Workshop presentation for Ascilite 2011, Hobart (4 December, 2011)

1. SOCIAL NETWORKING
IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Leanne Cameron and Miriam Tanti
leanne.cameron@acu.edu.au | miriam.tanti@acu.edu.au
Australian Catholic University

2. Contents
• Introduction: what is social networking?
• Practical: exploring
– Twitter
– Social bookmarking
– FaceBook fan page
– Edmodo
• Investigate: Social networking in higher
education
• Evaluate: moral, ethical and legal implications

3. What is social networking?
• Social media - various avenues through
which people share information, public or
private, with a select group of people.
• Social networking - the act of exchanging
information, personal or public, through
various forms of technology, such as the
Internet, mobile phones, and other services.
Source: http://ashleyanderson.suite101.com/what-is-social-networking-a235550#ixzz1dvmvA5MM

4. TWITTER

5. Twitter
• Personal Learning Network (PLN) or Community of
Practice
• Increasing your connections with others
• Benefits:
– exposure to new ideas
– resources
– Collaboration
– reflection
– evaluation
– broaden our perspectives, beyond the local, into
a more global, world-view

6. Twitter
• NOT Facebook status
• 140 character broadcast
• following (@shirleyleitch, @thesiswhisperer)
• followers
• @
• #
• Reply
• RT (retweet)

7. Assessment
Reflective Microblog
As a means of establishing a reflective microblog, each of you will create
a twitter account. Your twitter account will enable you to engage deeply
with the lecture and tutorial content by encouraging you to pose
questions, add content or pursue points presented. Your account will
also enable you to undertake professional conversations with other
educators, it will also be used to keep your peers informed of your
school experiences, allow them to offer support and advice and to
promote the sharing of educational resources and other tweets that
may be of relevance.
- All tweets must end with the following hashtag #ACUedu_s
- Original tweets must be made on a weekly (minimum) basis
- Re-tweets must also be made on a weekly (minimum) basis
- Internet etiquette must be adhered to at all times

8. Assessment
Reflective Microblog
As a means of establishing a reflective microblog, each of you will create
a twitter account. Your twitter account will enable you to engage deeply
with the lecture and tutorial content by encouraging you to pose
questions, add content or pursue points presented. Your account will
also enable you to undertake professional conversations with other
educators, it will also be used to keep your peers informed of your
school experiences, allow them to offer support and advice and to
promote the sharing of educational resources and other tweets that
may be of relevance.
- All tweets must end with the following hashtag #ACUedu_s
- Original tweets must be made on a weekly (minimum) basis
- Re-tweets must also be made on a weekly (minimum) basis
- Internet etiquette must be adhered to at all times

9. Assessment
You will be assessed on both quantity and quality of your online
participation/contributions. By quantity, you are expected to make broadcasts to
twitter each week. For quality, you should try to engage in critical thinking and
analysis. To initiate a discussion, your broadcast should show analyses, insights,
observations and reflections. To respond to your peers' postings, your reply
should advance the discussion by making references to other sources, readings or
other broadcasts. Tactics for you to achieve this include asking for clarifications,
posing questions, and offering different perspectives. As a general rule, you
should keep your postings brief, encourage others to comment and respond; and
respect others perspectives.
The reflective microblog must include:
- Discussion and evaluation of your personal contribution: you are required to
submit three of your best twitter broadcasts (screen shots or other forms of
evidence) and a paragraph on each explaining why you think these are your best
contributions (supported by theories/principles read/discussed in this unit)
- Reflection on the process: reflect on the experience of having a Personal
Learning Network and discuss the knowledge, skills and expertise you have
developed through this process.

10. SOCIAL BOOKMARKING

11. Social bookmarking sites
• Digg
• Delicious
• Diigo
• Pageflakes

12. EDMODO
vs
FACEBOOK FAN PAGE

13. Literature: Social networking
Alexander, B. (2008) Social Networking in Higher Education. The Tower and the Cloud:
Higher Education in the Age of Cloud Computing. EDUCAUSE: USA
http://lcc.lipscomb.edu/uploads/24663.pdf#page=219
Alderton, E. Brunsell, E. Bariexca, D. (2011). The End Of Isolation. MERLOT Journal of
Online Learning and Teaching, 7(3).
http://jolt.merlot.org/vol7no3/alderton_0911.pdf
Casey, G. & Evans, T (2011). Designing for Learning: Online Social Networks as a
Classroom Environment. The International Review of Research in Open and
Distance Learning, 12(7).
http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1011/2021
M.D. Roblyer, McDaniel, M., Webb, M., Herman, J., Vince J., Findings on Facebook in
higher education: A comparison of college faculty and student uses and
perceptions of social networking sites, The Internet and Higher Education, 13(3)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1096751610000278)

14. Ensuring safe and efficient
learning environment
• Concerns about social networking in educational
settings
• The ‘systemic’ view of social networking in
educational settings
• Ethical dilemmas

15. Concerns of teachers
• Many teachers shy away from using Social Media
in their classrooms because of safety or
classroom management concerns.
• However, if its use is not accompanied by a
structured task, students can lose focus and
become inefficient learners.

16. Main areas of teacher concern:
• Sharing of personal details and photographs;
• Copyright infringement;
• Defamation; and
• Bullying, harassment and offensive material.
AACE research, 2011

17. CEO defines social networking
Schools differentiate between online community
sites and personal social networking sites:
• Online community sites such as nings, wikis and
some educational blogs are used primarily for
collaboration and shared knowledge construction.
• Personal social networking sites are centered on
an individual rather than a group and include
Facebook, MySpace and other related sites. Such
sites are used primarily for sharing personal
information such as photos and updates.

18. CEO Staff are required to educate
students using social media of any kind to:
• Respect themselves and others when publishing
or communicating online;
• Keep communication channels transparent and
supervised by adults;
• Create a sensible/ plain username or identity;
• Set social network sites to the “private” security
setting;
• Keep personal information private;
• Not share usernames and passwords with
anyone;
• Report any attacks or inappropriate content
directed at them.
http://www.ceosyd.catholic.edu.au/Parents/Curriculum/Documents/pol-socialmedia-staff.pdf

19. From the DEC,
NSW Australia
“Conversations in social media are a dialogue, an
opportunity to listen, share, collaborate and
respond to our colleagues and communities. We
recognise the importance of participating in these
conversations. Because the social media space is
relatively new, and comments may be public and
potentially permanent, we’ve developed these
guidelines to support staff as they engage in any
conversations or interactions using digital media
for official, professional and personal use.”
https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/policies/technology/communication/socmed_guide.pdf

20. Australian Council for
Computers in Education(ACCE)
• ACCE firmly supports the potential educational
affordances of online communication, including
social media.
• Teachers at all levels are demonstrating
innovative and educationally rewarding uses.

21. Lessons to be learnt
from the studies:
• The adoption of an approach based on
appropriately managing risks, not inhibiting use
• Educating students about the dangers
• Unilateral policies regarding removal, or blocking,
social networking sites, do not recognise the
potentially valuable outcomes they may afford.

22. Ethical dilemmas
• You decide …