social media & higher education
My first semester of college, I took an Honors Intro to Mass Communications class that required us to buy clickers. With these clickers, we could answer polls in the middle of class, “buzz in” to ask a question, take attendance, and participate in class in a new way.
All through college I was told what I learned my freshman year would be outdated by the time I graduated. Turns out that was true. By my last semester of college, the clickers were long gone and professors were beginning to use social media. The university opened its first class dedicated to advertising and social media, I was required to blog in two classes, and I knew more than one professor who used Twitter to take attendance. By the end of the semester, I’d met several people who were doing final projects or independent studies through blogs, and one professor even made a YouTube video to promote his class for the upcoming semester.
I don’t think it’s a question of whether or not social media and higher education go hand in hand anymore. Instead of asking “To use or not to use,” the question is “Which social media platforms do we use and how?”
Here’s an article from Mashable on how professors are using Twitter & why it’s working:
Professors who wish to engage students during large lectures face an uphill battle. Not only is it a logistical impossibility for 200+ students to actively participate in a 90 minute lecture, but the downward sloping cone-shape of a lecture hall induces a one-to-many conversation. This problem is compounded by the recent budget cuts that have squeezed ever more students into each room.
Fortunately, educators (including myself) have found that Twitter is an effective way to broaden participation in lecture. Additionally, the ubiquity of laptops and smartphones have made the integration of Twitter a virtually bureaucracy-free endeavor. This post describes the two main benefits professors find when using Twitter in lecture.
Increased Participation
Classroom shyness is like a blackhole: Once silence takes over, it never lets go. In my own experience, in a class of hundreds, the fraction of students who speak up is small, and a still tinier fraction contribute regularly.
That’s why, Dr. Monica Rankin of the University of Texas at Dallas was pleasantly surprised when her experiment with Twitter began pulling more students into discussion. “It’s been really exciting because, in classes like this, you’ll have three people who talk about the discussion material, and so to actually have 30 or 40 people at the same time talking about it is really interesting,” said Megan Malone, Teaching Assistant to Dr. Monica Rankin’s United States history course, in the video below.
During lecture, students tweet comments or questions via laptop or cell phone, while the TA and Dr. Rankin respond to a real-time feed displayed prominently in front of the room. Students who manage to live off the grid for 50 minutes can still pass in hand-written notes for the TA to tweet after class.
Students in another Twitter-friendly classroom at Purdue University agree that digital communication helps overcome the shyness barrier. “It’s just an easy way to answer questions in class without embarrassing yourself and raising your hand in a big lecture hall,” said one student. Studies frequently discover that greater participation translates into better academic performance, motivation, and a likelihood of adopting different points of view, which is why it is so striking that Twitter can foster that type of communication.
A Community of Learners
The dynamic of an intellectual ecosystem, where students dive deep into class readings and argue contentious issues outside of class, is difficult to create if discussion ends when class is over. Fortunately, Twitter has no time limit. In fact, Dr. Rankin’s colleague David Parry, Professor of Emerging Media at the University of Texas, found that Twitter chatter during class spilled over into the students’ free time.
“The first thing I noticed when the class started using Twitter was how conversations continued inside and outside of class,” Parry wrote. “Once students started Twittering I think they developed a sense of each other as people beyond the classroom space, rather than just students they saw twice a week for an hour and a half.” As a result, classroom conversation became more productive as “people were more willing to talk, and [be] more respectful of others.”
Parry’s experience is in line with results of one of the first education studies of Twitter, which found that students do indeed carry on discussion outside of the classroom.
In part, students find themselves checking the feed after hours because the public trail of Twitter chatter doubles as an excellent study aid. As one student from Rankin’s class put it, “The significant terms that we’ve talked about in discussions, we’ll tweet that, and you can [go] back [to] that, and it’s a pretty good study aid.” This, in turn, keeps Twitter on their minds, fueling the cycle of involvement.
Conclusion
For schools hit hard by the recession, Twitter is an inexpensive solution to the growing problem of increasing class sizes. It is a tried-and-true platform to let conversations flourish. Indeed, Dr. Parry declared that “it was the single thing that changed the classroom dynamics more than anything I’ve ever done teaching.”
Social Media in the Classroom
Social Media Club folks are big supporters of social media in education. On Friday, a Social Media Club member blogged about an event they attended that discussed social media’s use in the classroom. Some interesting things were discussed. Here’s the post.
On Friday, Feb 19, I attended the Georgetown University-hosted event, “Social Media in the Classroom: Implications for Teaching and Learning.”
The event featured three esteemed speakers, each deeply involved in social media on their respective campuses:
- Gerry McCartney, Vice President for Information Technology and CIO and Oesterle Professor of Information Technology, Purdue University
- Ulises Mejias, Assistant Professor of New Media in the Communication Studies Department at the State University of New York at Oswego
- Edward Maloney,
Director of Research and Learning Technologies at the Center for New
Designs in Learning and Scholarship and Visiting Assistant Professor in
the Department of English, Georgetown UniversityThe full video of the event will be offered on iTunes U — Georgetown University within the next few weeks.
Quick highlights:
The first speaker, Dr. McCartney of Purdue University, described two technologies being used at his school:
- Signals
is a system used in large classrooms to identify students academically
at risk . According to Dr. McCartney, the students that have the
highest risk of not succeeding in their first year are students that
are used to performing well at high schools with lower standards. Upon
entering a competitive classroom environment that demands higher
performance, these students often perform poorly in their first
exposure to university-level curriculum. Signals uses data mined from
Blackboard Vista to place each student in a “risk group.” They are then
given a stoplight rating that represents their performance and
potential to succeed in the class.The feedback is real-time and given to students on their Blackboard
homepage. Along with the rating system, instructor-written intervention
emails and suggestions for study resources are given to provide the
student with an early warning and aid to improve performance.- Hotseat Collaboration
is a technology that attempts to engage the student in the classroom
using the methods and devices that students are already familiar with.
This mobile Web application promotes “micro-discussion,” allowing
students in a large class to interact by posting messages during class
using their Facebook or Twitter accounts, sending text messages, or
using the Hotseat Web site. The instructor will start a session by
posing a question for discussion, and students respond to the question.
In addition to these responses, students can vote on which topics and
questions they’d like to see addressed.The next speaker, Dr. Edward Maloney of Georgetown, spoke at length about two important questions:
- 1. What does it mean to take seriously the impact of social media on learning?
Dr. Maloney brought up a concept that we’re trying to grasp with
SMCEDU: learning environments can change, they don’t have to remain
static.He related Web 1.0 (the static Web) as corresponding with traditional
teaching practices; that is, delivering information through a central
source to a wide audience. Web 2.0, he said, corresponds well to our
real world practices outside of the classroom.As learning happens outside of the classroom (everywhere, really),
social technologies encourage the ideas of community, collaboration,
exploration, exchange, and communication. Further, it promotes learning
in informal, real, participatory, dynamic, and ongoing ways…in other
words, learning in a non-traditional sense. What does it ultimately
mean to think about social media for learning? To put it succinctly, teaching and learning in a new way.- 2. What is at stake in this question and the answers we may provide?
This is a question that never ceases to fascinate. What’s at stake, in
my mind, is how we distribute education. From expanding classrooms to
empowering students with a new enthusiasm and means to learn, the true
scope of what social technologies can do for learning is exciting to
speculate, and beyond anyone’s current ability to realize.Dr. Maloney described informal writing and blogging exercises that
helped his students plainly express their understanding of the class.
It also gave the instructor a constant evaluator of how each student
was doing, along with providing a collaborative, ongoing document that
could be used for reference by each student.The final speaker of the day, Dr. Ulises Mejias, brought some
interesting perspectives to social media, and the overall effectiveness
of using social technologies.He offered the network as episteme. As networks are not just
metaphors, we use them to form templates and models of social
orgnanization; indeed, we use them to shape social realities. But, he
asked, what are the limits of networks as templates? What do they
include and exclude, make possible or impossible?Dr. Mejias shared some of the concepts presented in his class:
- Nodocentrism: The distance between a node and something
outside the network. For all practical purposes, if something is not a
node, it cannot be rendered in the network as a node can only see other
nodes.I took this to mean that if a person is not included in the
network, they don’t “exist” within the network, and the data gathered
from network participants should take this into consideration.- Paranodality: The outside of the network is not empty but
inhabited by multitudes that do not conform to the organizing logic of
the network. He described this as, “that which cannot be Googled.”When considering who/what is excluded from a network, one can view
social media as a sort of social slavery: who decides what’s
included/excluded?Another consideration is that social media tools are largely
controlled by private companies. As such, they might not always be in
the best interest of learners despite being convenient and cheap. As
services such as Youtube (the go-to service to upload videos) or
Twitter (the go-to service for micro-blogging) strenghthen their
positions, participation among users is increased, but so is the
inequality among competing services. As everyone knows, competition is
a crucial component in the success of an open market.As it stands now, using the popular social media services is easy
and cheap, but the relationship between these companies and its users
is not equal. The shift may not be from a one-to-many paradigm to a
many-to-many paradigm as popularly touted; rather, it’s a shift from
one-to-many to many-to-one.Dr. Mejias’s final point was one that struck home with Social Media Club Education Connection: What is the universities’ role in social media?
It’s possible, and perhaps suitable, for the university to develop
alternative social media tools that encompass a variety of services
(blogging, micro-blogging, wikis, social networking, etc.) and release
them as public goods. They could be promoted through their use in
projects both within and outside the university, becoming refined and
standardized as they evolve. There is a possibility (currently refuted)
that Facebook won’t always be free;
similarly, the guarantee of free doesn’t exist for other
sites/services. Why not have universities work conjointly to offer an
alternative?
Twitter & Blogging aren’t the best ways to reach teens online
To continue on yesterday’s topic of social media & higher education, here’s an interesting article from Mashable about the latest trends for teens in social media.
For higher education marketers, these trends are important when promoting your school to potential undergraduate applicants. While blogs and Twitter are great ways to keep up with alumni, they aren’t reaching high school students.
A new study published today by Pew Internet finds that teens and young adults are blogging less and using social networking sites more, with the prominent exception of Twitter.
Pew’s Report surveyed 2,253 American adults and 800 U.S. teens to get a reading of how they use the Internet, which gadgets they own, and which social media tools they use the most.
Some of the data will surprise you.
The Internet’s Everywhere
Here’s a no-brainer: Young adults use the web far more than older adults. In its study, Pew found that 93% of teens and young adults go online, compared to only 38% of adults over 65 years of age. It surprises us that 7% of 12-29 year olds still don’t browse the web, but some just don’t have or can’t afford access.
Among those teens going online, 63% say they go online at least once a day, with older teens more likely to go online than younger teens.
Most are connecting with high-speed connections as well. Seventy-six percent of families with teenage children have broadband connections, while 10% still use dial-up, 8% have no computer and 4% have a computer but no Internet access. For comparison, 49% of families used dial-up in 2004.
The Internet’s getting faster and more accessible. As computer prices drop and Internet access becomes more readily available, we should see these Internet usage numbers continue to rise.
The Laptop Is More Popular than the Desktop
In terms of gadgets, more teenagers have cell phones (76%) than a computer (69%). More than half of 12 year olds own a mobile phone, while a rather impressive 83% of teenagers carry a cell phone in their pockets. That number only rises with age — a full 93% of 18-29 year olds own a cell phone.The mobile trend even continues into the computing realm: Laptops have overtaken the desktop for those under 30. Sixty-sex percent of adults 18-29 own a laptop, while 53% own a desktop. Other interesting trends: Males are more likely to own a cell phone, income dramatically affects computer ownership but not cell phone ownership, and race is a non-factor when it comes to the percentage of adults using cell phones.
Teens Just Don’t Blog. Or Tweet.
As you might have guessed, Pew found that teens are avid social networkers: 73% of 12-17 year olds, in fact. They are posting pictures, commenting on status updates and sending IMs.What they aren’t doing much of, though, is blogging and tweeting.
Pew’s study finds that blogging has dramatically decreased in popularity with the younger crowed since 2006, where 28% of teens reported that they were bloggers. Now that number has dropped to just 14%. Interestingly enough, lower income households (under $50,000) report more blogging than higher income ones. With Facebook, Twitter and other social tools to keep your friends updated about your life, blogging just isn’t as necessary.
Perhaps we shouldn’t include Twitter in that list of social media tools teens use, though. As we’ve reported on multiple occasions, teens don’t tweet, and Pew’s numbers don’t disagree with that assertion:
Yes, only 8% of teens use Twitter, remarkably small when compared to most social networks. Only one in 10 high schoolers use Twitter. Among this small group though, the girls are more likely to be microblogging: 13% of 14-17 year old girls reported using the service.
Conclusions: Teens Aren’t Heavy Content Creators
First, it’s important to note that most of this data was taken from September 2009. A lot changes in social media in a five-month period.With that said, though, the trends seem clear: Teens love to be online, but they’re not terribly interested in writing blog posts or maintaining a stream of tweets. Creating content takes time and energy that they’d rather exert on Facebook, texting, YouTube or other online activities. And of course, they have school and friends.
Let’s face it: Teenagers haven’t had the time to build up expertise, life experiences or a career that would merit content creation. Without that expertise, fewer people are inclined to listen to what they have to say, and without that knowledge, teenagers have less to talk about.
As my colleague Barb Dybwad also brings up, a teenager’s social circle is far smaller and more closely defined than an adult’s network. Perhaps this is why more closed networks like Facebook are more appealing to teenagers than Twitter, which is a completely public experience. Blogging was a more intimate experience a few years back, which could also explain why more teens have abandoned personal blogs over the last few years.
Combined, it means that Twitter just might not be for the average teenager. Let us know what you think in the comments.
How the top 4 US colleges use social media
The top colleges in the US aren’t shying away from social media. Whether Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, or blogs, colleges are using social media to recruit new students, interact with alumni, inform parents, and to showcase their university to the world.
The list below represents the top 4 colleges in the US. Take a look at how they’re using social media to stay ahead.
1. United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy uses a wide variety of social media tools. On Facebook, the admissions office claims 2,345 fans and potential students interact on the Facebook wall daily. The Facebook page also links to the Admissions blog where interested prospects can find out more about USMA student life. On YouTube, USMA’s online audience can watch the online show “The Point,” which is based around the lives of current students at USMA. USMA also uses YouTube for Media Relations where they show off their students and highlight press coverage.
USMA’s parents of students are also involved online with 2,290 Fans on Facebook and 247 followers on Twitter. Through these sites, parents share event information, photos, and advice while welcoming new members into the USMA family.
The West Point Association of Graduates has also gotten in on the action with 4,230 Facebook fans, 414 Twitter followers, and active accounts on Picasa, Flickr, and YouTube. With social media, alumni reconnect, keep up on current WestPoint events, and share stories and photos from their college days.
Princeton uses Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, iTunes, and a blog to keep up with students, faculty, and prospects. On Facebook, YouTube, and the blog, Princeton posts articles that highlight the achievements of the university and its faculty, students, and graduates. The Twitter page links back to the blog and features events. On iTunes you can find presentations or lectures on topics ranging from quantum computing to women in theatre. There’s even a presentation on social media’s debut at Princeton.
Princeton’s Alumni Facebook and Twitter pages feature content from the blog and allow alumni to continue interacting after graduation.
3. California Institute of Technology
Caltech’s admissions office features 5 student blogs that detail the lives of students at various places in their college career as they attend CalTech. Caltech also runs a Twitter account focused on the latest interesting science news.
Caltech’s Alumni Association has really embraced social media through a LinkedIn group, Facebook page, Flickr photostream, and an active Twitter account. The alumni reconnect and post news about CalTech and its graduates.
Facebook and Twitter for Williams College serve as a way to connect with students, faculty, and graduates and distribute the latest news about Williams College and higher education. On YouTube, Williams College offers video lectures and presentations, special videos for alumni, and videos from commencement.
So what do you think? Which college is using social media in the best way? How does your alma matter use social media?
13 Enlightening Case Studies of Social Media in the Classroom
Social media is the thing right now. It provides a way to connect people of similar (or dissimilar) interests from around the world. Social media also provides networking tools for professionals and even for job hunters. And it offers a platform for friends and family to keep up with each other.
But social media isn’t just for professionals, computer geeks and families who prefer not to send email; increasingly, social media is becoming a part of the classroom. It is possible to use social media in such a way as to enhance the learning environment, and to provide an education. Here are 13 case studies that show that social media does have a place in the classroom:
1. City University of New York: Newsgathering with Social Media
It isn’t surprising that social media is used in newsgathering. Indeed, it’s fairly clear that many journalists are finding use in social networks when it comes to locating sources, finding supplemental information and learning about items of interest. As a result, Jeff Jarvis, a professor at the City University of New York, is teaching a class on using social media for newsgathering.
This is a graduate level class in the Graduate School of Journalism that teaches students that they can use real-time searches to find breaking news — and to find comments on that breaking news. Examples of social media search used in the class include Twitter, FriendFeed, Scoopler and SearchMerge, a service that allows you to search, in real time, a number of sites. Practical, in-class demonstrations are helping the next generation of journalists learn how to make use of all the tools at their disposal.
2. Stanford University: Showcasing Faculty and Student Work on Facebook
Many universities are interested in sharing projects with the world — not to mention educating others in the school. To that end, Stanford University is providing access to faculty and student projects on its Facebook page. Students looking for inspiration for projects can see videos, pictures and other previously done projects.
Also, gathering this information into one place makes it a little bit easier to search for news and research being done at Stanford. The university has multiple pages, making it easy to locate information on the Green Library, hospital and a number of the colleges and departments. Stanford University also offers Facebook office hours, at which time faculty is available to answer questions on Facebook.
3. Vestavia Hills High Schol in Birmingham, Alabama: Twittering Lesson Plans
Chris Copeland is all about using Twitter to help his students. He has a Twitter profile (@ccopeland), and we Twitters lesson plans and notes, as well as answers questions. He teaches language arts in Birmingham, Alabama, helping students learn more about literature and how to love it. His tweets make it easier to keep up with what’s going on.
Additionally, Copeland points out that using Twitter to share lesson plans can help other teachers get good idea for their own lessons. And, it helps teachers keep things straight. It can also serve as a record of what has been happening in the classroom, which means that absent students can get an idea of what they are missing, and prepare for lessons when they return.
4. Northwestern University: “NewsMixer”
In a class with a practical application, students at the Medill School of Journalism created the “NewsMixer.” The idea was to pull local, national and global news from a variety of sources. There are places for users to connect, integration with Facebook, the opportunity to write letters and share quips. It is basically a social network created by the students. The Web site is pretty much dead right now, but the practical application of creating one’s own social network, right in the classroom, is definitely an inspiration.
Encouraging students to explore using technology, and use their own creativity to create their own social network, is a great, hands-on activity that can translate into the “real world,” teaching technology skills, and providing valuable marketing knowledge and offering insight into how social media works.
5. Stockholm University: Streaming Seminars
Sometimes, students can’t make it to seminars and other events. Broadcasting these events is a good way to help them reach a wider student audience. Stockholm University in Sweden provided a live streaming video of an environmental seminar that allowed students to watch remotely, or save and watch later. The university also used this technique for a seminar on file sharing.
It is easy to see that such a use has immense application in the classroom. It would be possible to watch presentations from other schools, and to “attend” lectures remotely. Additionally, it would be useful to students to be able to replay seminars and lectures to look for information they might have missed the first time around.
6. Orono Middle School, Long Lake, Minnesota: Tech Wiki
Orono Middle School has a great tech wiki that can be used by students and teachers alike. The tech wiki is a great place to ask questions, and find answers. It includes interactive tutorials on a number of subjects, as well as provides information for students.
Caitlin Cahill (@CCahillMN), one of the technology folks at Orono Middle School, suggested that it is possible to use Twitter in the classroom to help students learn about a certain subject. Students compete to find resources, and be the first to post to Twitter. It’s like a kind of scavenger hunt, and it teaches students research skills.
7. Duke University: Mobile Web Client
If you are looking to register for classes, check email or even access class notes posted up from professors, it is possible to do so with a mobile Web client. Duke University (as well as Georgia Tech and several other schools) is making it easier to complete a number of tasks using a cell phone. Enhanced learning from anywhere can take place using social media networks and Web clients.
8. Birmingham City University, Great Britain: Degree in Social Networking
If you want to be able to teach social networking like a pro, there is now a place you can turn to. Birmingham City University is offering a year-long Master’s degree in social networking. As you might imagine, course offerings include Facebook and Twitter, as well as other social networks such as Bebo. The idea is to help people learn how to use social media in a number of ways to benefit them, whether it is study skills or marketing skills.
9. Cardiff University, Wales: Tweprints
Looking for help finding peer-reviewed information for a science paper or project? Tweprints can help. Robert J. Simpson, a Ph.D. student at Cardiff University, began a project that puts twitter information about scientific papers in one place. It even includes the arXiv ID number, so it is easy to track down the papers themselves online. It is even possible to narrow your search by category (astrophysics, maths, condensed matter, etc.) This is a useful tool that students can use for a number of purposes.
10. University Laboratory High School, Illinois: Twittering Dante
Want to learn more about a great piece of literature? Steve Rayburn, a teacher at the University Laboratory High School, had his students consider Dante’s Divine Comedy. Students used Twitter to post updates from Dante to Beatrice for inside each of the nine circles of Hell. Not only did it require students to read the assignments, but it also got them excited about it — and thinking about what they would post.
11. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: YouTube
You can put up your own YouTube channel, creating videos and providing ingormation. The University of North Carolina offers a number of helpful videos for students and faculty alike on its YouTube channel. Videos relating to health and medicine, business and information technology can supplement student learning, and be used as teaching aids in thse classroom.
12. Georgia Southern University: Blog for a Social Media Course
Barbara Nixon teaches a course titled “Making Connections: Facebook & Beyond,” which aims to teach communication and networking skills. Not only does the course teach one how to use social media, but it teaches the value of communication with others through online assignments using Twitter and Facebook, as well as other social media Web sites. Students are required to start a blog, and Nixon herself keeps a blog on the class assignments and answers questions through here Twitter account (@barbaranixon)
13. University of Wisconsin, Madison: CoveritLive
In order to facilitate more students listening to a lecture on journalism ethics at the University of Wisconsin, Katy Culver encouraged her students to use CoveritLive. This is a social media tool that can be embedded into a blog or Web site and then used to comment on proceedings, link to appropriate content, and even ask questions. This is a great way to provide distance learning for those who may not be physically present, and offer them a way to ask questions and get answers.
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