Case Study: Expanding to Multiple Social Media Outlets

Who: Kelli Marshall

Where: University of Toledo, Department of Theater and Film

What: Using many forms of technology in the classroom, including many social media sites. Technology used so far: course management websites (WebCT/Blackboard), online office hours using chat and instant messaging systems, Twitter, and Facebook.

Why: To connect and interact with students in new ways, using technology that they are already using.

How: Dr. Marshall started using social media first by setting herself up on the sites in a professional manner. For Facebook, this meant creating a professional page to use in classes instead of using her personal page. For Twitter, she set up accounts for each of her courses (three accounts for the three different courses she is teaching this semester). She first started using Twitter as means of communication that was not mandatory for the class.

Dr. Marshall stated that Twitter was perfect for communication, because of “Its “lightweight” format–expressing an idea in 140 characters or fewer–is perfect for course updates/reminders, in- and out-of-class discussions (you might be asked to bring your cell phone to class!), and even possible exam questions (yes, possible exam questions). In addition, Twitter allows you to “follow” film stars/directors, some of whom we might discuss over the course of the semester (e.g., Kevin Spacey, Ben Stiller, Judd Apatow).”

Dr. Marshall would Tweet discussion questions and comments before and during class activities, like viewing a film, and accept answers and comments from students during and after class. While the first semester was slow to receive student feedback and participation including Facebook has increased social media communication among the students.

Follow Dr. Marshall’s blog for more information and updates on many things, including social media in the classroom. Her blog title is, Unmuzzled Thoughts About Teaching, Shakespeare, and Pop Culture.

For more information on Dr. Marshall’s courses and work, visit her homepage.

Case Study: The Psychology of Facebook

Who: Dr. BJ Fogg

Where: Stanford University

What: Students will become experts on the psychology of Facebook as it relates to motivation and persuasion.

Why: To help students learn the persuasive capabilities of Facebook and other social network sites.

How: For ten weeks the class focused on persuasion psychology in Facebook. Facebook was examined as a system that can foster attitude and behavior change. Each student selected a topic to lead; to gather the best readings to prepare for a class discussion. The student team directed class for 20 to 25 minutes on their topic. The class used social media outlets to share information they were learning and have the opportunity to receive feedback from outsiders. They had a Facebook group as well as possible blogs and videos on YouTube.

Dr. Fogg and his collegues are Stanford have been studying the intersection of computers and persuasion for nearly 7 years. He has taught previous classes using social media as a focus and given many presentations on this area of research. For an overview of one of his Facebook Classes on You Tube click here.

Case Study: Facebook: Course Management System Alternative

Who: Alessandro Cesarano, Doctoral Student

Where: University of South Florida, Second Language Acquisition and Instructional Technologies Program

What: Using Facebook as Course Management System

Why: Cesarano uses Facebook as a course management system instead of the University sponsored Blackboard system, because of better software options and offerings and students’ knowledge of Facebook when starting the course.

How: Facebook is used to send out homework assignments and to connect with students. Cesarano encourages students to create a Facebook account for academic purposes, separate from their personal account. This way there is a lower level of distraction in the classroom (not having personal updates on the profile while in class) and also privacy concerns are minimized if using a separate account. The class using Facebook is a beginning Spanish class and Cesarano cites having more access to authentic cultural material on Facebook on of the reasons he uses the system for course management. Facebook is a system that students (for the most part) already know how to use, so Cesarano enjoys being able to avoid using class time to teach students how to use a new program (like Blackboard).

While using Facebook in the classroom, Cesarano has seen added collaboration, communication, and increase student engagement outside of the classroom. The class’ Facebook group is programmed completely in Spanish, so students read and comment on posted material completely submerged in the language. As a “best practice” idea, students were given a user agreement at the beginning of the course outlining guidelines for using the Facebook page in the classroom. The guidelines state that students can only accept those in the student’s specific class as friends and students cannot promote or share inappropriate content in any way.

Helpful Resources

Here are some resources that may be helpful for inspiring ideas, creating a new course structure, or troubleshooting for those thinking of using social media in the college classroom.

Project Ideas and Ways for Using Social Media in the Classroom

25 Twitter Projects for the College Classroom

101 Ways to Use Twitter on Campus

100 Best Free iPhone Apps for Educators

100 Ways You Should be Using Facebook in Your Classroom

50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom

Twitter for Academia

Blogs Related to Social Media in the Classroom

Free Technology for Teachers

Derek’s Blog: Musings on the use and impact of technology in education, and of the future of education in general.

Web 2.0 Teaching Tools

Web 2.0 for Education and Training

Learning Technologies

Unmuzzled Thoughts: About Teaching, Shakespeare, and Pop Culture

academHacK: Tech Tools for Academics

Case Study: Blogs as a Resource, Communication, and Assignment Center

Who: Dr. Kevin Brady

Where: University of New Mexico, Department of Organizational Learning and Instructional Technology

What: Using blogs for student communication, coursework submission, and course website.

Why: Use blog platforms as a way to teach students (from experience) concepts of Web 2.0 software while utilizing features for course management.

How:

Course Description: This course is designed to introduce students to the set of applications that are being called Web 2.0 and to begin considering how they could be used for education and training. The course begins by examining the concept of Web 2.0 -- what it is, and how does it work. Then the course looks at some examples of how Web 2.0 applications are currently being used in educational and training programs and how our ideas about learning fit with the design of Web 2.0 applications. Finally, students create instructional and educational designs that incorporate elements of Web 2.0.

Course Goals:

• Develop an understanding of what “Web 2.0 means” in terms of applications and web sites.

• Use a number of Web 2.0 applications, creating accounts and interacting with the applications
.
• Incorporate Web 2.0 applications and sites into a design for education or training.

• Implement a working example of an instructional design that incorporates Web 2.0 applications.

Dr. Brady operates a course blog as the main point of contact for students in his online graduate class. This blog is updated several times a week with articles, links, assignments, and writing topics for the course. Each student taking the course is required to start and maintain a personal blog for this course. The blog serves as a record of each of the student’s work and a way to maintain contact with all classmates in the course.

View Dr. Brady’s course blog to learn more about his course. The blog contains links to the each student’s personal blog can also be found on the sidebar of the course blog.

Please note that this course is still currently in progress during the Spring 2010 Semester.

Case Study: Twitter as a Way to Increase Student Engagement

Who: Dr. Monica Rankin

Where: University of Texas at Dallas

What: Twitter as an effective way to increase participation in lecture.

Why: The Twitter Experiment encouraged students to engage who otherwise would not be engaged or participate in the classroom. Large and small classes both have only a small number of students that actively participate in class discussions, the experiment attempted to increase the number of students actively participating.

How: The Twitter Experiment was first implemented in a core course requirement, U.S. History II (in the Spring of 2009). On Mondays and Wednesdays traditional lectures were given in class to lay the foundation of important terms and concepts. Fridays became the day used to conduct the Twitter Experiment. Dr. Rankin’s idea was to set up all of the students on Twitter while they were in class and have them post discussion ideas/questions and respond to each other using twitter. During the Friday lectures, students tweet comments or questions via laptop or cell phone, while the TA and Dr. Rankin were able to respond to a real-time feed displayed on the screen in the front of the classroom. In Dr. Rankin’s class, students participation grade was partially determined by their involvement in the Twitter discussions and most of them seemed comfortable with using the technology to engage with the reading materials.

Watch the YouTube video following the Twitter experiment at UT-Dallas.

Visit Dr. Rankin’s homepage for her account of her experience.

First post!

This blog came about as part of a class project in Spring, 2010. I hope this blog will serve as a resource to those hoping to use social media in their course. This blog will feature case studies of those already using social media in a college course and tips on how to successfully integrate social media into coursework.