Economics 2.0

Economics 2.0 Using SlideShare, Twitter Facebook and FriendFeed in Economics teaching Paul Ayres, Economics Editor Intute: Social Sciences intute .ac. uk / socialsciences

What we will cover today
A quick introduction to these four services
Some suggestions for their possible use in teaching and learning
Some actual examples
How could you use them in your teaching?

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Over 1000 high quality economics Internet resources

SlideShare - what is it?
Upload PowerPoint presentations so they are freely available online
Easily embeddable in other services e.g. blogs
Add an mp3 soundtrack / narration and sync it with the slides
YouTube for PowerPoint
Community features such as tags, comments, favourites, related SlideCasts etc.
http://www. slideshare .net/

SlideShare - an example

SlideShare - an example
Initially presented to 25 people at the DEE conference in 2007
Now viewed over over 1300 times, downloaded over 50 times, embedded in 5 other websites
Adding an audio track makes a SlideShare much more useful
http://www. slideshare .net/ cfbloke /the-effective-use-of- blogs -in-economics-education/

SlideShare - possible uses
Disseminating lecture material for revision purposes
Discuss lecture material using the comments feature to aid understanding
As a student assignment assessing virtual presentation skills
Find other presentations on your topic - save reinventing the wheel
Building up a body of resources over time on a particular topic
Drawing together conference / seminar materials using a common "tag"

Twitter - what is it?
Asks what are you up to right now?
Limited to just 140 characters
Like the status update feature on Facebook - and that's all
Follow people you know, those you don't, organisations, publications
Part blog, part social networking site, and part IM tool
http://twitter.com/

Twitter - an example

Twitter - an example
Follow everything published by VoxEU.org an economics research portal set up by the Centre for Economic Policy Research
Also follow other organisations such as World Economic Forum, Mises Institute, FT.com, Freakonomics, The Economist
7 things you should know about Twitter by EDUCAUSE
http:// educause . edu / ir /library/ pdf /ELI7027. pdf

Twitter - possible uses
Pointers to online resources based around a course
Student reminders about deadlines
Breaking down barriers and getting to know others over this "virtual water cooler"
Keeping up to date for you and students
Instant lecture feedback - are you twittering about this presentation?

Facebook - what is it?
Social networking website of over 100 million registered users
Expect 80-90% of your students to be registered on Facebook
They may well regard it as "their" space
But average age of a Facebook user is mid-late 20's
Attractive as an open platform with 1000's of applications users can add to their profiles

Facebook - an example
Whose e-learning is it anyway? by Michael Cameron, Jo Fox
http://www.alt.ac. uk /altc2007/timetable/abstract. php ?abstract_id=1233
Lecturer invited into an active student study support group on Facebook
Backed up by a survey of the Web 2.0 activities of Durham students
Compares and contrasts learning activities within VLEs and Facebook

Facebook - an example
Students do declare their academic interests as part of their profiles e.g. favourite books
Students are supporting each other already - passing on books / references, debating issues, asking for help
As it is "their" space communication is easier and less formal
Lecturer invited into the student study group on Facebook but did not actively participate
Used comments she saw to inform lectures e.g. go over problem issues for students
Related lecture topics to stated interests in Facebook profiles
Ask students to translate comments from Facebook into the VLE i.e. informal to formal

Facebook - possible uses
Course based notifications also surfaced within Facebook
Encourage students to set up self-help study groups
Great for connecting new students together at the start of term and encouraging feedback from the shy
Look at education / course based applications
7 things you should know about Facebook by EDUCAUSE
http:// educause . edu / ir /library/ pdf /ELI7025. pdf
Consider a separate teacher profile for sharing with students and be aware of security / privacy settings

FriendFeed - what is it?
Bring your various Web 2.0 accounts together
YouTube videos, blog entries, uploaded SlideCasts, bookmarks from Delicious, Twitter updates etc
Set-up once and then works automatically
Has social networking features, so you can subscribe to your friends collective intelligence
Good at uniting users of different services that do similar things
http:// friendfeed .com

FriendFeed - possible uses
Set up a "room" around a topic and ask students to collaborate in collecting online references
Task students with finding resources that are NOT text based
More of a tool for bringing other things together and more on this later

Thanks for listening
Paul Ayres [email_address]
Website intute .ac. uk / socialsciences
Bookmarks delicious.com/ cfbloke /seen08

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Economics 2.0

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