Presentation given at FITSI at UNH in June 2010 on the varying role of social media in education. Followed by a panel that included several teachers, the IT department and the Assistant Dean, and later by a social media roundtable on guidelines and policies. It was a great day of learning to an attentive crowd. Note: In 2010 we changed the name of our company from Uptown Uncorked to Magnitude Media to better reflect the variety of clients we serve.

1. The Role of Social Media in
Teaching and Learning
University of New Hampshire, FITSI 2010
Presented by Leslie Poston
#fitsirole

2. What You Should
Know First
Social Media Is Not New

3. JAN 16 1978
This was the day that social networking was born.
All of today’s social networks are descendants of
CBBS (Computerized Bulletin Board System),
created in two weeks by Ward Christensen and
Randy Suess. It enabled members of the Chicago
Area Computer Hobbyists Exchange to post and
view notices on an electronic bulletin board,
effectively becoming the world’s first on-line
community.
Research study: “Social Network Hierarchies and
their Impact on Business”
Sample: 2322 persons ages 6-54

4. How Are Your
Students Using This?

5. ✓ Personal Use: Peer to Peer
✓ Personal Use: Family, Limited
✓ Masked Identity: Instinct and Trend
✓ Professional Use: Senior Year
✓ Mobile, Portable (Cell, Laptop, Hotspot)

6. Issues Involved In Using Social Media
In Both Traditional And Online Courses

7. ✓ Privacy
✓ Legalities
✓ School Policies
✓ Attention
✓ Retention
✓ Interpersonal Skills
✓ Time Management

8. What makes online privacy such a challenge?
Other people’s cavalier attitude and ignorance about how
they share online and where their information goes affects
everyone, especially on sites like Facebook.

9. Sometimes, it’s because they don’t think about cause and
effect or consequences. The internet doesn’t seem
related to real life to them.
Sometimes, they understand the consequences, and
don’t care.
Most of the time, it’s a lack of education in social reach,
public vs private concepts, and internet safety.
we should be talking
about this stuff in classes

10. Quick Awareness Assessment
If you get a Facebook friend request from a student should you accept or
limit your interaction to your group or fan page?
If you accept, and the student posts pictures of illegal activity on their wall,
did you know that you could be required to report it (depending on what it is
and the involved parties’ age) to the local authorities or the school?
Did you know that Facebook status messages are admissible as alibis and
corroborating evidence in a court of law?
Did you know that employers (and some college admission departments)
are actively seeking social profiles of students and potential employees and
using them in their final decision process?
Did you know that the Library of Congress, Google, Facebook and Bing all
actively track and store tweets and public updates on other services?
Did you know the Facebook Privacy Policy document is longer than the US
Constitution?

11. Social Media and the Long Arm of the Law
‣Facebook status messages acting as alibis, corroborating evidence and other
aspects of court cases
‣Twitter status updates as binding contracts
‣Dispensing of advice by unqualified representatives of brands or schools actionable
‣Subpoenas being delivered by Facebook message
‣Entire companies formed and dissolved without the principals ever meeting in
person
‣Digital copyright issues arise, fair use, creative commons

12. How Are Educators
Using This?

13. The most successful
educators focus less on
shiny objects and more
on teaching a new way to
problem solve, integrate
and think.

14. Get Social In Class (Brainstorm)
Facebook Groups: Twitter:
Class Discussion Lateral outreach, professor to professor,
Assignments admin to admin, etc
Interactive Grading Sneak peek at other methods
Sharing results real time
SMS: Financial aid resource
Texts as a teaching tool Admissions outreach
Sports, sports, sports
Blogging: Event promotion
Blog in a foreign language
Blog as a literary character Google Wave:
Deconstruct a thesis in a blog post, use Embed in Blackboard for real time
interactive media to illustrate points collaborations portable over the web
LiveStream: LinkedIn:
Simulate a television studio to teach Beginning of real world resume for
journalism concepts students, create case studies for them
using public profiles
YouTube: Create groups for practice building a
Create admissions content work network
Upload lectures for open university Use Answers to demonstrate knowledge
learning courses or remote learning learned in class in real world setting

15. ✓ Elementary School Teacher Tom Barrett Using Twitter To Teach
Probability
✓ Marquette University: Skype For Language
✓
✓
Stanford Creating Facebook Apps for Class
Wiregrass High School: Immersion Mobile
100
✓ MIT Uses Social To Help Developing Countries
✓ University of Leicester: iPod Touch+Twitter

16. ✓ Tweprints: Academic Papers + arXiv + Twitter
✓ Remote Lectures, Interviews: Skype, Ustream, Livestream
✓ Watch and Study Real Time Events, Citizen Journalism, Public
Response (#oilspill, #03801bomb, #nashvilleflood)
✓ Educator to Educator Network Building and Class Sharing
✓ Office Hours via Skype, Ustream, Stickam, Video IM
✓ Group Notes and Collaboration: Wave, Facebook, Hashtag
✓ Tweets As Attendance Taking

17. Get Social In Curriculum (Brainstorm)
9th Period Implementation by
UC Berkeley’s OpenCast Project
University of Georgia (freemium
(since 2008) (video)
model)
Keene State College Learning and
The need is to create a fully
Teaching Commons
integrated campus that
encompasses social media, new
Integrate administration and
media, transmedia, and old media
admissions as well
that integrates well with and
transforms existing curricula as
well
There are not many colleges doing this well... yet

18. Part of real world social media means setting clear
guidelines and expectations and making them public
Intel has a great social media guideline set
Several colleges have been working to get clear guidelines in
place, with varying degrees of success. Let’s take a look:
•Washington University
•Adrian College
•Washington State
•Missouri Valley College
•Florida International University
•DePaul University
•Columbia University (not comprehensive)
•Social Policy Generator for College Newspapers

19. (Q&A Session)
©Leslie Poston, All Rights Reserved, Not For Reuse Or Resale

20. Leslie Poston, Magnitude Media
@leslie or @magnitudemedia on Twitter
800•501•4049 phone | 928•438•5038 fax
leslie@magnitudemedia.net
Co-Author: Twitter for Dummies (Wiley, 2009+)
Contributor: Social Media ProBook (Eloqua)
Author: Grande Guide to Social Advertising (Eloqua)
Author: Social Media Metrics for Dummies (Wiley, 2012)
If you enjoyed my presentation, won’t you recommend me on LinkedIn?
http://linkedin.com/in/leslieposton
Connect with Magnitude Media’s pages also:
http://www.linkedin.com/company/magnitude-media
http://facebook.com/magnitudemedia
http://magnitudemedia.net
©Leslie Poston, All Rights Reserved