In this presentation, Dr. Ai Zhang discusses how she uses social media platforms (e.g., Snapchat, Twitter, and Blab) as teaching tools to 1) enhance student engagement; 2) better prepare students for their careers; 3) bridge the gap between education and practice in public relations
5. To engage our students, we need to meet
them where they are; not where we think
they should be.
6. @aiaddysonzhang
How I’m using social
media platforms to...
1.Better engage students
2.Assist students with career
preparation and connect them with
the broader community
3.Help bridge the gap between the
industry & academia
8. Teens spend about ____ hours
a day on social media in 2015
College students spend an
average of _____ hours a day on
cellphones in 2014
How much time do young people
spend on average on social media
and their smartphones?
9. ●What is Snapchat?
●What do you use Snapchat for?
●1.55 billion monthly active users
●100 million daily active users
●8 billion daily video views
DMR Stats
10. @aiaddysonzhang
1. Humanize the
teacher
✖ Break down the
power-distance
between teacher and
students
✖ Sharing myself in my
“natural
environment” helps
build a rapport with
students.
11.
12. @aiaddysonzhang
✖ Answer students questions via Snapchat
✖ Offer students tailored personal
responses → which can blow a student
away
✖ A simple Q&A → extended discussions
about class
✖ A nice break from emails
2. Snapchat Q&A
15. @aiaddysonzhang
5. Use Snapchat to enhance one’s digital protofolio
Note: This idea was developed with Drs. Kyung-Hyan Yoo and Gina
Marcello during the NJ Social Media Summit, 2016
✖Create “Hire Me” Snapchat stories to
highlight students’ professional and
personal accomplishments targeted toward
their dream jobs
✖Use the hashtag “#HireMe16” to share
their Snapchat stories on other platforms
such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, personal
websites, etc.
✖Invite other schools to join the activity and
conduct peer critique
✖Students’ Hire-Me stories will be evaluated
by the number of clicks, comments, shares,
and engagements.
16. @aiaddysonzhang
6. Brand the students and the class
✖Feature super
students
○ Snapchat “heros”
○ Give students shout
outs
✖Highlight students’
accomplishments
✖Other examples here
and here
17.
18. @aiaddysonzhang
6. Branding, Cont’d
✖Account takeover
○ Current students;
○ Invite alumni/professionals: a day in the
life videos
✖Feature guest speakers,
celebrations/parties, or other
interesting events in the class
19. Students start to
1) Give me shout outs,
2) Share special moments with me (eg, internship
applications & career related events),
3) Interact with the broader professional
community
22. @aiaddysonzhang
✖ Class Hashtag: #AZSM #AZAdvanced
#AZEthics
✖ Join live twitter chats and do storify
○ #HootChat; #MeasurePR; #PRStudChat;
#BufferChat; #SproutChat
✖ Invite industry professionals to do live
Twitter chats with the class
○ Carrie Morgan: #PRProChat
○ Connect with guest speakers and the larger
community
✖ Cross institutional twitter chat
Using Twitter as a teaching tool
23. @aiaddysonzhang
Cross-institutional twitter chat
✖#TXC16: A cross-institutional hashtag
○ Rutgers University (School of Communication
and Information); William Paterson University;
Stockton University
✖Three-week twitter activity
○ Week 1: Describe your “personal
identity/brand” with a pic included
○ Week 2: Describe your “professional
identity/brand” with a pic included
○ Week 3: Two take-away tweets
✖A reflection paper based on the experience
24. @aiaddysonzhang
Blab is a live streaming platforms that allows
public viewable video chats featuring up to
four people
Periscope/Meerkat + Google Hangouts
✖ Focus Group
✖ Chat with group members/class
✖ Invite industry professionals to do guest talks
✖ Interact with the broader academic and/or
professional community
25. The important role of
educators
✖ Be a role model for students as most students
don’t know how to use SM strategically and
professionally
✖ Get actively involved on social platforms,
networking with professionals in the industry,
and never stop learning
26. @aiaddysonzhang
The important role of educators:
Case study
✖Influencer Marketing with Brian Fanzo
✖Guest blog: Five ways of using Snapchat as a
teaching tool
✖Do a live Q&A session with my students on
career development and offering advice
27. Not so much what we know than
whom we know. Nowadays, it is who
knows you.
--Carlos Gil (@CarlosGil83)
Editor's Notes
So my talk today will be focusing on social media and higher ed. Before i dive into my topic, i would like to ask you first what are some problems in higher ed
I see as the disconnect between education and practice; and the lack of engagement
I am sure that many of you can relate to the pictures that i listed here. I can still relate. I used to feel very defensive about digital device in the classroom; i think they are dstracting to learning; however, i came to the realization that i need to meet with students where they are; not where i think they should be.
Educators play such an imporatnt role at bridging hte gap; and help more people know our stuents.
So in my today today, i will share with you how i use certain social media platforms to engage my students and to brige the gap between higher ed and practice.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. In today’s talk, i want to discuss how i used twitter and snapchat to engage with my students; and if time allows, introduce to another emerging social media platform which is blab
Before we start, lets take a look at some of the bascis
9 hours a day on sm
8 to 10 hours
So, the reality is that our students are on sm regardless we like or not. To truly engage students, we need to meet them at where they are.
The very first reason that i use sm or sc in particular is to humanize myself as a real human being;raise your hands, how many of you in this room are afriad of your teachers? How many of you actually go to see your teachers during their office hours? My students never; tehy are afriad of me even though i think i am like the friendliest person on earth; so sharing my life my natural env makes it easier for me to connect with my students.
I challenge that face as a teacher is that students are afriad of talking to me; even though i think i am super approachable, nice, and i am probably the friendliest person on earth. Students are afriad of me; what i found is that sharing my daily life on snapchat helps students lose that student-teacher barrier; help students get to know me and help me connect better with my students → students know that i am real. shopping ; sleeping; exercising; eating; food
Snapchat qanda is a great way to engage students; take
Related to class related q and a, another great way to use snapchat is to offer coaching; My students ask me about internship and career related questions all the time; at the begining they felt a bit hesitanat, but once tehy see that i am actually not that scary and i am quite helpful, they will ask lots of questions. I love it
As graduation is approaching, highlight these students, hearos, their accomplishments; as most of my followers are professionals; that is a great publicity
A nice, yet unexpected outcome of this is that, students start to copy my behaivosrs and start to promote/brand me; brand the class; start to interact with the professional community on twitter and other sm platforms, which is exactly what i wanted to happen.
Again, how did i get connected with carrie? Via social medial; make sure to share marcela’s story; becasue of that twitter chat, marcela was ale to interview her for another class assigment; professional interview
Instead of using Skype to do guest talks, you can use blab; facebook live video
Read industry related articles; webinars; never stop learning
This is a live eg of the power of influncer marketing; and how educators can tap into that power to ehance our classroom teaching
Educators play such an imporatnt role at bridging hte gap; and help more people know our stuents.
We are the missing puzzle to students’ success
Educators play a key role in students success;