This document discusses using social media for teaching and learning. It notes that social media use in learning is a fast moving trend in higher education that is likely to create substantive change in the next 1-2 years. It discusses how students already widely use smartphones and social media, so these tools should be exploited for educational purposes. While access to technology varies, most students now use smartphones and social media, so these can be channels for informal and affective learning support among students. The document also covers debates around using laptops and devices in the classroom, as well as ideas for how to engage students through social media and technology.

1. Using social media
for teaching & learning
exploiting an indispensible tool in student hands
1Cheryl Brown

2. • I. Key Trends Accelerating Ed Tech Adoption
in Higher Education
• Fast Moving Trends: Those likely to create
substantive change (or burn out) in one to
two years
– ! Online, Hybrid, and Collaborative Learning
– ! Social Media Use in Learning

3. ISSUES ABOUT ACCESS
Sms 31957 example: R 8753 Example: R [space] 8753 [space] because I don’t know how

6. • ICT access is varied and unequal
Czerniewicz and Brown 2010
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
< 2 years ago 2-4 years ago 4-6 years ago 6-10 years ago 10-15 years ago >15 years ago
Years ICT experience of under 22 yr olds
Survey of 3556 students across 6 HEIs in South Africa

7. Digital Strangers
we're a lot of students and ICT
facilities are limited. I'll request
if donators can donate more as
students face difficulties in
queuing or computers. It's
expensive, I pay more money
for few minutes. I think ICTs
sometimes create digital
divide, especially for students
who find it hard to access
internet [ID 2922]
Digital Natives
people in my community don’t
have access to computers,
my knowledge of computer
& owning a computer at
home, it makes work easier
& you work more, improves
my learning capabilities,
this is a computer
dominated world, so it is
essential for me to
understand computers. [ID
190]
.,

8. .. Like issues of computers is that I never had a chance to be with a
computer before I came here ... [Bianca Int 1]

9. infographic
Youth Adoption
72% of 15 –to 24-
year olds “having a
cell phone.”
(Unicef 2012)

13. The computer skills I
learnt while using
Facebook and
YouTube has helped,
as these services are
more or less the
same, like Twitter.
So, it kind of helps
you to do other
internet things.

14. c
My phone has helped me because you
know like the keyboard n my phone is
more like the computer, so like I started
with it, they are more like similar so my
speed in typing has improved

15. But .... Cell phones are different
◦ Ownership is ubiquitous (98.7% in 2007)
◦ Ownership is not socially differentiated
◦ Main means of access to Internet off campus for students
from low SEGs
– - in 2009 78% of South African students accessed the internet via
their cell phones (Kornberger, 2009)
Dial up, 68
Broadband,
84cell phone,
191
wireless, 24
satellite, 25
Type of internet access
for low SEG students
(2007)

16. However not mainstreamed in
education yet
Sms 31957 example: R 8753 Example: R [space] 8753 [space] because I don’t know how

17. The only sustainable way
forward is to exploit devices
students already own and
use (Traxler 2013)

18. Do students use cell phones for
learning?
0.00%
20.00%
40.00%
60.00%
Digital Native Digital Stranger
34.97%
37.19%
49.91%
40.19%
15.12%
22.62%
No cell phone use
< 40% cell phone use
> 40% cell phone use
% of cell phone time spent for academic purposes
2007 survey of South African university students

19. SOCIAL
MEDIA IN
LEARNING

25. DO STUDENTS USE SOCIAL MEDIA
FOR LEARNING?

28. Informal
• At one stage I was trying to
learn Spanish, which did not
go very well. I was in
contact with three people
from different parts of the
world and would chat to
them to practice it.
– Student O Int 2 UCT Ref 6
• I go on Vula on my small
phone, though its small,
when I am studying for
exams I took pictures of
stuff and I recorded myself
reading a test and then I
would listen to myself ....
– [Fudge Int 2]

29. • The "Prayer Network" will
be on a Facebook Page.
People can "like it" on the
Facebook page to stay
updated about its activites.
People will also be able to
submit their own prayer
requests. "We" will pray for
them, and all members will
pray for those who have
requested a prayer.
Student
K Int
1
UCT
Ref 1
Affective
• Jaa I always write on my
status like, Maths is giving
me stress, and people
respond to me and they say
like, hang in there and some
of them are like jaa, maths,
so yes I get a lot support
– [Fudge Int 2]

30. To empower
‘silenced’ ,
‘dominated’
&
‘marginalised’
voices to
become co-
producers of
knowledge

31. First of all I don’t
think I can live
without social
networks
It's not a lifeline, but
after not having it,
or being off it for a
while, I sort of feel
disconnected.
I wanted to stay away from Facebook for
ever; - it was draining – I was addicted to it
- needed space, so I stopped for three
weeks and deleted my profile.
felt a bit ignored, so
deleted Facebook. I got
angry at it. Then I
remembered this project

32. DEVICES IN THE CLASSROOM

34. Arguments for
• increased student and teacher technology use
– facilitate faculty student interaction
• increased student engagement and interest level
– increase rates of in-class participation and student
motivation
• increased ease and speed of note taking and
engagement with online sources related to the
course material
• modest increases in student achievement

36. Arguments against
• In lecture style classes where computers are not
essential to the material, the sustained use of
laptops during lecture is potentially so distracting
as to hinder a student’s performance and distract
their fellow students.
– students with open laptops remembered less lecture
content than those with closed laptops (Hembrooke
and Gay 2003)
– Laptop multitasking hinders classroom learning for
both users and nearby peers (Sana, F., Weston, T and
Cepeda, N (2013)

37. IDEAS' FOR ENGAGEMENT

38. Virtual noticeboard
38
http://manipalthetalk.net/online-notice-board/

39. I can lie in my bed and sit with the laptop
and then watch the lectures and then I can
do the assignment in bed…
So Friday, I’m running all the
way back to my room, sitting
on my laptop watching all the
lectures and then trying to
type in whatever and
submitting in time for 4,
Self paced
learning

40. Anonymity
40
blog.talkingidentity.com
Peter Steiner has been reproduced from page 61 of July 5, 1993 issue of The New Yorker, (Vol.69 (LXIX) no. 20)

41. Open consultation
41
http://bronzeagebabies.blogspot.com/2011/01/suggestion-box.html
opendoormgmt.com

42. Decision making
42
http://www.alticore.eu/area_partner/photo_people_meeting_room_3.JPG

43. Scaffolding critical reading
43
http://www.clipartguide.com/_pages/0511-1003-1503-2959.html
http://www.mmu.ac.uk/tips/reading/index.php

44. Transformation of mind
44

45. Content – using RSS

46. TAKE HOME THOUGHTS

47. Technology and teaching and learning
interactions
All about matching your teaching and learning
tasks with appropriate educational technologies

48. Invisibility of technology
• “… for technology to be used effectively in any
learning process it must be highly visible as a
learning tool but at the same time highly
invisible as a mediating technology” (John &
Sutherland 2005: 408).

49. Both task & learner experience
• “As designers for learning, we need to make
choices about technologies in a way that takes
account both of how they support the
learning task [design features] and how they
will be experienced by individual learners –
the different ‘possible relationships’ between
task and learner they might mediate”
(Beetham 2007:34)

50. WHERE TO GO FOR MORE?

52. http://www.emergingicts.blogspot.com/
https://studentictaccess.uct.ac.za/
1

53. • http://issuu.com/dgachago/docs/2013_11_26_emergi
ng_tech_higher_edu?e=8853622/5768218

54. • http://www.scoop.it/t/interactive-teaching-
and-learning

55. https://www.coursera.org/course/edc

56. Prepared by Dr Cheryl Brown
Cheryl.brown@uct.ac.za
@cherybrown
http://www.scoop.it/t/developing-learning-
teaching
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