Faculty Members and Academic Technology Services Professionals: Paula Dagnon, Peter Agras, Kevin Dixey and Karen Hoelscher

How Can Social Media Be Used Effectively in Higher Education?

3 First a bit of background…

Social media growth from 2006 to 2012

These seven social media sites combine for an estimated 2 billion accounts in 2012

The average compound annual growth rate of these social media sites was 900% between 2006 and 2012

Facebook alone has 1 billion registered users and accounts for 11.5% of the global population

Population Billion

But all the knowledge is just sitting on the internet just waiting to be found!

10 Right?

11 No

There is a new culture of learning

The old ways of learning are unable to keep up with our rapidly changing world. (Thomas & Seeley Brown, 2011,location 577)

New media forms are making peer-to-peer learning easier and more natural.

(Thomas & Seeley Brown, 2011,location 577) Peer-to-peer learning is amplified by emerging technologies that shape the collective nature of participation with those new media

According to Vygotsky, “Every function in the child's cultural development appears twice:

first, on the social level and, later on, on the individual level…

…first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological).”

Change Theory NEED DEFINITION!! Three themes from paper Increase in collaboration from social media Increase in interaction Rethink pedagogy

Mostly quantitative Survey sent to all faculty and students using Canvas 17 questions; 5 Likert-type items Asked about the use of socially oriented tools in Canvas

n= % from Humanities and Social Sciences 54.7% of respondents using Canvas for the first time in Spring 13 StudentsFaculty Using Canvas for all levels of courses 100 Level-Graduate n=113 79% from Humanities and Social Sciences 54.1% using Canvas for the first time in Spring 13 Demographics

Use of Social Media YouTube or other video sharing tools 53% Personal networking, such as Facebook 48% Don’t use social media 30% Use social media daily 63% Personal networking, such as Facebook 90.3% YouTube or other video sharing tools 74% Pinterest or other content sharing tools 52% Wordpress 34.5% Twitter 28% Don’t use social media 2.7% Use social media daily 87% StudentsFaculty

I adopted more socially oriented tools and incorporated more interactive activities in my Canvas course than I did in my previous courses.

More socially oriented tools and activities were incorporated into my courses using Canvas than in previous courses.

When working in Canvas, did you reconsider your pedagogical approaches to include social media tools? Explain.

“YES. I have been thinking about including elements from Canvas to better facilitate teaching-learning process.”

“YES. Attempting to get students to work more collaboratively using online tools. Teaching one another, etc.”

“YES. I have been thinking about including elements from Canvas to better facilitate teaching-learning process.” “YES. Attempting to get students to work more collaboratively using online tools. Teaching one another, etc.” “NOT YET. I WILL THOUGH. My students already use Google Docs and Facebook to collaborate and communicate, especially for group projects.”

When working in Canvas, did you reconsider your pedagogical approaches to include social media tools? Explain.

“NO. It's a strange line between professional and personal, and I lean toward keeping them separate. I do have a "professional" account on Facebook, but I haven't seen any pedagogical reason to use it in the classroom.”

“NO. I don't feel the need for additional technological tools that would invariably displace low-tech techniques I regularly use.”

“NO. It's a strange line between professional and personal, and I lean toward keeping them separate. I do have a "professional" account on Facebook, but I haven't seen any pedagogical reason to use it in the classroom.” “NO. I don't feel the need for additional technological tools that would invariably displace low-tech techniques I regularly use.” “I have considered using social media tools but have thus far shied away from it. I feel that using such tools would put students who do not use them in a difficult position.”

Implications

What’s next?