S TAY C ONNECTED : S OCIAL S PACES & S OCIAL M EDIA A UGUST 28, 2009 Luba Iskold Terry Collings Josh Suchow

P RESENTATION OUTLINE Stay Informed Start Planning Collaborate with Colleagues

S TAY INFORMED What’s new at the LLC? People Hardware 20 PCs 2MACs Microsoft Lifecom VX-5000 Webcams Digital Camera Canon HighSpeed Document Scanner SR2050C Software Courseware Skype VLC Player

S TART PLANNING Projects in progress: Dish Network TV Kiosk Social media and online collaboration Student-led presentations: Skype-October Facebook-November YouTube-December Podcasting & RSS Feeds- February Twitter- March Best Practices: Faculty and student show and tell-April

G OING BEYOND THE CLASSROOM What are all these technologies? Why do we need to know about them? How can the new technologies be used for pedagogy? Connecting with students and colleagues in new ways? Making language learning and teaching more enjoyable? Expanding the study of languages and cultures beyond the classroom?

B ACKGROUND I NFORMATION : C LARIFICATION OF T ERMS Social Interactions Definition: Dynamic, changing sequences of social actions between individuals or groups Types of Social Interactions Spontaneous - not planned Regular - very common Planned - scheduled

W HERE DO S OCIAL I NTERACTIONS O CCUR ? Social Spaces Definition: The purpose of campus social spaces is to promote social interaction among students, staff, faculty, etc. Information Grounds Definition: Social settings in which people share everyday information while attending to a focal activity Fisher et al., 2004 introduced the concept of ‘information grounds’ The findings of their study suggest 'Information grounds' play an intrinsic role in facilitating communication among people Social spaces with information flow may enhance learning and interaction

K IOSK Definition: Unattended multimedia kiosks dispense public information via computer screens. Either a keyboard, touch screen or both are used for input.

O NLINE C OLLABORATION : B RIEF O VERVIEW Synchronous tools “Same time-different place” mode for communication and collaboration Examples: Audio/Video/Web conferencing, Chat, Instant messaging, Skype Advantages: Engage people instantly, at the same point in time Drawbacks: Require same-time participation Different time zones and conflicting schedules can create communication challenges

O NLINE C OLLABORATION : B RIEF O VERVIEW Asynchronous tools “Different time-different place" mode for communication and collaboration Examples: , Discussion boards/BlackBoard, Web logs (Blogs), Streaming audio/video, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, Online calendars Advantages: Involve people from multiple time zones Capture the history of the interactions of a group Collective knowledge easily shared and distributed Drawbacks: Require discipline to use for ongoing communities of practice e.g., people typically must take the initiative to "login" to participate

O NLINE S OCIAL N ETWORKING How can we integrate Skype into our teaching? What is Skype? Introduced in July 2004 Within a year, more than 100 million people downloaded the software By late 2008, an average of 10 million users were using Skype simultaneously

O NLINE SOCIAL NETWORKING How can we integrate Facebook into our teaching? What is Facebook? Free online social networking directory that connects people Launched in 2004 by undergraduates at Harvard, led by Mark Zuckerberg Similar to books of faces distributed to freshmen Open to anyone with a valid address Privacy settings prevent strangers from accessing users’ personal information Enables photo, video, message sharing

O NLINE SOCIAL NETWORKING How can we integrate Twitter into our teaching? What is Twitter? Free social messaging utility for staying connected To chirrup To speak rapidly and in a tremulous manner: twittering over office gossip To giggle nervously To tremble with nervous agitation or excitement The light chirping sound made by certain birds A similar sound, especially light, tremulous speech or laughter Agitation or excitement; flutter

C OLLABORATE WITH COLLEAGUES Terry Collings Presentation of GroupWise Calendar

R EFERENCES Karen E. FisherKaren E. Fisher, Carol F. Landry and Charles Naumer.Carol F. LandryCharles Naumer. Social spaces, casual interactions, meaningful exchanges: 'information ground' characteristics based on the college student experience. The Information School, University of Washington Box , Seattle, Washington, USA