A post from Cristina Costa on “How I manage to keep active in so many networks” was one I read at the weekend that stopped me in my tracks and made me think “that’s it, that’s what I meant to say!”
But what was the question? Simple … when someone questions your activity on blogs, Twitter, Google+, etc., how do you respond?
“It’s actually really valuable to me, and it is only a reflection of how it has progressed. It was not always like that … it rather evolved to become what it is today!”
Cristina notes that it’s about the journey from nowhere to here, it’a about changing the way we work to get the most and best out of what is available. Whether it’s online, in the office, in the queue for a cuppa in the morning, in a meeting, etc. It’s all about making sure you have access tot the best of what’s on offer.
“[It's] important to remember that working and participating online requires you to change the way you work… or at least, to acknowledge that the way you work is not the way your mother imagines you work. Working from 9 to 5 in academia is just unrealistic. Concentrating for long periods of time just doesn’t work for me.” [emphasis is mine]
Yes. We haven’t always been online tweeting and ‘liking’ what we read or post. Continued…
Posted in eLearning, Social Network.
Tagged with Active Learner, Facebook, Google, Learning Technology, Personal Learning, PLE, PLN, Social Evolution, Social Learning, Social Media, Social Network, Twitter.
By David Hopkins
– June 17, 2013
Using social media is easy. Using social media wisely is not quite so easy. Using social media safely is harder still.
Being safe online is, or should be, easy. Being safe with what you share, and with how, is different on each network or platform or device, and requires time and effort to know and understand the subtleties of the settings for each of your accounts.
Take a look at this infographic on how burglars are using social media to find and exploit you:
How Burglars Are Using Social Media (Infographic)
This is more than just a information on how to protect yourself against theft-type infographic. Continued…
Posted in Social Network.
Tagged with Digital Footprint, Facebook, Google, Google Maps, Infographic, Metadata, Safety, Social Evolution, Social Media, Social Network, Twitter.
By David Hopkins
– June 14, 2013
This is an excellent post from Inge Ignatia de Waard on the impact of mobile access on learner interactions in a MOOC as part of her progress towards a PhD. I’ve added her slide deck below for you as this has some excellent findings and figures.
I am also (still) reading Inge’s book ‘MOOC Yourself‘ and hope to have a report/review of it posted up soon, but the short bio can be read here.
Posted in MOOC.
Tagged with cMOOC, Conference, Inge Ignatia de Waard, MOOC, SlideShare, xMOOC.
By David Hopkins
– June 13, 2013
Lewis, B. and Rush, D. 2013. Experience of developing Twitter-based communities of practice in higher education. In Research in Learning Technology 2013, 21: 18598 – http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v21i0.18598
“This article presents the results of a case study of the use of a microblogging tool by a university academic to increase their knowledge and experience of social media for educational purposes. The academic had the role of digital steward in a university and attempted to use microblogging (Twitter) to increase professional contacts within the framework of a community of practice. Several types of data were collected and analysed. These included the structure of the network arising from the links formed with others by microblogging, the similarity of stated interests between the academic and others in the network, and the contents of postings such as their external references. It was found that a personal network had been established, with some of the characteristics of a community of practice. The activity demonstrated the utility of social media in supporting the professional development of academic staff using technology.”
Posted in Research, Twitter.
Tagged with Academia, ALT, Blogging, Communication, Community, eJournal, Microblogging, Research, Twitter, University.
By David Hopkins
– June 12, 2013
Announced this week, the ETNA (Enhanced Training Needs Analysis) 2012 survey has found that “nearly three quarters of academics in further education agree that social media tools enhance the quality of the learning experience.”
The JISC news release – “Survey shows that social media has graduated to academia” – continues by saying that “YouTube is by far the most popular tool, while Facebook and particularly Twitter, lag well behind. However, the survey also identifies a strong need for staff training in the use of social media.”
Of those surveyed:
- Academic staff seemed most in favour of social media: 70% agreed that its use enhances the quality of the learning experience and 69% agreed that students were at ease using it.
- Some academic staff felt that social media is a distraction to learning.
- Around half of all middle managers said their department uses social media tools for learning and teaching.
- Fewer than 10% of staff, in any category, had received training in social media.
- More than a third of staff identified a need for staff training.
Celeste McLaughlin, advis0r: staff development at JISC RSC Scotland said: “It’s clear from the survey that social media is now here to stay in colleges as learning tools. They offer a familiar environment for students and, at the same time, teaching staff clearly like them. In particular, the ability to share videos online has made YouTube a clear favourite. But training is patchy, so JISC RSC Scotland aims to help college staff improve their social media skills.”
Here is a link to the 2012 ETNA survey: “Growth and Development – an analysis of skills and attitudes to technology in Scottish further education”
What I’ve got from the report so far is, as always, a careful and appropriate use of social media (or technology) can enhance (not necessarily improve) the “learning experience”. So, read the report, absorb it, take from it what you will; some will matter, some won’t. But keep an open mind and see what can ‘enhance’ your learning materials or assessment strategy.
Image source: Kings Hedges by Kevin Steinhardt (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Posted in Research.
Tagged with Academia, Academia 2.0, eResearch, JISC, Research, Social Learning, Social Media, Social Network.
By David Hopkins
– June 8, 2013
Are there rules to using and working in / with Social Media? Well, you could argue there are no ‘rules’ as such just guidelines on the kind of things that are ‘good’ or ‘bad’, or that are ‘acceptable’ or ‘unacceptable’. Indeed, there are clearly things you can do on social networks that will come back and haunt you at some point … but rules?
Well, this infographic thinks so, and there are 36 of them. You may need to re-word a few of them so they’re more personal to you rather than a business or brand, but you’ll get the picture:
The 36 Rules of Social Media
Do you agree with them, do you have any you’d add or change, even remove?
Posted in eLearning, Social Network.
Tagged with Infographic, Social Learning, Social Media, Social Network.
By David Hopkins
– June 7, 2013
Emily Moore has written this great introduction in the Faculty Focus: online magazine: “From Passive Viewing to Active Learning: Simple Techniques for Applying Active Learning Strategies to Online Course Videos”. Please read the original as it covers more in depth use of video, but my highlights of the piece are below.
Video as a guided lesson (flipping the classroom?): “The goal here is to help ensure that students watch videos actively—in other words, giving it their full attention. You also want to help draw students’ attention to (and reinforce) the most important concepts being presented.”
- Pose a question at the beginning of each video to give students an idea before they watch of what to expect, what to look for, and what might be worth thinking about.
- Present videos in an outline-like structure using concise, descriptively labeled links that include running times as shown below.
- Embed short graded or self-assessments either in the video itself, or at the end of each video.
Video as springboard for in-depth discussion: Continued…
Posted in eLearning, Video.
Tagged with Active Learner, Activities, Critical Thinking, Discussion, Faculty Focus, Flipped Classroom, Social Learning, Video, Vimeo, YouTube.
By David Hopkins
– June 5, 2013
Regular readers will know I’ve been writing about what I think it is to be a Learning Technologist in a series of posts I’ve been calling ‘What is a Learning Technologist?’. Welcome to part 10 in that series.
Part of my journey is the continuing exploration of the technology and of the role itself, and how it is received and perceived by people I come into contact with (academic, administrative, etc.). I made it clear in 2011, once I completed my PG Cert course, that I wanted to take my learning and teaching more seriously and gain a qualification that would reflect my abilities.
I have considered several Masters level courses since then but have finally settled on the MSc in Learning Innovation from the Institute of Learning Innovation here, at the University of Leicester.
Continued…
Posted in eLearning.
Tagged with Blended Learning, Digital Learning, Distance Learning, eLearning, Learning Process, Learning Technologist, Learning Technology, MScLI, Online Course, Pedagogy, Personal Learning, PLN, University of Leicester.
By David Hopkins
– June 4, 2013
From my weekly email digest from Academia.edu I was made aware of the following paper by Nick Sturkenboom, Ehsan Baha, Yuan Lu, and Gabriele Tempesta: “Using Social Media for Asynchronous Collaboration within Collaborative Networks”.
“Societal challenges of today (e.g. aging) are complex and often require systemic solutions to be addressed. To address these challenges, various expertise and knowledge are required; in this sense, collaborative network projects have a lot of potential in offering a systemic solution. Design workshops (synchronous collaboration) are often used to achieve progress in such projects. In this paper we introduce asynchronous collaboration, which can occur anytime, anywhere through the use of social media. We have probed Instagram as a ‘ready-made’ social media platform within two collaborative network project case studies. This was done to experiment with asynchronous collaboration and knowledge sharing in addition to design workshops. Both cases were evaluated through focus groups that indicated how social media has the potential to enable actors to cross-field boundaries, inspire each other, and in this way enrich the design process within asynchronous collaboration. Our contribution with this work is two-fold: on the one hand, we aim to inspire and show how collaborative network projects can benefit from asynchronous collaboration in addition to synchronous collaboration. On the other hand, we hope to contribute to the creation of specific social media platforms as tools for supporting asynchronous collaboration within collaborative networks.”
What piqued my interest here was the use of an established (if you can call a social network that’s been around for only 2 years ‘established’) social network from which to run and maintain asynchronous collaboration. Continued…
Posted in eLearning.
Tagged with Digital Learning, Distance Learning, eLearning, Instagram, Learning Process, Social Learning, Social Media, Social Network.
By David Hopkins
– May 31, 2013
Last week I was interviewed by Zak Mensah (@zakmensah) on the subject of eBooks, QR Codes, and the wider subject and community of Learning Technology.
Listen to Zak’s recording on his website or the embedded audio Soundcloud below:
Show notes:
Posted in eBook, QR Codes.
Tagged with Audio, eBook, eBooks, Education Technology, eLearning, Learning Technologist, Learning Technology, Podcast, QR Code, Soundcloud, Zak Mensah.
By David Hopkins
– May 29, 2013