Using social media for learning,
teaching and research
Gráinne Conole
Bath Spa Innovating Pedagogy Seminar
9th March 2016
National
Teaching
Fellow 2012 Ascilite fellow 2012EDEN fellow 2013

Outline
• Characteristics of new media
• What is your digital network
• Using social media for:
– Learning
– Teaching
– Research
• Benefits and risks
• Types of tools
• Case studies
• Blogs, Twitter and facebook

Activity
• What are the
characteristics of new
technologies?
• What are their
implications for
learning, teaching and
research?

New media
Characteristics Implications
Conole and Alevizou, 2010

5
• Technology immersed
• Learning approaches: task-
orientated, experiential,
just in time, cumulative,
social
• Personalised digital
learning environment
• Mix of institutional systems
and Cloud-based tools and
services
• Use of course materials
with free resources
Sharpe, Beetham and De Freitas, 2010
Learner experience

EDUCAUSE study
• Students drawn
to new
technologies but
rely on more
traditional ones
• Consider
technologies
offer major
educational
benefits
• Mixed views of
LMSs
http://www.educause.edu/studentsAndTechnologyInfographic

Game changers
• Harness the power of new
media
• Need to rethink education
• How can we reach more
learners, more effectively?
• Impact of free resources,
tools and expertise?
• New business models?
• New digital literacies?
http://www.educause.edu/game-changers

Activity: What’s your digital network?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/factoryjoe/195492568/

My network

Activity: fb love it or hate it?
Pros
• Overseas family, fun, quick
updates, time zones, search
on names!!, snooping,
contact with people you
wouldn’t be in touch with
otherwise
Cons
• In your face, not sharing
everything, not preferred
tool for many things, friends
reunited, inappropriate,
quality vs. quantity,
overload, emotional
outbursts,

What tools can students use for their
learning?

What tools do you use for teaching?

What tools do you use for Research?

Activity: using new media for research
• How would you use the following for research (i.e. data
collection, dissemination, discussion)?
–Blogs
–Facebook
–Google+
–LinkedIn
–Academia.edu
–Twitter
–Flickr and Youtube
–Diigo
–Mandeley
–Dropbox
–Others?

Social media
• Range of internet-based tools that allow
people to create, co-create, share and interact
with information

Benefits of social media
• Students can communicate with their peers
• Researchers can be part of a global
community
• Students can use to demonstrate their
competences
• Universities can use to interact with a variety
of audiences

Risks of social media
• Ethical, privacy and security issues
• Time consuming
• Inappropriate use
• Ownership
• Constantly changing

Types of tools
• Social networking tools – e.g. facebook
• Reflective tools – e.g. blogs and Twitter
• Gaming tools and virtual worlds – e.g.
SecondLife
• Communication tools – e.g. WhatsApp
• Consumer tools – e.g. price comparison sites

Case studies
• Recruitment and transition to HE
– Social searching for recruitment
– Support prior to enrolment
– Peer mentoring
• Research
– Part of a scholarly community
– Development of a professional profile
– Disseminating research
– Resource discovery
– Undertaking research

Case studies
• Employability
– Social Media Knowledge Exchange
– Development of a professional
network
• Public engagement
– Dissemination to general public
• Enhancing learning and teaching
– Extending beyond the classroom
– Peer review
– Twitter as a back channel
– Keeping in touch when on placement
– Wikis to co-create knowledge
• Keeping in touch with Alumni

Blogs
• Of the moment
reflections
• Digital archive
• The power of peer review
• Record of events, reviews
and resources
• Wider audience reach
and hence profile
• Link into facebook and
Twitter
• Complements traditional
publication routes
e4innovation.com
gconole.wordpress,com

Bloggers worth reading
M. Weller
G. Siemens
T. Anderson

Using facebook

Ideas for harnessing Web 2.0?
Twitter

Doing a session on using social media for
learning, teaching and research, any good links?
Anna Mathews @anna_mathews
22h22 hours ago
Hi @gconole You might find this link
http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/socialmedia
more useable @gillferrell @ucisa

Final thoughts
• Participatory and social media enable new forms of
communication and collaboration
• Communities in these spaces are complex and
distributed
• Learners and teachers need to develop new digital
literacy skills to harness their potential
• We need to rethink how we design, support and assess
learning
• Open, participatory and social media can provide
mechanisms for us to share and discuss teaching and
research ideas in new ways
• We are seeing a blurring of boundaries:
teachers/learners, teaching/research, real/virtual
spaces, formal/informal modes of communication and

References
• UCISA social media toolkit
– http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/~/media/Files/publications/social_
media/344996%20UCISA%20-%20Book%20v8%208-12-15-
final.ashx
• M. Weller - The digital scholar
– http://oro.open.ac.uk/29664/
• EDUCAUSE
– http://er.educause.edu/articles/2009/12/horton-hears-a-
tweet
• Using Twitter to enhance social presence
– http://patricklowenthal.com/publications/Using_Twitter_t
o_Enhance_Social_Presence.pdf

http://www.slideshare.net/GrainneConole
g.conole@bathspa.ac.uk
Blog: http://e4innovation.com
Twitter: @gconole