Social media: Why bother?

T.MacKinnonPrincipal Teaching Fellow

Language Centre

experiments

• Personal twitter and fb accounts• Lurking and looking• Finding relevant blogs and networks• Engaging with issues• Decisions: Professional/personalChannels of communication

Four steps to improving your online presenceDo youhave anonline

presence?

Do youknow where it is coming from?

Have youGoogledyourselfrecently?

Have youchecked allyour onlineprofiles areup to date?

Fantastic!You monitorandmaintainyour onlinepresenceStart

assessingyour onlinepresenceand decidewhat youwant

Are yousure?

You andeveryoneyou knowcannot have been online, ever!

Look at yourprofiles and online identities

Communicateand connect: Blog, tweet andcomment

Share your

outputs

YES YES YES

NO

What more can

I do?

Step 1:Search for

yourself & checkyour impact

Step 2:Keep all profiles

up to date

Step 3:Self archive andshare what you

can

Step 4:Connect &

interact online

NO

NO

YES

NO

NO

adapted from http://openuct.uct.ac.za/article/academics-online-presence-guidelines

Growing presence

• Blog nextsteps• Twitter @warwicklanguage• Curation: scoop.it #cmc speaktothefuture• Video tutorials warwicklanguage youtube• Website La modification• Sharing presentations: slideshare• Online publishing channels: issu scribd

Unexpected outcomes

• Social media channel management for UCML• #globalclassroom mentoring• Regular participation and moderation of

international twitter chats• Development of research into virtual

exchanges and online intercultural interaction #oie

• Professional development: HEA and CLL

Significant learning

• Look carefully, lurk, check out authenticity of sources

• Experiment, take care with password management

• Authenticity of voice• Commit to community• Be prepared to share and connect