Some reflections on using social media for learning, teaching and professional identity, as delivered to a CLL workshop in May 2014

1. Using social media for learning,
teaching and professional identity
Helen Beetham, May 2014
bit.ly/DLsocialmedia

2. Which social media...
 ... do you use regularly?
 ... do you know about and
wish you used (better)?
image downloaded under CC licence from patojv.deviantart.com

3.  social networking sites e.g. Facebook, Google+
 professional networking sites e.g. LinkedIn, academia
 blogs e.g. wordpress sites | microblogs i.e. twitter
 content sharing sites e.g. youtube, slideshare, prezi, flickr,
instagram, community repositories
 news/link sharing sites e.g. pinterest, paper.li, quora,
pearltrees, storify
 reference/link sharing / social bookmarking services e.g.
zotero, delicious
 specialist networks e.g. tripadvisor, mums.net
 virtual worlds and gaming worlds e.g. geocities, world of
warcraft
 email discussion lists? ... (boundaries are blurred)
Social media include...

4.  personal AND/OR scholarly AND/OR professional (are you
an integrator or a segregator??)
 identity / reputation as well as community / connection
 very varied in focus, rules and norms,
community, scope, preferred media...
 increasingly important to building
social, academic and professional capital
(but this varies by profession/subject area)
Social media are...
73% of employers currently use online
social networks or social media to
support their recruiting efforts.
‘caring, climbing and
campaigning’
DiMicco et al 2008

5.  a success story
 a horror story
image downloaded under CC licence from openclipart.org/user-detail/portablejim
Thinking about how you
use social media, share...

6.  what are the opportunities?
 what are the risks?
Thinking about how we all
use social media...

7.  This is an activity in pairs that you can also try with
students
 At least one of you will need access to a digital device
(smartphone, laptop, netbook etc)
 If you are using your own device, do not log into any
social networks (e.g. Facebook)
 Find out what you can about each other using only
material that is publicly available online
 You can guide each other to relevant sites but don’t give
away information you can’t see online
 Do not sign in to social networks (private material will be
visible)
Auditing your own
digital reputation

8.  Reflections
 How much of what is visible online is under your control?
 What could you find that surprised you? What couldn’t
you find (easily) that surprised you?
 How would you like to appear online?
 What could you do to create a more positive digital
identity?
Auditing your own
digital reputation

9. Creating a positive digital
identity
 Tips and tricks
 Always protect the privacy of your personal information
 Integrate and cross-reference your public brand
 Use one public profile and update / propagate it regularly
e.g. about me, blog, employers’ profile, prof network
 Layer information: broadcast headlines, let people find
the detail if they are interested
 Use tagging to create or join a story
 Limit the time you spend on personal ‘branding’ - make it
intrinsic to what you do and interesting to you
 When new to a network, LARC (Lurk and learn, Ask, Re-
tweet -view -post, Collate and comment)

10.  These slides showed examples of individual professional
profiles and networking activities which have been
removed
 Instead, find someone in your field who has a successful
online profile and see how many networks they use, and
how well integrated you find their use of digital media and
branding.
Examples

11.  What three things will you do now to enhance your
professional profile?
 How will you know whether you have been successful?
 Further resources: bit.ly/DLsocialmedia
Reflections

12.  How are social media changing academic practices
generally and in your subject areas?
Social media and practices
of learning and teaching

13.  What are the opportunities and risks of using social
media for learning and for teaching?
Social media and practices
of learning and teaching

14.  Students develop their own public professional identity
 Practice communicating in a public space (feedback,
critique, motivation)
 Practice working across personal/professional, public/
private boundaries
 Genuine contribution to the discourse of the subject
 Get authentic feedback from beyond teaching team
 Leave positive digital traces for revision, review,
showcasing, self-belief
 Work in a reasonably familiar setting (social media)
 ...
Opportunities

15.  Legal infringement (copyright, consent, privacy...)
 Cultural infringement (university regulations, policing of
public/private boundaries...)
 Reputation - staff and students
 May be pushing students out of their comfort zone
(walled garden)
 May be harder to monitor, assess, review student
progress than in closed environments?
 Staff may fear students more proficient than they are?
 ...
Risks

16.  Break out of the walled garden:
 students contribute to original research or data sharing
projects, edit academic wikis and blogs, share learning
materials, showcase creative work online
 Digital identity work:
 focus on building a professional profile e.g. through
LinkedIn, twitter, or subject network
 or focus on reflection and personal development e.g.
through a blog or e-portfolio
 Amplify learning support:
 encourage students to use existing social media
accounts - or open new ones - to share ideas, links,
references, resources and encouragement or to
collaborate on projects and outcomes
Designing social media
into the curriculum

17.  In pairs/small groups
 Discuss what you already do with students that could be
done (better) with the use of a social medium or network
 Design a learning activity that you could use with
students tomorrow
 Consider: learning outcomes; access; setting up the
activity (solo, pairs, groups?); supporting the activity;
assessing the activity; possible problems and solutions
Designing social media
into the curriculum

18. Conclusion
What will you take away?
bit.ly/DLsocial media