Michael Rees discusses using various social media tools for teaching. He lists his top 10 choices as Twitter, Google Reader, Gmail, Evernote, Live Mesh, Delicious, Wordpress, Google Sites, Camtasia Studio, and SlideShare. Rees blogs about teaching and encourages student blogging assignments. He has students create Wordpress blogs and use Delicious for social bookmarking. Wikis are used for assessment to improve writing skills and build shared knowledge. Rees sees the future of learning institutions embracing creativity, collaboration, flexibility and playful learning through digital openness and transparency.

1. Teaching with Social Media Tools
Michael Rees
School of Information Technology
Bond University
@mrees
Slides available via http://smcgoldcoast.com

2. Topics
© 2010 Michael Rees Teaching with Social Media 2
Teaching
with
Social
Media
Blogging
Delicious
Wikis
Google
Docs
Note
Taking
Twitter

3. My Choice of Learning Tools
1. Twitter
2. Google Reader http://google.com/reader
3. Gmail
4. Evernote
5. Live Mesh (Part of Windows Live Essentials 2010)
6. Delicious
7. Wordpress &Windows Live Writer (Part of Windows Live Essentials
2010)
8. Google Sites
9. Camtasia Studio
10. SlideShare http://slideshare.net
© 2010 Michael Rees Teaching with Social Media 3

4. My Blogging
Your social media mother ship
A father of the word ‘weblog’ in 1995
Started blogging in 2006 as a professional journal
at Scholarcast
Volume 1 ‘published’ by Blurb.com in 2009
Volume 2 to be ebook in epub format – see
BookBrewer.com and Zinepal.com
© 2010 Michael Rees Teaching with Social Media 4

5. Student Blogging
© 2010 Michael Rees Teaching with Social Media 5
Set student blogging
assignments from 053
Now worth up to 15% of all
marks
Encourage students to:
• Record additional learning resources, own thoughts and
ideas, and achievements throughout the semester
• Read other students blogs
• Comment on other student blogs

6. Wordpress Blogs
© 2010 Michael Rees Teaching with Social Media 6
Teaching uses:
• Develop an important life skill
• Share thoughts with students/staff
• 9 free choice posts for 9% of marks

7. Delicious Social Bookmarking
© 2010 Michael Rees Teaching with Social Media 7
Teaching uses:
• Targeted lists of links (tagging) with
notes
• Share with students/colleagues
• Evolve over semester

8. Wikis for Assessment
Improve structured
writing/documentation skills
Build body of knowledge that
extends formal subject content
Encourage comments
Wiki topics used for (part of)
assessment
Tried both group and individual wiki
pages
© 2010 Michael Rees Teaching with Social Media 8

9. Student Wikis
© 2010 Michael Rees Teaching with Social Media 9
https://sites.google.com/site/webappdevmaster/

10. Future of Learning Institutions
innovative thinking creativity, connected collaboration,
flexibility, play=learning?
with curiosity, exploration, transparency & openness
To prepare all of our students for a decidedly digital
future
© 2010 Michael Rees Teaching with Social Media 10
Michael Stephens http://go.mrees.com/hypercampus

11. Open Scholar
Research
funding insists
on open access
Funding
requires +ve
social impact
Public readers
of open access
check on
authors
Researchers
need searchable
public persona
Public persona
determines
funding
© 2010 Michael Rees Teaching with Social Media 11
Blog post:
http://bit.ly/public-persona
the Open Scholar is
someone who makes their
intellectual projects and
processes digitally visible
http://bit.ly/osdefn