my pedagogical style.
This also begs another question---if it becomes part of the expectation, how will institutions such as AU come to expect it as part of "teaching load" in terms of the time it takes to construct (and maintain) it as a part of learning?
Sorry--CRJbooks is Michelle Newton-Francis! A great example of bad use of social media!
You Say You Want a Revolution?
I've seen videos like this now for 10 years, but I'm still not convinced that it is a revolution. Perhaps it is a tool for evolution. I think I'm more technical than most but always feel myself reining in technology to what is relevant to teaching and learning.
In my online courses I need to have students unlearn how they network or communicate online and to have a more proper and useful discussion, to the point Kara makes.
I do have a Facebook account but am also amazed at the time some people put into networking, ranging from social consciousness to instructions on making brownies.
I will add last that I do not really like the BB discussion format and blogs might be a way of handling discussion in a more natural fashion.
Like every other new tool (including those that came into widespread use during the original industrial revolution), social media has unintended consequences. I don't think we know what unintended consequences there will be for using social media IN CLASS (as opposed to in education more generally, say, to keep a cohort connected or to keep in touch with alums).
What I am pretty sure of, tho, is that negative unintended consequences of social media in education will be minimized if we only use the tool to further specific LEARNING OBJECTIVES. If one of your learning objectives is to develop collaborative problem solving skills, google docs could be super valuable. But I wouldn't just use a tool for the sake of the tool.
Mary Hansen
I think Mary and Jim bring up great points.
1) How to use the tool most effectively for your classroom needs and
2) Jim's point that "students unlearn how they network or communicate online and to have a more proper and useful discussion."
It seems to me on #1 that whatever we do in the virtual world to mimic our in-classroom style is key.
Jim's point is a much larger one, and it's not something I think we have time to do in six, or even eight weeks, but I think we if we give examples, or ideas, or a template students can respond and emulate that very well. In the meantime, I think we need to meet the students where they are.
As an interesting experiment, how many of you watched the video with the music on versus watched the video with music off?
Here's one take on the Social Network:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZUcDCjLA-8&feature=player_embedded
Here's the opening they went with
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1Ua2gabdJoc
Here's some explanation for the effect that music has on us.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1281385/Ever-wondered-music-horror-films-scares-The-harsh-sounds-tap-instinctive-fears.html
I enjoy seeing these videos and reading about how others have used social media as teaching tools, but I, like others in our class, have concerns about substance as well as logistics. The comment in the article that we have limited "cognitive load" rang bells for me. In a six week course, I hope students will be engaged in learning one or two concepts that they can take away and hopefully use to make positive changes in their lives. Ill concentrate on structuring opportunities for them to meet each other, find common interests, and collaborate through blogs and Wikis. If then they identify classmates who are "kindred spirits" and who want to communicate on Facebook and Twitter, then by all means I'll encourage them to do so. But I don't think I need to structure that as part of my course.
Like many have mentioned already, the idea that social media is a revolution on par with the industrial revolution really does stretch things too far. Are there many new tools now at our disposal? Absolutely (and I use many of them and enjoy them!). But has it transformed *what* we do in a fundamental sense, not just how we do it? Not really.
In watching the video, I was reminded of a recent Slate.com post on the possibility of a social media bubble:
http://www.slate.com/id/2284851/
There's a lot to this, as the valuations of these companies are skyrocketing (3400% in a year in one case!) without much in the way of a product behind them. If it is a bubble, it'll eventually burst, and like the tech bubble in the 90s (and all the talk of "internet start ups" as the revolution) a good amount of the social media sites and outlets that we know now will go away. That's not to say that Facebook or Twitter are going away anytime soon, but it does seem that we're caught up in a short term period of rapid growth/expansion that will probably end up taking a much different course than the one implied by the video.
I also want to second the point made by many that the presentation of "facts" and "statistics" in the video is highly problematic. In this sense, the video is instructive for our students as an example of what *not* to do when you are trying to research a problem or make a case (whether in scholarship or advocacy) based on evidence.
Aaron I completely agree. It was not until 100 years later, Arnold Toynbee I think, that anyone even called or noted the period "Industrial Revolution". The Industrial Revolution lasted more than 100 years and occurred at differing times in differing places. It is actually early in this era to really know what changes are coming.
I agree with some of the comments that question social media. I get it, but I also have lots of questions!
I see this is how students like to communicate and loads of information can be placed out there, but what about containing our thoughts?
What about being unplugged?
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