week 9: social media evaluations.

Posted by in weekly readings and responses.

At the end of his chapter on social media, T.Bates (2014) asks you to think about a way social media can be used in one of the courses you teach. Respond to the question he raises:

  1. What new learning outcomes could the use of social media help develop?

The main feature of social media is that they empower the end user to access, create, disseminate and share information easily in a user-friendly, open environment. It levels the playing field in a classroom – any and every student has open, unrestricted access to a variety of information (with the exception of some controls exerted by school boards and/or government in terms of pornography or copyright). Students can use social media to ask questions and get responses in real time from users around the world, post their works and tap into a much broader audience and obtain feedback that their teacher perhaps would not have given, and because of these affordances, a redefinition of learning occurs. Student work is validated and shared with others, and this is extremely motivational. They feel a connection to the world around them, and feel part of a larger community than the one contained within their school. McLoughlin and Lee (2011) also state that collaborative information discovery and sharing is one of the affordances associated with social media use, and the concept of sharing discoveries in order to ultimately further the student’s findings is crucial. This practice prepares students for the workplace, and also teaches them how to effectively communicate with others. Social media provides users with a platform through which to share student-produced media works, and as students navigate through these platforms (for example, Twitter), they begin to build personal learning networks and curate ideas, resources and best practices. This alone will redefine learning outcomes. It also creates teachable moments of discerning what kind of information is acceptable and what sort of information is not suitable for classroom research, etc.

  1. Consider an example of popular Social Media, use the SECTIONS model for evaluation: explain to what extent, you think, using this media would improve the instruction, if at all?

Using Bates and Poole’s SECTIONS model, Google Plus will be evaluated as to what extent using this media would improve instruction, if at all.

Students: Student demographics need to be considered, their access to the service and the differences in how they learn. Google Plus fits into various types of demographic. For the novice, it offers an interactive, helpful and timely online community of like-minded individuals willing to respond to questions. Depending on interests, students can join communities tailored to their needs. In terms of access to this service, the domain administrator must give permission to students, and following this step, it is a web-based service, so as long as there is an internet connection, students are able to sign on from any location. It is also mobile-friendly, and is available as an iOS and Android app, as well, it is compatible with all mobile browsers. As with any Google product, it may be (more) optimized with the Chrome browser. Google Plus is very user-friendly, and any student belonging to a school board that subscribes to Google Apps for Education (the number of GAFE schools is steadily on the rise) will have a Google account, and subsequently, a Google Plus account. Along with many other social media platforms, the minimum age requirement is 13 years old. When access to a Plus account is gained, the student will be able to use Google Hangouts and Google Hangouts on Air, which is an important tool to use for virtual field trips, showcasing projects, presenting their interests, gaining insights and perspectives from around the world, and many other uses that would certainly be of benefit to classroom instruction, and help to elevate and redefine current practices for the reasons outlined above. One consideration that a school board may have to keep in mind, Google Hangouts takes up to five times the amount of bandwidth as Skype, for example. Depending on the server(s) a school board uses, and the amount of students/teachers are using the service, a bandwidth increase many need to be entertained. In terms of permission to use these types of services, a permission letter may be created by the teacher, or conversely, a “blanket” form that is administered at the beginning of the year may be used, depending on school board policy.

Ease of Use: Google Plus is very user-friendly, and provides its users with the ever helpful Google help forums. Sign-up is painless, and walks the student through the (few) steps.

Cost: Google Plus is a free service. The user must have a Gmail account, which is free.

Teaching and Media Selection: Mayer (2009) outlined 12 different design principles (coherence, signalling, avoiding redundancy, spatial contiguity, temporal contiguity, segmenting, pre-training, modality, multimedia, personalization, voice, no image). Also, Talbert’ design principles are as follows: Keep it (simple, short, real and good). When these principles are combined, the theory is that educators will be able to design successful media content in order to deliver information to students. I believe that Google Plus keeps its design simple, in that it separates categories of information into communities – and if a question is posed in the “wrong” community, the moderator (or other members) will politely inform the user of this, and direct them to the proper forum to maintain order. The design of the platform is a “stream” format, and posts that show up in your stream are categorized in terms of which community it belongs to, so that the user can easily click into the post and navigate to that community, rather than wade through everything.

Interaction: Students can interact with a variety of multimedia learning materials on this platform. It is compatible with many blogging platforms, and videos, images and links are able to be uploaded as posts. Student and teacher can also interact on Google Plus in a private community, where students can post work, questions, etc and teachers can respond. Many school boards have opted into Google Apps for Education, and this type of interaction is easily facilitated. As well, students can interact with other students the same way.

Organizational Issues: Google Plus is easily organized by the administrator for the school board, through checkboxes.

Networking: The potential for networking is good, as users will be able to seamlessly connect with others through the use of Circles, and Google Hangouts – so, not only in print, but through the use of video-conferencing.

Security and Privacy: Since Google Plus and GAFE is a cloud-based service, student data is housed on Google servers. The following is taken from an Alberta school board’s “Guide to Going Google”: All of a user’s data is owned by the user and the school district and Google makes no claim on the content. Specifically, here’s what they have to say:

  • Google Apps is governed by a detailed Privacy Policy, which ensures we (Google) will not inappropriately share or use personal information placed in our systems.
  • The Google Apps Terms of Service contractually ensures that students, faculty, and staff are the sole owners of their data.
  • Because faculty, staff & students own the data they put into Google Apps, we believe it should be easy for your users to move their data in and out of our systems.
  • The controls, processes and policies that protect user data in our systems have obtained a SAS 70 Type II attestation and will continue to seek similar attestation.
  • Google complies with applicable US privacy law, and the Google Apps Terms of Service can specifically detail their obligations and compliance with FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) regulations.
  • Google is registered with the US-EU Safe Harbor agreement, which ensures that their data protection compliance meets international standards.  *Note:  Although these laws have no legal standing in Alberta or Canada, consider that they demonstrate Google’s commitment to the protection of personal information of our users.

Based on the SECTIONS model, Google Plus would be a viable option for schools, particularly if the school board has gone GAFE.

  1. When you select media tools for your instruction, what criteria do you follow?

The seven foundational building blocks of social media (Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy and Silvestre, 2011) provides a framework for implications for business, however, I believe it is also applicable to school settings.

Identity: To what extent do users reveal their identities in Google Plus? To access Google Plus, since it is part of the Google apps productivity suite, you are required to have a Google account, and users need to be age 13 and over to use it. Name, preferred Username, Password, Birthday, Gender, Mobile Phone and Other email address is also required. You will also need to agree to Google’s terms and conditions. Once an account is made, there are privacy settings within communities, posts and your profile to adhere to school-related activities.

Conversations: To what extent do users communicate with others in Google Plus? Google Plus is both a professional and social forum where users post within various communities of interest, or within communities users create themselves. Users also build a profile where they can post status updates, news, links, images, etc, much like Facebook. It has a built-in feature where you can add other users to your Circles, and “+1” user updates/posts (similar to a Facebook “like”). You can also add peoples’ names (with a + in front) so that they are “tagged” in a post – this is another way to communicate.

Sharing: To what extent do users exchange, distribute, and receive content? Students exchange information by connecting to other Circles, where they can now communicate on Chat or Google Hangouts. Being in someone’s “circle” means that they can contact you and request a Hangout or chat, and be able to tell if you are online, and when you were last online. Sharing alone is a way of interacting in social media, but whether sharing leads users to want to converse or even build relationships with each other depends on the functional objective of the social media platform (Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy and Silvestre, 2011). Google Plus allows for collaboration based on its “community” design. You may distribute content in a variety of ways. You can attach images, video, links to web content or Google Drive Docs/Slides, etc, and there is a way where you can post privately, publicly, or within a community you may have created. If the community is private, and you would like to post to both the community and an outside audience, you cannot, and Google Plus will prompt you with this message. Google Plus is also able to connect to platforms like WordPress, in that you can use Publicize to automatically publish your latest blog post to Google Plus. With a recent update, Google Plus has introduced “collections”, which means that you can now arrange your communities in over-arching categories. https://plus.google.com/collections/welcome.

Presence: To what extent do users know if others are accessible? In Google Plus, there is no easy, explicit way to inform users if you are online, unless those users are in your circles, and you have engaged in a chat/Hangout with them. If you have, then in Gmail, you will be able to see their online/offline status. In the general Google Plus forums, however, presence is not as visible. Posts are time-stamped, so users would know in general when a user has been online.

Relationships: To what extent do users relate to others? Google Plus allows for users to post questions and responses, and it fosters a helpful community where responses are usually timely. Most communities are open, few are invitation only, but I’ve never been refused entry. Shared interests unite people here (like many other social media platforms). Google Plus also informs its users of mutual friends if they are in the same circles, or have friends who are in your circles, or vice versa.

Reputation: To what extent do users identify the standing of others, including themselves, in a social media setting? Google Plus has a count of how many views a profile has – this can be turned off in the user’s settings. This could be an indication of how active the user is, and/or how long this user has been a member of Google Plus. Also in the profile, it will also show how many people are in the user’s Circles, and how many people have the user in their Circles.

Groups: To what extent do users form communities and sub-communities? In Google Plus, you can add up to 5,000 profiles and pages across all of your circles. There is a daily limit for how many people and pages you can add to your circles. If you reach the limit, just wait a day to add more people or pages. Users can sort through their friends and place them into different Circles, depending on the relationship. You can also create new Circles to better reflect these relationships, and further personalize your experience. As mentioned above, certain communities in Google Plus require a request, and the administrator approves, but most are open. Further, users can create communities that are private for their organization(s) only.

November & Mull (2012) discuss the ways of using Twitter as educational tool.

  1. What is your opinion about the use of Twitter in instruction? Support your reasoning with examples and/or arguments.

A MediaSmarts report, Young Canadians in a Wired World, Phase III: Life Online states: “online media are primarily used for entertainment and communicating with friends and family”, and “about half of students in grades 7-11 (47%) have Twitter accounts” (p. 4). If the instructor provides students with the opportunity to use Twitter to reach out to a larger audience, even as an optional activity, it will be a familiar and therefore engaging platform the students can access. This will help to establish the student as a self-directed learner since there is a very good chance he/she uses Twitter (or at the very least has knowledge of it), and it will also foster an inquiry-based learning environment. In a teacher (or student!) created Twitter hashtag, questions could be exchanged and posted to a broader audience and researched. If a few classrooms situated in various geographical locations sign on to use the hashtag and answer inquiry questions (this could be pre-arranged as well), the potential for new ideas and perspectives could develop and change the initial ideas and perspectives about the topic at hand. This transforms learning, and would therefore satisfy the SAMR model’s Redefining Learning component. As a class, the Twittersphere could be scoured for trending hashtags (this can be found in the left-hand sidebar). These trends could potentially provide rich, engaging content on a variety of topics to which the students could further explore and respond. As an example, the trending hashtag #growingupwithmyname could prompt students to think about their own name, how they identify with their name, and the history of their first or surname.

Of course, students and teacher can also search for keywords as well.

I also believe that Twitter is an invaluable resource to educators as a Personal Learning Network (PLN). There are many articles about teachers getting ideas, resources and support from like-minded professionals on Twitter, and this could also drive instruction. Twitter also personalizes content. Depending on who you have followed, Twitter makes suggestions as to which trends jive with your interests, as well, it will make suggestions as to who else you should follow. This helps you build your PLN and tailor it to your specific needs.

 

References:

(2015). 7.6 Social media | Teaching in a Digital Age. Retrieved July 29, 2015, from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/9-5-5-social-media/.

(2015). Choosing and using media in education – BC Open Textbooks. Retrieved July 29, 2015, from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/part/9-pedagogical-differences-between-media/.

Kietzmann, J. H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I. P., & Silvestre, B. S. (2011). Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Business horizons, 54(3), 241-251.

(2013). Find & add people to circles – Google+ Help – Google Help. Retrieved July 29, 2015, from https://support.google.com/plus/answer/1047805?hl=en.