ENERGIZE TEACHING WITH

Dr. Gerald R. Lucas • @drgrlucas

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TAKE OUT YOUR PHONES

•@drgrlucas

• #LucasTalk

• http://grlucas.net/

• http://grlucas.net/bainbridge/

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TEACHING & SOCIAL MEDIA

•Questions

•What?

•Why?

• How.

• Looking Forward

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QUESTIONS

•What is “social media”?

•Why is social media relevant to education? (Or, why should educators use social media?)

•What are the implications of social media for the college classroom?

•What are strong ways to use social media in the classroom?

• How is social media changing higher education and academia?

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WHAT IS “SOCIAL MEDIA”?5

“There are three hallmarks of social  media: Evolution, Revolution and Contribution. First, it is an evolution of how we communicate, replacing email in many cases. It’s a revolution: For the first time in history we have access to free, instantaneous, global communication. [. . .] Third, social media are distinguished by the ability of everybody to share and contribute as a publisher.”

—Mark W. Schaefer,author of The Tao of Twitter

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ISN’T ALL MEDIA, BY DEFINITION, “SOCIAL”?

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OLD MEDIA

• Professional

• Centralized

•One-way Flow

• Hierarchical

•Non-responsive

• Commodifying

• Amateur

•Decentralized

•Multi-directional

• Playful & Unpredictable

• Participatory

• Community-driven

NEW MEDIA

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EVOLUTION

•Web 2.0 - “lean forward” (1999)

• Contribution

• Browsing

• Apps - “sit back” (2007)

• Getting

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SOCIAL MEDIA APPS• 72% of online adults use social media platforms (up from 66%

in 2010)

• 66% of these use social media for keeping in touch

• 14% use social media for a hobby or common interest

• 9% make new friends and comment

• 5% want romantic relationships

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MOBILE TECHNOLOGY• 91% of all American adults own a cell phone

• 74% of students have an Internet-connected computer

• 93% of students go online

• “College students are much more likely than the overall cell owner population to use the internet on their mobile phones, although all young adults do this at a relatively high rate regardless of student status.”

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“SOCIAL MEDIA”

+

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“SOCIAL MEDIA” TODAY

• Enhances the speed and breadth of information dissemination

• Is freely accessible and usable

• Is easily accessible, usually by several means, like Web and app (device indifferent)

• Encourages many levels of userengagement: like content, dialog,and governance

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WHY “SOCIAL MEDIA”?14

• Redefines our relationship to “media”

• Connects to something “real”

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“The students get more engaged because they feel it is connected to something real, that it’s not just learning for the sake of learning. . . It feels authentic to them.”

—Christine Greenhow,“Twitteracy: Tweeting as a

New Literary Practice”

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“Groups of children can teach themselves almost anything. You take children and put them into groups of four or five and then you ask a big question. The internet is full of answers, but you must ask the questions that turn on the mind…when they find the big answers they believe in themselves, and they believe in the world around them.”

—Sugata Mitra,“We Need Schools... Not

Factories”

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SOCIAL MEDIA• Redefines our relationship

to “media”

• Connects to something “real”

•Develops digital literacies

• Allows for “response”

• Builds community and collaboration

• Promotes amateur culture and creativity

• Challenges educational paradigms

• Low cost (FREE!)

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USING “SOCIAL MEDIA”19

CLASSROOM IN THE CLOUD

• BYOD

• 1:1 Technology

• “Take out your phones”

• Faculty as guide

• Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, Blogs, Wikis

Sugata MitraTED Prize Winner 2013

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NORMAN MAILER’S “AMERICA”

• Blog

•Disqus

• Twitter

• Skype #MailerClass

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BLOGA place to begin.

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BLOG• Is easy and free

•Delivers course information

• Acts as a starting point

• Contains assignments

• Saves paper

• Allows easy updates and communication

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DISQUSComment and discuss.

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DISQUS• Acts as a forum/discussion

for web sites

• Is easy to set up and free

• Allows social media logins

• Provides threaded discussions

• Encourages feedback

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TWITTERWhat’s happening now.

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SAMPLE TWITTER ASSIGNMENTS & USES

• Lecture / Presentation / Video Liveblog

• Lecture / Discussion Summary

• Research Topic

• Annotate a Text

• Comment or Discuss

• Replace Email

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“THICK” TWEETS

Encode as many layers of information in a single Tweet as possible.

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SKYPEBring in the experts.

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USING SKYPE

• Requires a camera and mic

• Requires a good network connection on both ends

• Available for many devices

• Use of a projector recommended

• FaceTime a good alternative

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“My favorite activity was definitely the three times that we had the opportunity to Skype with the Mailer experts [. . . ]. Their collective first-hand knowledge of [. . .] Norman Mailer proved to be priceless learning information in the classroom. Not only are opportunities like this seldom in the classroom, but all of the experts were so easy to communicate with and learn from.”

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“The Skype interviews were outstanding. I could not believe the questions we were able to ask from people who knew Norman Mailer the best. It drew me closer to the artist as a person and helped me appreciate his work on a different level.”

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LOOKING FORWARD33

FACULTY DEVELOPMENT

• Google+ Groups

• LinkedIn for Networking

• #Education

• #EdTech

• #HigherEd

• #EdChat

• #ELearning

• #EDU

• #Teaching

• #Learn

• #ESL

• #1st5Days

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INSTITUTIONAL CONCERNS

• Social Media Policies

• FERPA

• Fair Use

• Branding

• Accessibility for the disabled

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CAVEATS

•Distractions

• Relinquishing control

•Open to anyone

• Public

• Support

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BEST PRACTICES• Follow school policies

• Think before you tweet — use a pro account

•Define Goals

• Set hashtags

•Determine accessibility (1:1 Tech necessary?)

• Use It!

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QUESTIONS?Disqus: http://grlucas.net/bainbridge/ • @drgrlucas

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