Guest Speaker at The Sheffield College Sue Beckingham | @suebecks | Sheffield Hallam University Our graduates of tomorrow face an increasingly competitive job market. Competing for jobs will no longer be confined to the communication channels we have traditionally used for decades and there is a growing shift to digital alternatives. What is clear therefore is that there is a vital need to ensure that our students have the opportunity to develop the necessary digital skills they will need to prepare them for their future. The notion of the digital native/digital immigrant must be challenged as whilst many are visitors to online forums, this does not necessarily indicate that they have given consideration to the development of their own professional online presence or indeed have the skills to do this most effectively. The focus of the seminar will be to explore the innovative use of social media to: • develop confident communication skills • work collaboratively both synchronously and asynchronously • develop a professional online presence

1. Using Social Media Strategically
in Learning and Teaching to
Build Confidence and Presence
Sue Beckingham | @suebecks
Sheffield Hallam University

2. Social Media can be used to:
1. develop confident communication
skills
2. work collaboratively both
synchronously and asynchronously
3. develop a professional online
presence

3. It should be a supported and
stepped approach
Level 6
Level 5
Levels 3 & 4
Awareness
raising and
confidence
building
Preparation for
graduating
Preparation for
placement
opportunities
Building in relevant activities at each level

4. 1. Using social media to develop
confident communication skills
Reflective blogging
Student brief: There are a number of blog tools you
can choose from. These include WordPress, Blogger
and Tumblr. Your blog will form the digital portfolio for
your assessment. You are expected to make
a minimum of 10 posts over the semester.

5. Give directed topics weekly to help students
focus on an aspect of their learning whilst
encouraging additional posts
Encourage use of images, video and audio

6. 1. Using social media to develop
confident communication skills
Digital ‘About Me’ Video
Student brief: You will create a digital ‘about me’.
This can be a video or a screencast with voice over. It
should include both information to introduce yourself
and also a professional you. Think about your skills
and aspirations. It should be recorded and saved as a
YouTube file so that you may embed it into your blog.
The duration should be approximately 2-3 minutes.

7. Get the students to select a private setting and
then invite their Tutor to view.
Ask them to embed the video in their blogs and
reflect upon what they see.
Use as practice or potential for Skype interviews

8. 2. Using social media to work collaboratively
both synchronously and asynchronously
Some examples.
There are many more!
Google Drive: shared
documents, spreadsheets
and presentations
Use a
#ClassHashtag
Google Hangouts
shared presentations

9. 2. Using social media to work collaboratively
both synchronously and asynchronously
Students used Google Docs for
group meeting minutes and
agendas, plus collaboration on
group work diagrams.

10. 2. Using social media to work collaboratively
both synchronously and asynchronously
Students used Google Hangouts or Skype, which were captured using
screencast-o-matic and embedded in to their individual blogs to reflect upon.

11. 3. Using social media to develop a
professional online presence
Students used Twitter as a search engine to find
companies they aspired to work for.

12. 3. Using social media to develop a
professional online presence
Begin by introducing relevant examples of how the process of job
seeking has now spilled into social media channels.

13. 3. Using social media to develop a
professional online presence
Awareness raising of student internships and job opportunities
for graduates through LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/studentjobs

14. Get students to search for companies or people
they would like to work for and to find out how
they are using Twitter.
Work towards building a LinkedIn profile (using
settings to make it private until ready to share)

16. LinkedIn members did
over 5.7 billion
professionally-oriented
searches on the
platform in 2012.
More than 3 million
companies have LinkedIn
Company Pages.
http://press.linkedin.com/about
LinkedIn members
are sharing insights
and knowledge in
more than 2.1 million
LinkedIn Groups.

17. !
http://www.alexa.com/topsites/global
will find your digital
footprints!

18. Be aware that social media ranks highly

19. Leading by example with a
professional online presence

20. Providing students with
exemplars of real
scenarios (e.g. news
clips) where social media
use has had unfortunate
consequences for them to
learn from will resonate
more effectively than just
saying don't do it.

21. Guest Speaker at The Sheffield College
Sue Beckingham | @suebecks
Sheffield Hallam University
Our graduates of tomorrow face an increasingly competitive job market. Competing for jobs
will no longer be confined to the communication channels we have traditionally used for
decades and there is a growing shift to digital alternatives. What is clear therefore is that
there is a vital need to ensure that our students have the opportunity to develop the
necessary digital skills they will need to prepare them for their future. The notion of the digital
native/digital immigrant must be challenged as whilst many are visitors to online forums, this
does not necessarily indicate that they have given consideration to the development of their
own professional online presence or indeed have the skills to do this most effectively.
The focus of the seminar will be to explore the innovative use of social media to:
•
develop confident communication skills
•
work collaboratively both synchronously and asynchronously
•
develop a professional online presence