Web 2.0
An Introduction to using
Social Media in the
Classroom
Kyle Heatherly

Web 2.0?

What is Social Media?
 Social Media is an umbrella term to define the
integration of the Internet, communication technology,
social interaction, and the display and consumption of
words, pictures, videos and audio material.
 It’s how people engage, participate and share online.

Types of Social Media
 Blogs, Micro-Blogs
 Social Networks
 Social Bookmarking
 www.de.li.cious.com
 Slideshow, Document, Video and Photo Sharing
 Flickr
 YouTube
 www.slideshare.com
 Podcasting / Video Podcasting
 Wiki Sites
 Forums
 Instant Messaging

How big is Social Media?
 Facebook has 200m active users.
 3bn+ minutes are spent on Facebook every day.
 4m+ FB users become fans of Pages every day.
 77% of active internet users read blogs.
 133m+ blogs indexed by Technorati.
 Twitter users grew by 900% in the last year.
 Twitter has just 38 staff.
 10 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every
minute.

Social Media Demographics
 Fastest growing user group on Facebook is 35+
 The average age of a Twitter user is 31.
 The average age of a MySpace user is 27.
 The average age of a LinkedIn user is 41.
 The average earnings of a LinkedIn user is $109k.

Where to start?
 Find your existing connections
 Keep an eye on forums and discussion boards
 See what people are saying about your competition
 Listen to conversations
 Conversations take place whether you take part in them or not
 Participate in conversations
 Engage with complaints – do not tackle them
 Do not try to “sell”
 Be ethical in your actions
 “Content is king”
 Be clear in your objectives

Learning to
Change, Changing
to Learn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta
hTKdEUAPk

What is a blog?
 web + log = weblog = blog
 A blog is a regularly updated collection of posts (or
entries) listed on a web page in reverse chronological
order (the most recent posts appear first).
 Posts have a header, body, comments section and a
time/date stamp.
 Can include: text, pictures, video, audio, outbound links

http://www.initcollege.blogspot.com/

Student blogs

Success…?

Why blog?
 Because your teacher makes you…
 Recognition – to tell the world your story!
 Find a niche group (politics, gaming, sports, tech,
parenting, etc.)
 Profit $
 Networking
 Business owners

How do I create a blog?
 Some popular blogging sites:
 www.blogger.com, www.blogspot.com (Google)
 www.wordpress.com
 www.livejournal.com
 www.typepad.com

How do I create a blog?
(cont.)
1.) Create a Gmail account: www.gmail.com
2.) Go to www.blogger.com
3.) Choose a display name and name for your blog
4.) Pick a template
5.) Publish!

RSS Feeds

Twitter

Does it make any money?
 The Twestival
 1msg – 4 weeks – 202 events
 $250,000+ raised for charity
 Dell
 Twitter produced $1 million in revenue over 1½ years
through sales alerts.

de.li.cious.com

digg.com

Wikipedia

Student Voices
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B
HSehFV98TY

Credits
 Slides 3-7 and 20 are taken from “Social Media Taster
Course“ by ArenGrimshaw of UKNetWeb Limited.