Journal assignment #4

Course Reflections – The role of Social Media in Education

Objective

Social media is transforming instruction in today’s classrooms.   Access to resources, information sharing, group reflection and individual reflections are easier than ever because of the new tools available to instructors and students. On any given topic net-worked students use technology to; research scholarly articles, share opinions on blogs, converse critically, and utilize the expertise of peers and instructors alike.  This connectivism is characterized by four criteria; openness, autonomy, diversity and interactiveness.  In the past, educational and organizational models were more hierarchial, dictatorial, uniform and disconnected.

 Reflective

The dramatic shift in sourcing and analyzing information can seem overwhelmingly complex at times.  Information is abundant.  It’s important to be critical of the sources of information as many online sources are opinion based.  Google scholar offers a way to access peer reviewed information as the basis for formulating informed opinion on a topic.  Students and instructors must take care not to violate copyright law when accessing, using, and sharing information sourced on line. 

Interpretive

Networked organization and learning is considered to be reliable because better decisions result from collaborative effort.  Different perspectives offer greater knowledge than the sum of the individual parts.  The implications of networked learning are profound.  It has been argued that networked learning compared to conventional instructional models are more open and able to influence thought  outwardly and inwardly, it is more autonomous; collectively  individual goals and values become the principles and priorities rather than a top down vision,  offer more strength through diverse thought, and produce greater knowledge as a whole.  The networked view turns conventional organizational structures on their head because it draws on the strengths and interests of its members who are working toward mutually beneficial information exchange.  Networked learning will change education and organizations.

Decisional

Although the vast array of communication methods and overwhelming amount of information can seem daunting, I plan on continuing to develop my comfort level and knowledge of social media.  I see enormous potential for technological networking to solve many great challenges we face today.  Judicious use of information, properly attributed to original creators combined with reflective, critical thought offers a way to put our collective heads together and share and develop the best and brightest ideas through social media.

Technology and Trends in Education

Article # 1 - Teaching, Learning, and Sharing: How Today’s Higher Education Faculty Use Social Media

Morna, Seamna, Hester (2011) report that 80% of faculty in North America use social media in courses. Facebook and Youtube are the most highly used forms of social media for personal use amongst faculty. Over 40% of faculty has incorporated social media into assignments, and 20% have asked students to comment or post to social media sites. Video is the most popular form of media used in class. Faculty is concerned about integrity and privacy issues when students use social media but overall instructors are positive about the shift toward social media stating that: “video, podcasts and wikis are valuable tools for teaching” (Morna, Seamna, Hester, 2011, Pg. 3).

Article #2 -  How Social Media Can and Should Impact Higher Education

Blankenship (2010) cites work by Howard Rheingold suggesting that social media provides distinct benefits to students including; “greater student engagement, greater student interest, students taking more control of their education and more responsibility for their education”. Additionally Rheingold maintains that social media inspires creativity in teaching. He uses the example of Jeremy Fiebig at University of North Carolina who used the video game Second Life to simulate attending a play at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. The students also perform plays using the software, and they are encouraged to discuss course material online.

Web 2.0 example

A web 2.0 tool that is very useful in education is Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a collaborative encyclopedia with over 23 million articles. It is free and edited collaboratively by any user and there are over 100,000 active contributors. Over 365 million people use the site globally. The accuracy of the information has been questioned, but a review in 2005 by Nature, determined that the accuracy rate was similar to Encyclopedia Britannica in terms of ‘serious errors’. Britannica disagreed with the findings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia

References

Morna, Mike, Seamna, Jeff, Tinti-Kane,Hester, (2011). Teaching, Learning, and Sharing: How Today’s Higher Education Faculty Use Social Media. Retrieved 

Journal assignment #3

Journal assignment #3

Anna Rankin

Use of Twitter by Today’s Educators

Objective

This Blog reviewed the article “Twitter in Higher Education 2010: Usage Habits and Trends of Today’s College Faculty” published by Magna Publications. The article revealed that in 2010 35% of Faculty surveyed use Twitter.   Twitter has over 100 million users with 300,000 new users joining daily so it’s not surprising that it is finding its way into education as a learning tool.  Faculty report that they use it to share information with their peers, distribute real time news, and as a way to communicate with students on assignments. 

Reflective

There are differing opinions about the usefulness and effectiveness of Twitter.  Some Faculty report that it is a convenient way to keep abreast of peers’ work and to mass communicate with students while others state that Twitter limits the ability of students to converse effectively, encourages poor writing skills, and leaves little time for reflection.  Some Faculty have argued that it weakens students’ ability to develop critical thinking skills, and take and support positions.  They argue that face to face communication is much more effective for developing those skills. 

Interpretive

It is important to evaluate new social media as a potential learning tool.  Instructors should keep an open mind regarding new ways to communicate and read about tools like Twitter, experiment with them and learn about the strengths and weaknesses, then decide if it has value in the classroom. This information exchange will continue to evolve and develop and as educators we need to evaluate and experiment with these media in order to develop relevant and effective instruction. Listen to student feedback and critically evaluate the outcomes.  In certain situations Twitter would be a useful tool, but it should not be overused or used without careful consideration of the instructional objective. 

Decisional

I believe that we need to embrace the rapid explosion of social media like Twitter.  It is obviously a great way to get information out to a large group and it’s also useful to pass information from the original source to students.  In my work as sustainability advisor on campus I would consider using Twitter as a way to raise awareness of issues and events.

http://www.emergingedtech.com/2010/10/more-than-a-third-of-higher-education-faculty-are-on-twitter/

Journal Assignment #2

Journal assignment #2

Anna Rankin

Building on the Social Layer

http://www.ted.com/pages/talk_usage_policy

Journal Assignment #1

Journal Entry #1  Social Media

Objective

Social media is transforming how we interact. We’ve gone from the phone (one to one) and t.v. (one to many), to the internet (many to many).  What matters in this transformation isn’t technical capital but social capital.  Our expressive capability is bigger than it’s ever been.  It has a huge impact on our society functions.

Reflective

I’ve observed that the i-phone has transformed my life in the past year.  My teenagers got cell phones, then my husband and much later, myself.  Now I’m as addicted and connected as my kids. I check stocks, play scrabble, text constantly and read the paper.  I upload photos and stay in touch with my family even though one is in Quesnel, one is in Victoria and one is in Switzerland and I’m in Kelowna!  It is indeed a transformational time.

Interpretive

Social media is changing the way we live.  It will affect our institutions, our democracy and our governments.  It may make the world fairer, but it could make it more chaotic.  What is most interesting is that social media is connecting us in powerful ways.  We can effect change through use of technology if enough people are of the same mindset.  The young people will not know that in the past, our opinions did not have so much weight.  Now, photos, chat groups, and spontaneous congregations on webpages have the power to strongly influence decision makers and outcomes. 

Decisional

It is important to participate in this revolution.  It’s critical to monitor the changes as parents, teachers and as citizens and think critically about implications involving safety, truth and change.  It’s an exciting time and the results could be dramatic.  We will only see the changes accelerate. 

Bowron Lakes 2012