Presentation for "PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION AND TRANSLATION STUDIES" International Conference, 8TH EDITION, Timisoara, Romani, 4-5 April 2013 - http://www.cls.upt.ro/cercetare/manifestari-stiintifice/conferinte/conferences

1. USING SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS FOR ACADEMIC COMMUNICATION

2. Communicating … in 10 min
…
• Social Media landscape in HE
• The study:
– Methodology
– Summary of findings
– Discussions
• Conclusions

4. There are many definitions of Social Media, and they are evolving in time
Brian Solis (2010), “Defining Social Media: 2006 – 2010”
Kaplan&Haenlein (2010): „social media is a group of Internet-based applications that build on
the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and
exchange of User Generated Content (UGC)”.
Jane Hart(2011): „Social technologies, aka social media, are a new breed of technologies that
have emerged over the last few years and have changes the face of the Web.”
image: http://matetrack.webs.com/SOCIAL/SOCIAL.html

5. Amy Campbell (2010)
3 characteristics of social
media: the majority of
content is user generated, a
high degree of
participation/interaction
between users, and easily
integrates with other sites.
Anthony J. Bradley (2010)
6 core principles:
participation, collective,
transparency, independence,
persistence and emergence.
JESS3 Labs The Geosocial Universe 2.0
Comparison between the total amount of registered users with the
percentage of people accessing the sites via mobile
http://jess3.com/geosocial-universe-2

6. ??? … Social Media in universities
• How faculty members
use Social Media?
• Which are the potential
benefits, challenges
and disadvantages?
• How the usage can be
extended?
• Is there a need
for training the educational actors?

7. Method
- an online questionnaire
- via academic SNS
- time: February-March 2012
- 79 respondents

8. Respondents profile:
WHO ARE THEY?
AGE
36-45 years (37%)
less than 35 years (43%)
GENDER
41M (52%)
38F (48%)

9. Respondents profile:
WHAT IS THEIR ROLE IN HE?
ACADEMIC CAREERS
•professor 5%
• reader 15%
• senior lecturer 19%
• junior lecturer 14%
• researcher 5%
• professor doctorate coordinator 1%
• academic administrator 4%
• Master/PhD students 36%

10. Respondents profile:
WHAT IS THEIR ACADEMIC PROFILE?
• Exact Sciences 43%
• Social Sciences 24%
• Medicine 13%
• Humanity 12 %
• Economics 8%

11. SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE Documentation Post notes/ Not a user
% content % %
(for)
Blog (66%) 22 44 34
Miniblog (20%) 14 6 80
Microblog (46%) 19 29 52
General Social Networks (78%) 10 22
68
Professional Social Networks (76%) 28 48 24
Social Bookmarking (33%) 10 23 67
Video sharing (89%) 46 43 11
Image sharing (78%) 29 49 22
Audio/Podcasting sharing (20%) 10 10 80
Presentation sharing (61%) 22 39 39
Docs/Books sharing (88%) 32 56 12
Mindmaps (24%) 6 18 76
Screencasting (17%) 4 13 84
Livestreaming (15%) 6 9 85
Feeds Monitoring (48%) 24 24 52
Wiki (78%) 44 34 22

12. Platforms for
Communication & Collaboration & Localization
Groups (Groups.Google.com, Groups.Yahoo.com, Ning.com, Meetup.com) 71 90
Forums/Spaces for discussions (phpBB.net, Quora.com, Disqus.com) 26 33
Localization (Foursquare.com, Yelp.com, Zvents.com) 8 10
Augmented reality (Layar.com, Wikitude.com, Zooburst.com) 6 8
Virtual worlds/Social Games (Secondlife.com, Playdom.com, OpenSimulator.org) 7 9
IM (YM, GTalk, Jabber, Skype) 53 67

13. Statements related to Social Media
Not
Yes No
yet
(%) (%)
(%)
I access social media via mobile 46 27 28
I access social media via tablet / ipad 15 48 37
I evaluate the activity of my students on social media platforms 30 27 43
My institution assesses my activity on social media platforms 15 24 61
My institution encourages/supports the usage of social media by
34 30 35
teachers / students / pupils
My institution has specific policies related to social media usage 15 37 48
I became familiar with SM during a course / workshop / project 30 4 66

14. DO YOU USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR THE FOLLOWING ACTIVITIES?
Activities Yes – I have used Not yet, but I’m aware of it No
didactical activities
61% 18% 22%
research activities 58% 20% 22%
professional development
78% 11% 10%
personal development
78% 8% 14%

15. Levels of communication / collaboration:
Number Percent
I work with …
Peers from different institutions from Romania 52 66%
Collaborators in different institutions from other countries 47 59%
Colleagues / peers across my university / institution 49 62%
Peers and Doctoral and Master students of my own
department / faculty
61 77%

16. CONTEXTUAL CONDITIONS IN WHICH SCHOLARS
USE SOCIAL MEDIA
Activities Number Percent
Searching news, academic content 70 89
Dissemination of own results, articles, projects, presentations 49 62
Inquiring/research (reviewing literature, collecting/analyzing
research data)
52 66
Personal / Professional Communication / Collaboration 65 82
Networking for professional development 36 46
Building a community of practice 24 30
Building a learning community with students enrolled in formal
30 38
courses
Participating / following different scientific events (as a real time
news source)
52 66

17. ADVANTAGES
• accessibility and ease of use
• cost reduction
• flexibility, transparency and autonomy of applications
• educational „recruit ability”
• changing teachers’ attitudes
• engaging / enriching / empowering students’
interactions and participation
• collaborative characteristics
• establishing relationships and conversations
• facilitating learning
• social interactions

18. ADVANTAGES
• teaching / learning digital skills
• easily-accessible creativity
• „use of authentic study materials”
• „easy socialization”
• a modern approach of educational subjects
• feedback
• easy monitoring online presence and reputation
• collaborative participation
• using open education / open educational
resources

19. DISADVANTAGES
• content trivialisation
• security of data and persons
• online information / cognitive overload
• equality or e-quality
• difficult management of digital identity
• anonymity
• ethical concerns
• institutional norms
• time spent on social media sites
• emotional barriers
• a certain life style and/or an organisational culture
• artificial communication
• the noise
• the activity with / within social media isn’t recognised as academic

20. a social media education ??
OR social media in education ??

21. Tune your
communication!
to flicko all owners of photographs
Gabriela GROSSECK Carmen HOLOTESCU
Department of Psychology Timsoft / Politehnica
Thank West University of Timisoara University of Timisoara
Romania Romania
you !
to flicko all owners blog: grosseck.blogspot.com blog: timsoft.ro/blog
of photographs twitter: ggrosseck twitter: cami13
cirip: Gabriela cirip: cami13