Libr 559 M - Final Project - Cosco, Grace, McElroy

LIBR 559M Final Project Dean Giustini December 2009 Rob Cosco Deirdre Grace Kelly McElroy How to improve the SLAIS website by incorporating social media tools Purpose The SLAIS website http://www.slais.ubc.ca is still grounded in the 1.0 web and affords faculty, staff and students with few opportunities for two-way interactivity or largescale participation. Employing selected social media tools could potentially increase a sense of community at SLAIS as well as providing positive marketing for the school. Background information The basis of our investigation was discontent among students with the current SLAIS website and a divide between the Archival and Library students. These two suppositions were deduced from: ,[object Object]

Online discussions in LIBR 559M about the disconnect between Archival students and Library students.Web 2.0 tools have the potential to improve both of these situations. To discover if/how they are being used by other universities and libraries we conducted a limited environmental scan to gather: ,[object Object],Considerations ,[object Object]

Is a link out to a separate site from the "official site" preferable or should interactive tools be incorporated into the SLAIS site?

Where will the staff time and IT resources come from?Tools & Recommendations We will provide recommendations for the SLAIS site to increase communication among the SLAIS community as a mechanism to build the digital presence of the School and enhance its image. Scope and motivation for project This is a period of considerable change for the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies at UBC. Six new faculty members have joined the School in the past three years and the search committee has been struck to find a new director; a number of PhD candidates have also joined the School. This term, the Director's Task Force on Joint Initiatives aimed to capture and synthesize student opinions on ways to improve collaboration and communication between the MAS, MLIS, and Joint programs. Given this environment, we chose to look at ways that social media could be used to support this growing interest in collaboration and integration. We focused on the SLAIS website for several reasons. First, it is an obvious central communication hub for all in the SLAIS community. For example, although many communications are made through listservs, the instructions for joining the lists are all found on the website. In addition, information about courses, current news, admissions, and other administrative business can be found on the website. It is an important reference tool for prospective students, current students, faculty, and staff. Although students use the site regularly, it is a one way communication medium and -- there are no ways to interact with the materials on the site, or with others using the site. Considering its central place in communication for the School, the website is a natural point to incorporate social media to facilitate collaboration. Although there are some indications of web 2.0 on the existing site (including a Google Calendar events page: http://www.slais.ubc.ca/NEWS/slais-events.htm), there is plenty of room to add social features. In an effort to ground this project in the literature, we conducted a search about encouraging student participation through websites, social networking, and educational tools; we also examined the use of social media at various Canadian and American universities, with a focus on LIS schools. In conclusion, we make some recommendations for possible improvements to the SLAIS website. Literature Review Research in the area of student participation in social media is still new, and there are many questions still unanswered as to what constitutes best practice for educators and librarians alike. Teachers, scholars and academics are continuing to seek ways to incorporate these learning tools into their teaching. For many researchers this is an exciting prospect with enormous potential to bring students closer together in academic contexts. For others, social media is a risky and unproven area with a list of variables that potentially disrupt or diminish students’ learning experiences. Diversion of students’ attention and the questionable authority of information at social media sites are among the major issues which academics believe must be closely examined when universities want to adopt social media effectively. This literature review summarizes the prevalent themes in the ongoing discussion of social media in higher education and provides context for this project as we evaluate introducing new methods of student participation within the academic community both locally and abroad. How can social networks function as a medium for learning, and what will they mean to students who use them in academic settings? To understand these questions it is important to take into account the role social networks play in the daily lives of students. Currently, university students are developing their social and digital media skills within their peer groups to a greater extent than faculty (Greenhow, Robelia, Hughes, 251). This situation is easily explained by the growth of online social networks to sustain personal and social-cultural ties, which students create with their peers more than they do with academic institutions. The divide between students and academics in the social media world is very real, and in many ways the cultures of social networks and academia are incompatible (Greenhow, Robelia, Hughes, 251). Facebook is an interesting example of this incompatibility. As a social network that began in an academic setting and emerged as a massive, mainstream social network it exemplifies the impact of the culture of peer groups and the direction of social networks (boyd, 2007). The culture and usage patterns of social networks appear outside the influence of everyone except for those actively participating. To many academics a network full of twenty-somethings gossiping and sharing club photos is too chaotic an atmosphere to be a promising environment for pedagogy. Another significant force driving the division of social networks and academia is the contrast between formal and informal learning settings (Bull et al., 4). At university, students engage in a highly formalized and regulated learning environment. Hierarchical relationships that dictate authority and social role are created between students and their professors. This hierarchical relationship extends to the information circulated within these formal learning environments, and the way the information is transmitted. Social networks are a vastly different cultural and informational environment where students are surrounded by their peers in more casual and informal settings. Information is exchanged in an open fashion and through a set of channels students can choose for themselves. On these networks social relationships are flat, dispersed and inclusive. The emphasis on information is “equal to or replaced by an emphasis on creating, developing, and sustaining human relationships” (Katz, 2008; New Media Consortium [NMC], 2008). While many large social networks resemble informal learning environments and stand in contrast to the formality of academic institutions this should not exclude academics and educators from participating. The challenge is how to navigate new digital learning environments when they are used to interacting in physical classrooms and to connect formal and informal learning as a hybrid approach to bring out the best in both(Bull et al., 3). To explore a combination of formal and informal learning styles, Greenbow, Robelia and Hughes offer some questions to consider when assessing the behaviour of students within social networks (Greenhow, Robelia, Hughes, 251): How and why do learners participate and create digital content in various learning spaces, including both formal and informal learning settings? What is the nature and depth of individual and distributed learning through participation and content creation in these Web 2.0 contexts? How do learners engage with others through artifact creation and sharing processes, and what is the nature of their interconnections? The social nature of these networks requires educators to be immersed in students' learning process. Shirky describes a “cognitive surplus” that students display when they engage in creative media online (Shirky, 2008). Within online environments they tap into “extra thoughts” and may be unable to develop in formal learning environments such as the classroom, or when engaged in passive media such as television. Sterling (2008) suggests that the creative energy displayed outside of the classroom should be “harnessed and linked to the academic enterprise within schools.” This seems to be a promising idea and complement to the formal environment of the classroom. In the web 2.0 era adopting less formal methods of teaching and learning is a challenge for educators. Currently, formal and informal learning environments are separated by distinct social, institutional and technological barriers. In such circumstances there is little communication between representatives of the respective approaches. Bull et al. suggest that the
inclusion of some of the leaders from informal learning settings will provide an opportunity to begin a dialog with teacher educators representing core content areas
(Bull, et al., 4). Indeed there is a lot of common ground between leaders within both approaches, and it must be acknowledged that educators in formal settings can and do step out of that role and engage in other learning environments. Despite an apparent lack of connection, the inclusion of less formal approaches inspired by social networks has already begun in academia, but it needs assessment as it develops. Bull et al. state that “a crucial element of this dialog will be a consideration of how communities of academics value the content of informal learning experiences and visa versa
, and that it “requires a compromise between existing academic sensibilities and the pop culture sensibilities that social media and SNS grew out of” (Bull, et al., 5). There is certainly an important role for educators who hope to engage with students in social network spaces. Coiro, et al. describe modern literacy as a social, multimedial and “situationally specific” phenomenon (2008, 5). Literacy is expanding and changing through social media, creating an ecology in which students are active. While actively participating in and shaping the emerging social media landscape, students do not necessarily have the full understanding of its context, its potential as a platform for social and cultural development, or its limitations and risks. For academics and information professionals the need to educate and guide students is critically important. An investigation of how teachers are currently facilitating social media reveals what might be called a mostly passive approach. While notable exceptions such as Dr. Wesch have used social media in the classroom, many educators prefer to stand back and observe students as they engage with social technologies. Generational concerns have also been voiced in the literature (Bull, et al., 5; Alexander, 1), as many educators understandably feel at odds with the social and cultural norms of social networks that their students participate in and others feel that they cannot catch up to the students in terms of understanding this technology. Wesch, however, claims that “we are all natives” to this technology (Wesch, The Future of Education, 2008). As it is new to everyone, we all have questions, concerns and important knowledge to gain. The most significant benefit of integrating social networking in higher education may be the emergence of a more inclusive community of scholarship. The New Media Consortium’s 2009 Horizon Report puts the role of most students in context with scholarship in general, revealing that students devote a large portion of their time to their own research, but have a distinct absence of community-centred activities such as interacting with peers and colleagues and presenting at conferences. The NMC says that: “Every idea, paper, experiment, and artifact is, in reality, attached to a person or group of people who helped bring it about. Imagine the impact of tools that place those people and relationships at the center of any research inquiry” (NMC, 2008, 26). This impact may be especially powerful for students as they gain an understanding of how large, diverse and highly skilled the academic community is. An earlier start with these experiences may help students to understand the role of scholars in society and encourage them to develop and share their ideas in open settings accordingly. With these issues in mind, what kinds of social networking platforms are ideal for educators and students to engage in together and blend formal and informal learning? Teachers like Wesch have found success recently with customizable and open platforms such as Netvibes and Ning (http://www.netvibes.com/wesch). While generalized networks like Facebook are popular among schools and libraries, their catch-all approach and closed platforms result in poor adaptability to the academic community. Smaller social networking sites such as Netvibes give teachers the ability to consider their communities and create customized networks suited to the needs of both themselves and their students. This model gives students visibility on the web and an opportunity for wider participation. Yue et al. published a recent computer information systems study in which students were given an opportunity to design a social networking site for a swimming team (Yue et al., 2009). While the study is written from the perspective of systems design, it describes the many benefits of what the authors identify as “domain-specific social network sites” and how they can apply to all kinds of schools. The term “domain-specific” is interesting for a few reasons. The word ‘domain’ is often used to describe an area of expertise, such as Digital Ethnography in the case of Dr. Wesch. ‘Domain’ also means territories and spaces, and especially to the Web, specific sites with a unique name and purpose. In information systems, domains group together users of various kinds and provide certain access rights depending on need. Social networks can involve all these meanings simultaneously, establishing place and context for members. Domain-specific social networks may offer a unique venue to combine formal and informal learning in a way that is open and inclusive to both students and academics. Domain-specific social networking is currently a highly under-utilized approach, as many schools opt out of establishing domains as active and collaborative social networks for their communities. Yue et al. list some characteristics of these networks in comparison to generalized social networks: ,[object Object]

The visibility and access structures may be more hierarchical and restrictive ... and have many types of users (such as faculty, staff and students in varying degree programs).

There may be tighter integration of back end enterprise data and service to create contents catering to the domain-specific applications. (For example, integration with an open journal system).

Different design and composition of social network features may be chosen to satisfy the domain requirements.

The site may need to support offline activities and connections. There may be more users with offline connections, known as "latent ties" (Haythornthwaite, 2005).These characteristics demonstrate the compromise between formal and informal settings required for learning in a social network, and suggest that these systems are able to strike such a balance. The authors also discussed potential affordances for their swim team, which can be adapted with students in mind: Students can announce their research interests to the broader community. Students can post media to the social network which facilitates group work and collaboration. Visitors from both within and outside the academic community can view and perhaps participate in the network. Faculty, staff and students can perform administrative tasks such as announcing events, awards, courses and other news. Students and faculty can contribute links to the network and connect themselves to other communities. A few development options exist for this social networking model, but of particular interest to library and information schools is use of open source content management systems such as Drupal (Yue et al., 2009, 4). As these systems are commonplace in information organizations, a chance to develop for them would provide useful experience for students. Some benefits include (Yue et al., 2009, 7): Working on a trendy and exciting application area. Mastering leading-edge industrial strength technologies. Integrating technologies to satisfy real- world business needs. Open source content management systems also incorporate a number of specially-designed widgets and applications which can provide the essential functions a specialized social network needs. Department 2.0 is an open source software platform based on Drupal for hosting academic websites that incorporates social media services. Dr. Doug Holton at Utah State University was motivated to create Department 2.0 to improve his department's web presence and increase students sense of community and belonging (Holton, 2009). As well as connecting students with the department, the platform has the potential to connect parents and alumni with faculty and students. The combination of customizability, features and affordances of domain-specific social networking sites offers a promising platform to build a rich, specialized social network in which all members of the academic community can participate. The design and presentation of these networks can deeply impact participation and inclusivity. While many LIS schools offer links to external-domain social networks, few have sought to integrate social networks into their own domains, especially on their front pages. Returning to the idea of domain as a social, physical and information space, positioning the social network functionality at the first point of interaction digitally, visitors arrive at the domain where participants see the importance of their participation to the institution. It also lends its dynamic elements to the overall feel of the domain. From an architectural point of view this is analogous to walking into a building and immediately seeing people actively at work and in conversation. It creates a feeling of community and activity which can draw in new visitors. While this area is still very new it appears to be a promising way to experiment with social networks and education, to blend different styles of learning and to engage both students and teachers in the collaborative world of social networking. Best Practices - social media on higher education websites Powerpoint presentation of screenshots from university websites: http://www.slideshare.net/kellymce/libr559m-final-project-2637211 University of Alberta - http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/slis/ ,[object Object], University of Washington iSchool - http://ischool.uw.edu ,[object Object]

Under people/student groups links to current student groups, such as iYouth, iPeer.

Student directory online.University of Toronto ischool- http://www.ischool.utoronto.ca/ ,[object Object]

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Libr 559 M - Final Project - Cosco, Grace, McElroy

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Libr 559 M - Final Project - Cosco, Grace, McElroy