Using Social Media in a Boston College Classroom (and what you can learn from it) Gerald C (Jerry) Kane, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Information Systems Carroll School of Management Boston College © 2009 Gerald C. Kane

Classroom 2.0 Teach Intro Information Systems course (BBA and MBA) in Business School Have used Wikis, Blogs, Social Networks, RSS, YouTube, Folksonomies to enhance classroom experience. ◦ Different challenges at MBA and BBA levels ◦ Colleagues used in other departments. © 2009 Gerald C. Kane

Lesson 1) “Social” before “Media.” It’s not mainly about the tools, but the collaborative processes that they enable. Example: Journal Editor attempting to replicate wikis in classroom. Good social media environments don’t just “happen.” It’s a competency that can be learned and taught. © 2009 Gerald C. Kane

Lesson 2) Learn when/how to trust the crowd New Media Literacy (Jenkins 2008). ◦ Crowd is good in some situations, not so good in others. Need to become savvy consumers and creators of social media information. Example: NML Assignments, Wikipedia ◦ Reliable information, but often incomplete. ◦ Quality does not equal relevance. ◦ “The crowd creates mostly crap.” ◦ Social structures still exist online © 2009 Gerald C. Kane

Figure 1: Two-mode network of articles and editors Squares = editors Circles = articles Red = Featured Articles Orange = A-quality Articles Yellow = Good Articles Light Blue = B-quality Articles Dark Blue = Start-quality articles Squares = editors Circles = articles Red = Featured Articles Orange = A-quality Articles Yellow = Good Articles Light Blue = B-quality Articles Dark Blue = Start-quality articles The Social Structure of Peer Production © 2009 Gerald C. Kane

Lesson 3) Leverage the Crowd Use crowd to perform work they are doing anyway. Example: Crowdsourcing Exams Upside: frees experts up to be experts. Downside: social media environment means less traditional managerial control © 2009 Gerald C. Kane

Lesson 4) Provide incentives Despite the hype, people don’t want to work for “free.” Example: Grading Policies Sticks: mandate participation ◦ Requirements for minimum contribution ◦ Increases quantity of activity Carrots: reward desired behavior ◦ Offer rewards/ recognition for best work ◦ Increases quality of activity © 2009 Gerald C. Kane

Lesson 5) Monitor the crowd Pay attention to what’s going on (internally and externally) Automatic search tools ◦ Helpful ways to keep track of high-level trends. ◦ Example: RSS Deputize individuals ◦ In Web 2.0, lots happens outside the reach of ‘bots. ◦ Example: “Hotlines” © 2009 Gerald C. Kane

Lesson 6) It takes time… Social media changes over time. ◦ Google = 10, Facebook = 5, Twitter = 2 ◦ Portfolio of small “experiments” best – keep what works. Example: SocialText Platform. Time may be more important than expertise ◦ Do you give employees time to use? ◦ Consider who you’ll hear from in social media environments Example: Wikipedia and Aspergers © 2009 Gerald C. Kane

Lesson 7) Open, but control, boundaries Social media weakens traditional boundaries Example: Mini-blogosphere Beware unintended consequences ◦ Google indexing, student death. Retain right and maintain ability to control ◦ But know limits of this control. © 2009 Gerald C. Kane

Lesson 8) Face-to-face is social media, too. Social media does not replace F2F interactions, it augments them. Example: Class Introduction Sends message: ◦ Social media is important (and transparent) ◦ Opportunity to recognize desired activity ◦ Constructively handle undesired © 2009 Gerald C. Kane

Thank You. Questions? Comments? © 2009 Gerald C. Kane