This document discusses using social media for learning, teaching, and research. It outlines the characteristics of new media technologies and their implications. Some key benefits of social media include allowing students to communicate with peers and researchers to participate in global communities. However, there are also risks like time consumption and privacy issues. The document explores various social media tools and provides case studies of tools being used for recruitment, research dissemination, employability, and enhancing learning and teaching. Overall, it argues that social media enable new forms of collaboration but require developing new digital literacy skills.

1. Using social media for learning,
teaching and research
Gráinne Conole
Bath Spa Innovating Pedagogy Seminar
9th March 2016
National
Teaching
Fellow 2012 Ascilite fellow 2012EDEN fellow 2013

2. Outline
• Characteristics of new media
• What is your digital network
• Using social media for:
– Learning
– Teaching
– Research
• Benefits and risks
• Types of tools
• Case studies
• Blogs, Twitter and facebook

3. Activity
• What are the
characteristics of new
technologies?
• What are their
implications for
learning, teaching and
research?

4. New media
Characteristics
• Lots out there!
• LinkedIn – what the
benefits?
• A lot of superficial use
• Time consuming and
distracting
• Need to be disciplined with
the use of social media
Implications
Conole and Alevizou, 2010

5. 5
• Technology immersed
• Learning approaches: task-
orientated, experiential,
just in time, cumulative,
social
• Personalised digital
learning environment
• Mix of institutional systems
and Cloud-based tools and
services
• Use of course materials
with free resources
Sharpe, Beetham and De Freitas, 2010
Learner experience

6. EDUCAUSE study
• Students drawn
to new
technologies but
rely on more
traditional ones
• Consider
technologies
offer major
educational
benefits
• Mixed views of
LMSs
http://www.educause.edu/studentsAndTechnologyInfographic

7. Game changers
• Harness the power of new
media
• Need to rethink education
• How can we reach more
learners, more effectively?
• Impact of free resources,
tools and expertise?
• New business models?
• New digital literacies?
http://www.educause.edu/game-changers

8. Activity: What’s your digital network?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/factoryjoe/195492568/

9. My network

10. Activity: fb love it or hate it?
Pros
• Sharing issues
• Focus on personal interests,
like music
Cons
• Don’t use enough
• Sharing personal stuff
• Trivial posts

11. What tools can students use for their
learning?
• Don’t use Minerva
enough
• Email
• Google to find relevant
resources
• Fb and Twitter
• Phone
• Multi-tasking across tools
• Phone at the centre of
their learning
• YouTube and free
resources

12. What tools do you use for teaching?
• Google, YouTube
• Minerva
• PowerPoint
• Guest speakers
• Skype for tutorials
• Students like videos,
but keep under 10
minutes
http://e4innovation.com/?p=800

13. What tools do you use for Research?
• Google, Google Scholar
• Library
• Dragon voice activated
software
• Skype

14. Activity: using new media for research
• How would you use the following for research (i.e. data
collection, dissemination, discussion)?
–Blogs
–Facebook
–Google+
–LinkedIn
–Academia.edu
–Twitter
–Flickr and Youtube
–Diigo
–Mandeley
–Dropbox
–Others?

15. Social media
• Range of internet-based tools that allow
people to create, co-create, share and interact
with information

16. Benefits of social media
• Students can communicate with their peers
• Researchers can be part of a global
community
• Students can use to demonstrate their
competences
• Universities can use to interact with a variety
of audiences

17. Risks of social media
• Ethical, privacy and security issues
• Time consuming
• Inappropriate use
• Ownership
• Constantly changing

18. Types of tools
• Social networking tools – e.g. facebook
• Reflective tools – e.g. blogs and Twitter
• Gaming tools and virtual worlds – e.g.
SecondLife
• Communication tools – e.g. WhatsApp
• Consumer tools – e.g. price comparison sites

19. Case studies
• Recruitment and transition to HE
– Social searching for recruitment
– Support prior to enrolment
– Peer mentoring
• Research
– Part of a scholarly community
– Development of a professional profile
– Disseminating research
– Resource discovery
– Undertaking research

20. Case studies
• Employability
– Social Media Knowledge Exchange
– Development of a professional
network
• Public engagement
– Dissemination to general public
• Enhancing learning and teaching
– Extending beyond the classroom
– Peer review
– Twitter as a back channel
– Keeping in touch when on placement
– Wikis to co-create knowledge
• Keeping in touch with Alumni

21. Blogs
• Of the moment
reflections
• Digital archive
• The power of peer review
• Record of events, reviews
and resources
• Wider audience reach
and hence profile
• Link into facebook and
Twitter
• Complements traditional
publication routes
e4innovation.com
gconole.wordpress,com

22. Bloggers worth reading
M. Weller
G. Siemens
T. Anderson

23. Using facebook

24. Ideas for harnessing Web 2.0?
Twitter

25. Doing a session on using social media for
learning, teaching and research, any good links?
Anna Mathews @anna_mathews
22h22 hours ago
Hi @gconole You might find this link
http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/socialmedia
more useable @gillferrell @ucisa

26. Final thoughts
• Participatory and social media enable new forms of
communication and collaboration
• Communities in these spaces are complex and
distributed
• Learners and teachers need to develop new digital
literacy skills to harness their potential
• We need to rethink how we design, support and assess
learning
• Open, participatory and social media can provide
mechanisms for us to share and discuss teaching and
research ideas in new ways
• We are seeing a blurring of boundaries:
teachers/learners, teaching/research, real/virtual
spaces, formal/informal modes of communication and

27. References
• UCISA social media toolkit
– http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/~/media/Files/publications/social_
media/344996%20UCISA%20-%20Book%20v8%208-12-15-
final.ashx
• M. Weller - The digital scholar
– http://oro.open.ac.uk/29664/
• EDUCAUSE
– http://er.educause.edu/articles/2009/12/horton-hears-a-
tweet
• Using Twitter to enhance social presence
– http://patricklowenthal.com/publications/Using_Twitter_t
o_Enhance_Social_Presence.pdf

28. http://www.slideshare.net/GrainneConole
g.conole@bathspa.ac.uk
Blog: http://e4innovation.com
Twitter: @gconole