Social Media Meets Learning: Transforming Pedagogies in Higher

Education

Evrim Baran, Ph.D.Assistant Professor @ Middle East Technical University

Ankara, Turkey

evrimbaran.com

Ebaran (at) metu.edu.tr

linkedin.com/in/evrimbaran

twitter.com/evrimb

diigo.com/user/evrimb

http://www.mendeley.com/evrim-baran

http://ubc.academia.edu/EvrimBaran

Digital Presence

Current State of Higher EducationCurrent State of Higher Education

Images of Teachers

Baran, E., Correia, A. P. & Thompson, A. (2011). Transforming online teaching practice: A critical analysis of the online teaching literature. Distance Education, 32(3), 421-439.

Critical review…

Tracing successful online teaching in higher education

• Baran, E., Correia, A. P. & Thompson, A. (In press). Tracing successful online teaching in higher education: Voices of exemplary online teachers. Teachers College Record.

Traditional teacher-directed pedagogies still dominate higher education learning

environments

Discrepancy between educational settings and everyday life

• Analog to digital• Tethered to mobile• Isolated to connected• Generic to personal• Consumers to creators• Closed to open

(Wiley and Hilton, 2009)

Learning

Management Systems

BUT!!!

How do our current educational practices with LMSes serve the needs of highly engaged, active, social and networked learners?

“[W]e have designed and used LMSs ... to manage the flow of students through traditional, semester-based courses more efficiently than ever before. The LMS has done exactly what we hired it to do: it has reinforced, facilitated, and perpetuated the traditional

classroom model.”

Jon Mott, Post LMS Manifesto

How About Teacher’s Creativity?

Social media “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.”

Image from: http://www.isteconnects.org/otherpics/socialmedia1.jpg

Definition from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media

The Ubiquity of Social Media

Social Media in Education

Background• Connectivism (Siemens, 2005; Downes, 2008),• Social networking (Boyd & Ellison, 2007), • New media literacies and participatory culture

(Jenkins et al., 2006; Richardson, 2008), • Creative commons, Web 2.0 and social

collaboration environments, learning Space Mashups (Lamb, 2007; Wheeler, 2009),

• Dj culture, edupunks, open educational resources and open access (Yuan, MacNeil & Kraan, 2008).

• Low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement

• Strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations with others

• Some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices

• Members believe that their contributions matter• Members feel some degree of social connection

with one another.

What is participatory culture?

• Connectivism• Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.

• Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.

• Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.

• Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.

• Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.

Connectivism, A Theory of Personal Learning

What Does Social Media Offer for Education?

• Self-expression• Sharing enthusiasm,

common interests• Access to experts• Connectedness• Anytime anywhere learning• Build and share skills• Reach people around the

world• Participate in the

communities of learning

• Creating a course community with a course

hash tag• Sharing resources

• Communicating with outside experts

• Backchannel conversation with remote guest speakers

• Communicating course requirements and

reminders

• Online course discussions• Reflections on social media

topics• Critical reviews of the course

concepts

•Online course discussions•Reflections on social media topics•Critical reviews of the course concepts

•Course content hub•Editing pages collaboratively•Contributing to the course content on social media•Sharing class daily activities•Sharing course schedule•Sharing course projects and presentations

Course Platforms

http://socialmedialearning.edublogs.org/

Course Blog Course Wiki

http://socialmedialearning.pbworks.com/

Social Bookmarking

http://groups.diigo.com/group/ci593_b

Course Tweets

#ci593b

reflect, comment, discuss,share

collaborate, comment, contribute, analyze, organize

share, reflect, comment share, comment, participatecommunicate

Using wiki as a course management platform

http://socialmedialearning.pbworks.com/

Creating a collective resource repository with social bookmarking

http://groups.diigo.com/group/ci593_b

Using class blog as a reflection and discussion space

http://socialmedialearning.edublogs.org

Social networking for extending the classroom interaction:

• Twitter course hash tag: #ci593b• Facebook Group: http://bit.ly/9U82U3

SOCIAL MEDIA FINAL PROJECT

• Best Practices for a Successful Faculty Social Media Presence

• Thinkingmachine.pbworks.com• Harvard Law School Weblogs Terms of Use• IBM Social Computing Guidelines• Intel Social Media Guidelines• Vanderbilt University Social Media Handbook• Frances Howell School District Social Media

Guidelines

What were your favorite experiences in the course?

“The connections I made during this class with other teachers across the state was wonderful. Getting the Van Meter superintendent in to talk help immensely in this area. I do have a much better idea of how SM can be used effectively in schools. I also enjoyed getting exposed to lots of new SM tools”

What could we do differently to improve upon this course’s format or concept?

“I think social networks are so inherently complex that focus upon clarifying the expectations and guidelines would go a long way to making class easier to keep up with”

• A central list of readings• A central list of activities• A central list of resources

• want to.

If there is anything else you'd like to tell us about your experiences in

this course, please feel free to do so.

“It would be good to keep the discussion going- to talk about our works and our progress”

“Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike”.

http://socialmedialearning.pbworks.com/

Future Directions: The Affordances of Emerging Technologies for Online

Pedagogies

Gracias!