Social+Media

Activity 5- Week 3- Social Media

 * == What is the "back story" on social media?  ==


 * There are a number of sub-sections within this introduction to social media, that include:**
 * What is a social network?
 * Classification of social media
 * How can social media be used in education?
 * What may faculty wish to consider when exploring social media use in courses?


 * Social media is a very rich and complex topic. Keep in mind the following goals as you explore this section:**
 * Experience a few social media tools with which you are unfamiliar.
 * Identify variations in the ways that different social media tools engage interactions.
 * Identify ways that various social media tools are in use, for teaching and learning, while reflecting on their potential in your own courses, projects, and research.

Discovery Resources
**What is a social network?** A social network is an online community where people share information about themselves on their profi le page, with the goal of connecting people to each other in the real and virtual world (e.g., friends, family, colleagues, or people who share common interests or activities).

In social networks, people interact using built-in communication, using tool-specific status updates, posts, chat, and instant messaging. Increasingly, social networks are being used by teachers and students. View this infographic that shows some demographics of the current state of social networks.

Watch this Common Craft video to get an overview of social networking. Think of social networking as a community where we can **LEARN**, **GROW** and **CREATE** together. Try substituting "find jobs, meet new friends and find partners" with "explore ideas, build understandings, and share resources." Then, explore these additional Common Craft videos about a few specific social media resources.

Scan this extensive list of social networking websites ; their focus range from books (e.g., LibraryThing, CompletelyNovel.com) and music (e.g., Last.fm), to non-profit businesses and motherhood, as ways to provide both services and community to individuals with shared interests.

**How does social media connect social networks?** Social media is made up of a large, diverse pool of cloud-based tools connecting social networks. Underlying each tool is the idea of community...the knowledge/information is yours AND it is influenced and capitalized on by others in the community. Virtually all of the tools require membership. What this means is that you typically cannot search the community’s information without joining. Some communities allow levels of sharing (e.g., FaceBook), whereas others have limited ways to restrict sharing to individuals or groups (e.g., Pinterest).

Many tools referenced in other sections of the TOEP experience have underlying social media roots. For example, in Diigo, you may choose to just bookmark your own resources; but you may also share your resources with individuals or groups. This applies to most of the tools categories on the site, from image storage and sharing (e.g., through PhotoBucket), to * (fill in another category here).

**Classification of social media** Social media technologies take on different forms, including magazines, Internet forums, weblogs , social blogs , microblogging , wikis , social networks , podcasts , photographs or pictures, video, rating, and social bookmarking. Kietzmann et al. present a Social Media Honeycomb that defines how these Social Media differ according to the extent to which they focus on some of all of seven functional building blocks: identity, conversations, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation, and groups. By applying a set of theories in the field of media research (social presence, media richness) and social processes (self-presentation, self-disclosure) Kaplan and Haenlein created a classification scheme in their Business Horizons (2010) article, with six different types of social media: collaborative projects (for example, Wikipedia), blogs and microblogs (for example, Twitter), content communities (for example, YouTube ), social networking sites (for example, Facebook), virtual game worlds (e.g., World of Warcraft ), and virtual social worlds (e.g., Second Life ). Technologies include: blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging , music-sharing, crowdsourcing , and [|voice over IP] , to name a few. Many of these social media services can be integrated via social network aggregation platforms. Social media network websites include sites like Flickr, Facebook , Twitter , [|Bebo] , and MySpace. (Source: Wikipedia )

**How can social media be used in education?** Social media may help instructors reach out beyond classrooms' brick and mortar - or even virtual - walls, to enhance engagement, expand participation opportunities, and to increase authenticity of learning experiences. As reported by eSchool News, Lesley Reily in an edWeb.net webinar reported that '...social media can help connect course participants to more people, invites input from experts, helps to increase and facilitate collaboration, facilitates sharing among participants across distance and time, and is more accessible on mobile devices...By integrating social media, you can connect those students to even more people in the whole world, who might share those same interests.' Further, intentional embedding of social media "detective work" for course purposes may help extend students' use of tools beyond strictly non-academic purpose. Finally, for students who have embraced social media in their lives, factoring the tools into courses may have an additional positive 'ripple effect' of enhanced engagement.

> Check out these additional resources to get a sense of how educators are using social media: This section would not be complete without a discussion about interactions between instructors and students. When using social media for instructional purposes, instructors must make informed decisions about their use. When thinking about using social media faculty, should consider the following: Solutions reported in the popular literature include: The following resources may help you think about using social media in your teaching. Although these resources address issues relating to Facebook, the principles are relevant to other social media tools. Following on Twitter is like friending on Facebook. On Pinterest, until recently, all boards had 100% public visibility, until they created limited "secret" boards for users. Thus, access and identity are pervasive issues across tools. >
 * Following are just a few examples the relevance of social media in instruction:**
 * Using - and even combining - platforms may empower faculty and students to exchange and organize resources of all types. " Crowdsourcing " of resource identification invests student contribution to a course's knowledge base, while also giving them practice in honing their skills to screen for credible sources.
 * Decreasing dependency on the instructor - and increasing student leadership - is often an instructional goal. Embracing social media to expand students' PLNs (Personal Learning Networks) speaks to this commitment, especially when instructors can embed opportunities for students to infuse resources from potentially global contacts into course learning.
 * Twitter (and other tools) may be used to encourage and capture backchannel conversations inside and outside of face-to-face meetings. When using a custom hashtag, students, faculty, and others can follow, join discussions, and connect with course members and others. Following discipline- or interest-specific hashtags at times scheduled by these virtual "groups" makes "online conversing" a reality and can easily connect instructors and students to individuals who are exploring similar challenges and engaging in relevant innovation. (Reprinted with permission from: K. Gradel, "Social Media...Call Me?" Presentation, Chautauqua County Reading Council, November, 2012.)
 * Social media for schools: a guide to Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest
 * 25 Ways Teachers Can Integrate Social Media Into Education
 * 100 Ways to Use Twitter in Education, By Order of Difficulty
 * Pinterest site about Social Media Resources for Educators
 * What may faculty wish to consider when exploring social media in courses? **
 * Is this the best alternative to accomplish the instructional task?
 * Is there another tool that would work, and potentially have additional positive effects?
 * Are students well-versed in this platform, and thus may benefit from learning another tool?
 * Are there privacy settings that allow users to "lock down" communication to various groups/individuals for various purposes?
 * Are there costs associated with different levels of privacy and marketing?
 * Is the tool likely to be acceptable and used in communication/work after the student graduates?
 * Using different identities, i.e., employing a user name/ID for personal use and a different identity more professional functions.
 * Using tools that do not require friending, etc., but instead involve sharing links to predetermined audiences.
 * Using tools that "mimic” social media functions for instructional purposes or products, e.g., Fake Tweet Builder or Fakebook.
 * 1) Teacher's Guide to Facebook
 * 2) Faculty Ethics on Facebook – The Collaborative Project
 * 3) For Professors, 'Friending' Can Be Fraught

Discovery Exercise
The following discovery exercise is designed to make the most out of your introductory experience with social media. Follow these steps: Follow these sub-steps to guide your exploration about the social media network you selected. Then return to the steps above, to ensure that you have “capped” off your experience by posting a reflection to your blog.
 * 1) Select one of the social network communities listed below, choosing the tool that is most suited to your interests, and which has potential suitability for your courses. We are asking you to choose from a small set of tools (Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest), selecting a tool with which you are not yet familiar. NOTE: If you are already comfortable with all three, choose a tool from this list of social networking websites.
 * 2) Once you determine which of the social networking communities you would like to join, sign up for an account, create your profile, and complete the steps below that are specific to the tool. Each tool guides you to introductory activities, as well as exploration strategies.
 * 3) After you explore, create a blog post documenting your experience. How could you use this tool for your own research or in the courses that you teach?

> **If you choose Facebook ** > Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study, and live around them. Facebook is one of the most popular social networking communities. To become familiar with Facebook in education, please explore one or more of the following resources: > **If you choose Twitter ** Twitter is often used to follow friends, experts, celebrities, groups, and breaking news. Posts made to this social networking utility are referred to as "Tweets." To get introduced, choose one or more of the following to explore: > **If you choose Pinterest ** Pinterest is a content sharing service that allows members to "pin" images, videos, websites, and other objects to their pinboard. To get acquainted, explore either or both of the following resources:
 * Watch Common Craft’s introduction to Facebook
 * Create an account (if you don't already have one).
 * 1) Log in and explore the user interface.
 * 2) Set up your profile; ensure that you carefully review privacy settings, to match your preferences.
 * 3) Find and invite friends, colleagues, and discipline-specific contacts and organizations.
 * 4) Post a status update.
 * 5) Exchange messages (private and public).
 * 6) Upload photos, photo albums, or anything else that you feel is important.
 * [|Take a] tour of Twitter
 * Watch Common Craft’s video about Twitter
 * 1) The Five-Minute Film Festival: Twitter in Education has a series of short videos with lots of good info about how to best use Twitter in education.
 * 2) Sign up for an account,
 * 3) Familiarize yourself with Twitter and observe how others are using it.
 * 4) Post a status.
 * 5) Find some friends/colleagues to follow.
 * 6) Find famous people - or people in your discipline/field - to follow.
 * 7) Send a direct message
 * Take a tour of Pinterest.
 * Check out this list of the Most Popular Pinterest Pages In Higher Education.
 * 1) Sign up for an account.
 * 2) Log in and begin explore, to get a general overview of what Pinterest does.
 * 3) Create a board on Pinterest.
 * 4) Pin an item to your board.
 * 5) Re-pin an item to your board.
 * 6) Comment on a pin.
 * 7) Mention a pin to another Pinterest user.

What Does the Research Say?
Dabbagh, N., & Kitsantas, A. (2012). Personal learning environments, social media, and self-regulated learning: A natural formula for connecting formal and informal learning. //Internet & Higher Education, 15//(1), 3-8. doi: 10.1016/j.iheduc.2011.06.002

Ghosh, K., Chawla, S., & Mallott, K. (2012). Use of social media by U.S. Colleges: Potential and pitfalls. //Journal of Higher Education Theory & Practice, 12//(2), 105-118.

Johnson, J., & Maddox, J. (2012). Use of social media in graduate education: An exploratory review for breaking mew ground. //Journal of Higher Education Theory & Practice, 12//(3), 87-93.

Joosten, T. (2012). Social Media for Educators [electronic resource] : Strategies and Best Practices. John Wiley & Sons.

Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, 53(1), 59–68.

Kietzmann, J. H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I. P., & Silvestre, B. S. (2011). Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Business Horizons, 54(3), 241–251.

Kop, R. (2012). The unexpected connection: Serendipity and human mediation in networked learning. //Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 15//(2), 2-11.

Leece, R., & Campbell, E. (2011). Engaging students through social media. //Journal of the Australian & New Zealand Student Services Association, 38//,10-14.

Moran, M, Seaman, J, Tinti-Kane, H. (2012). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Facebook: How Today’s Higher Education Faculty Use Social Media. Pearson Learning Solutions and Babson Survey Research Group.

Smith, S. (2012). Thinking outside Facebook. //EContent, 35//(7), 13-13.

Troutner, J. (2012). Cool tools, social media, and curriculum. //Teacher Librarian,// 39(4), 48-50. ||