E-Learning ForumSocial Media in Learning and Teaching

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The Twitter hashtag for this forum is #ELF0312

What do we mean by ‘social media’?

• Encompasses:• Social networking• Social video and photo• Social bookmarking• Social news & blogs• Wikis

• Web-based

• Interactive

• Creation & exchange of user-generated content

Usage figures

As of 31st December 2011, Facebook had 845 million active users1

On average there are 250 million tweets sent per day2

There are over 4 billion YouTube video views per day3

By the end of 2011, there were 181 million blogs in existence, up from 36 million only five years earlier4

How can social media relate to learning and teaching?

• As usage grows, social media is becoming an intrinsic part of a daily routine

• Part of the students’ personal learning environment

• “New culture of learning” (Thomas & Seely-Brown, 2011)

• “Connectivism” – emphasis on the ability to connect to “information nodes and sources” rather than an accumulation of prior knowledge (Siemens, 2004)

Wider reading

• http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/social-media-guide-researchers - Alan Cann (University of Leicester)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqfeL1GWV_U - Alan Cann (University of Leicester)

• http://www.educationarena.com/pdf/sample/sample-essay-selwyn.pdf - Dr Neil Selwyn (Institute of Education)

• http://heloukee.wordpress.com/ Helen Keegan (University of Salford)

Policy & guidelines

http://www.kent.ac.uk/cm/guidelines/socialmedia/

• Manage expectations

• Separate identities (work and personal)

• Technodeterminism – a risk?

Any questions?The Twitter hashtag for this forum is #ELF0312

elearning@kent.ac.uk

www.kent.ac.uk/elearning

[1] Securities and Exchange Commission (February 1, 2012). "S-1 Registration Statement”. Retrieved March 13, 2012.

[2] Tech Crunch (October 17, 2011). “Twitter is at 250 million tweets per day”. Retrieved March 13, 2012.

[3] YouTube Statistics (January 1, 2012). “Press Statistics”. Retrieved March 12, 2012.

[4] Incite (March 8, 2012). “Buzz in the Blogosphere”. Retrieved March 13, 2012.

Thomas, D. and Seely-Brown, J. A new culture of learning. Charleston, SC, Createspace, 2011.

Siemens, G. ‘Connectivism: a learning theory for the digital age’, 2004,