1. 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 www.profkane.com gerald.kane@bc.edu © 2009 Gerald C. Kane

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

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