1. Utilising Twitter as a Community of Learning within Nurse Education (An Ongoing MA in Academic Practice Research Project) James.M.Hewitt Senior Lecturer Faculty of Health, Psychology & Social Care Manchester Metropolitan University j.m.hewitt@mmu.ac.uk follow @jiMMUni (http://twitter.com/jiMMUni) #nurseteaching eLearning in Health Conference 2011 Aston Conference Centre

2. Utilising Twitter as a Community of Learning within Nurse Education James.M.Hewitt, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health, Psychology & Social Care, Manchester Metropolitan University j.m.hewitt@mmu.ac.uk / follow @jiMMUni (http://twitter.com/jiMMUni) / #nurseteaching eLearning in Health Conference 2011 Twitter - What’s Happening? A relatively new Social Network Website (>200 million) ‘Web 2.zero-era’ (a Read & Write medium)  Rapidly becoming more popular, a ‘Micro-blogging’ network, limited to 140 characters – a Tweet  Follow people of similar / mutual interests  Information can be (immediate) bidirectional  Allowing rapid widespread dissemination of information  Communication tool that can be updated frequently  Can leave thoughts from the ‘mundane’ to the more meaningful in relation to personal & professional interests  Tweets are in reverse chronological order  Accessible via internet enabled computers & ‘Smart Phones’ (>90% mobiles sold are smart phones)  Constantly in the news – some negative & positive aspects http://www.guardian.co. uk (2009) statistics http://twitter.com/ about

3. The 2 pedagogical learning views of ‘CoP’: Constructivist (derives from Piaget’s Genetic Epistemology): The importance of the context of what is being learned in class & practice Anthropological: Learning from participation in a wider social network interaction Utilising Twitter as a Community of Learning within Nurse Education James.M.Hewitt, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health, Psychology & Social Care, Manchester Metropolitan University j.m.hewitt@mmu.ac.uk / follow @jiMMUni (http://twitter.com/jiMMUni) / #nurseteaching eLearning in Health Conference 2011 Communities of Learning / Practice (CoL / CoP) CoL & CoP are interchangeable terms within Nursing A platform for: Collaborative learning / Promoting engagement / Development in practice & personal learning / Dissemination of new knowledge (inc. EBP) / Common values & beliefs Problems include: inconsistency of members activity / mistrust Wenger (1999)

4. Enhances Blended Learning, it can be utilised to support students, these ‘Mashups’ include, for example: Twit Board – Student Notice Board Tweetorials – One to one support Summing Up / Spinning & Weaving (@learninglines) – Students summarise an article in 140 characters (challenging) Twit Links – Share a hyperlink (e.g. research ) Retweet (RT) - Share non-mutual followers thoughts, go viral! Tweming – A ‘meme’ (#tag – ‘blogosphere’) can be created, acts as a bidirectional discussion area of themes, lasts for length of interest in # Micro Meet – Discussions between all students (Group or Direct Messages) Micro Write – Collaborative writing (Problem Based Learning potential) Utilising Twitter as a Community of Learning within Nurse Education James.M.Hewitt, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health, Psychology & Social Care, Manchester Metropolitan University j.m.hewitt@mmu.ac.uk / follow @jiMMUni (http://twitter.com/jiMMUni) / #nurseteaching eLearning in Health Conference 2011 Twitter as a Community of Learning  Students today are a digitally savvy population (Thompson 2007)  It could foster informal cyber-teaching beyond the classroom with no time limit on participation, used as a ‘loud speaker’  Easy / Affordable / ‘Free’ once device has been bought  Students have a Common Purpose / Shared Vision  Learning with active participation / engagement Wheeler (2008)

5. The Student Nurse  ‘Cyber-disinhabition’(benign & toxic), sharing information, could breach confidentiality (patient or personal)  Student passivity / varied IT skills  Time consuming / addictive  Can students differentiate between personal & the professional?  Is ‘Creepy Tree House Syndrome’ a barrier? Utilising Twitter as a Community of Learning within Nurse Education James.M.Hewitt, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health, Psychology & Social Care, Manchester Metropolitan University j.m.hewitt@mmu.ac.uk / follow @jiMMUni (http://twitter.com/jiMMUni) / #nurseteaching eLearning in Health Conference 2011 Ethical & Legal Issues Haigh & Jones (2005) Waskul (1996) (Haigh 2010) The Teacher  Who has the Intellectual Property Rights? Who owns a Tweet? - Free speech v’s. Academic discourse  What is public & private?... The tutor needs to be aware of what is posted, who sees it & is offence being caused? – liability - Acting as gatekeeper, moderating the students contributions

6. Utilising Twitter as a Community of Learning within Nurse Education James.M.Hewitt, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health, Psychology & Social Care, Manchester Metropolitan University j.m.hewitt@mmu.ac.uk / follow @jiMMUni (http://twitter.com/jiMMUni) / #nurseteaching eLearning in Health Conference 2011 Communities of Learning / Practice (CoL / CoP) Twitter - What is it? Evaluation Ethical & Legal Issues Twitter as a Community of Learning CoL & CoP are interchangeable terms within Nursing A platform for: Collaborative learning / Promoting engagement / Development in practice & personal learning / Dissemination of new knowledge / Common values & beliefs What’s happening? Wenger (1999)  A relatively new Social Network Website (>175 million)  ‘Web 2.0 - Era’ (Read & Write medium)  Rapidly becoming more popular, a ‘Micro-blogging’ network, limited to 140 characters – a Tweet  Follow people of similar / mutual interests  Information can be bidirectional  Allowing rapid widespread dissemination of information  Communication tool that can be updated frequently  Can leave thoughts from the mundane to the more meaningful in relation to personal & professional interests  Tweets are in reverse chronological order  Accessible via internet enabled computers & ‘Smart Phones’ (>90% mobiles sold are smart phones) The Teacher  Intellectual Property Rights / Law  Free speech vs. Academic discourse  What is public & private? The tutor needs to be aware of what is posted, who sees it & is offence being caused The Student Nurse  Cyber-disinhabition’ (benign & toxic), sharing information, could breach confidentiality (patient or personal)  Student passivity / varied IT skills  Time consuming / addictive  Students today are a digitally savvy population (Thompson 2007)  Can foster informal cyber-teaching beyond the classroom with no time limit on participation  Easy / Affordable / ‘Free’ once device has been bought  Common Purpose / Shared Vision  Learning with active participation / engagement  Enhances Blended Learning, it can be utilised to support students, these ‘Mashups’ include for example:  Twit Board – Student Notice Board  Tweetorials – one to one support  Summing Up / Spinning & Weaving – Summarise an article  Twit Links – Share a hyperlink (e.g. research )  Retweet (RT) - Share non-mutual followers thoughts, go viral!  Tweming – A ‘meme’ (#tag – ‘blogosphere’) can be created, acts as a bidirectional discussion area of themes  Micro Meet – Discussions between all students (can Direct M)  Micro Write – Collaborative writing (PBL potential ) Wheeler (2008) Haigh & Jones (2005) Indicative texts (Reference List on separate sheet): Wenger. E (1999) Communities of practice : learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. / Wheeler, S (2008) Learning with ‘e’s Available from:http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2009/01/teaching-with-twitter.html (accessed Nov 2010) Haigh, C (2010) Legality, the web and nurse educators. Nurse Education Today. 30, 6, p553–556. Waskul (1996) (Haigh 2010) Twitter is in it’s infancy. Micro-blogging is used to broaden participation, enhancing the student experience by creating a community of learners Students are able to gain from the teacher, identify key learning materials enabling discursive debate & argue contentious issues Collective enquiry can result into best nursing practice & professional interest into a CoP or a Professional Learning Community – nurse related Participation can save student embarrassment, in and out of the classroom, every learner has a voice ± It does require the teacher to encourage high quality Tweets ± Teacher activity may be arduous & time consuming ± Tweets require close supervision to ensure respect & confidentiality within the community of learners ±Creepy Tree house syndrome Feedback your thoughts: #nurseteaching http://www.guardian.co. uk (2009) statistics The 2 views of ‘CoP’: Constructivist: The importance of the context of what is being learned in class & practice Anthropological: Learning from participation in a wider social network http://twitter.com/about