Edmedia2009 Thorpe Social Networkingv1v1

EDMEDIA 2009 Social Networking for Student and Staff Learning A project funded by the Open University Practice Based Professional Learning Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (PBPLCETL) Mary Thorpe, Andrew Brasher and Philip Greaney Institute of Educational Technology The Open University, UK Thanks to Chetz Colwell, Stuart Brown, Keith Honnor, Mick Jones, Sharan Slade, Non Scantlebury and tutor s involved in the project Social Networking for Practice Learning (SNPL)

But it hasn’t always been like that… and Old habits die hard – new ones can take time and energy to introduce

… and share them with our network

Social Networking for Practice Learning A project aimed at working out practical teaching and learning scenarios for social bookmarking and RSS feeds In order to… Get OU teachers to use these tools in their courses and student support Funded by The Open University Practice Based Professional Learning Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning: http://www.open.ac.uk/pbpl

4 faculties: Education & Language Studies, Health & Social Care, Business and Educational Technology

A story of practical usage by practising teachers Using Delicious, Google Reader – Robust tools that offer ‘time well spent’ benefits But still not yet in common usage for teaching & learning How we set about to change that What happened and where to next Social Networking for Practice Learning

Delicious - Why use it? Bookmarks accessible via Web not just own machine, so access anywhere, anytime Using your own tags (or keywords) helps organise your resources according to your needs You can harvest the efforts of other users – the more users, the more the benefits You can set up a network of users whom you follow so targeting people who have shared interests You can use it to communicate with others you’re working with – sending them resources, building up a shared repository using shared tags

Tagging – who uses it? A survey posted to weblogs, BBs, newsletters - drew 244 usable responses – ‘tagging experts’ – 48% use tagging at least once a day Most frequent usage was tagging for personal resource retrieval, not sharing with a network or searching the collective 40% admitted not retrieving saved resources The ‘for’ tag hardly ever used – 22% not aware you can send a bookmark to another user in this way Most use because they mainly work online plus use a service that uses tagging e.g.Delicious Stefanie Panke and Birgit Gaiser (2009) Social Tagging in Knowledge Organisation: Online Survey on the Users’ Perspective

Panke & Gaiser: Social Tagging in Knowledge Organisation – Online survey on the users’ perspective For the majority of respondents the personal knowledge management is more important than making content accessible for a broader community.. … Social tagging is rather used as a data-recall facility or customizable filing system and not as a display for a virtual calling card. It appears that knowledge organization stands in the foreground, whereas the communicative qualities of social tagging appear to be rather an additional value than an end in itself.

What were the key features for a teaching and learning context? The social and communicative possibilities For Delicious it was Agreeing to use shared tags Agreeing to add notes to identify key points about each bookmark Setting up a network of the student & tutor group So that resources found by students on the same course would be tagged the same way finding what others have found would be quick and easy Notes would make clear why a resource was relevant Resources could be sent to specific users using ‘for:’ tag

The very different context of teaching and learning Students and staff are time poor and task oriented Where is the cost-benefit trade off for time spent using a new practice-tool? How does it relate to the core purpose of what a teacher is already doing – e.g. does it contribute to delivering the learning outcomes of courses ?

What does it take to get teachers to use a new technology? We can Any/all of these tactics alone often do not generate action by teachers – we also need to.. List the affordances of the technology Provide short demonstrations of how it works, what its advantages are, etc Develop case studies about how others have used it

… use it ourselves first consider how you could use it to support your learning. Think about the advantages as well as the challenges it would pose for you, and how it would fit in with your existing practices. Then think how these issues would apply to your students. Make a conscious effort to use the new tool as a habit. Observe the changes that occur in your learning processes http://patternlanguagenetwork.myxwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main / The ‘eat your own dog food’ principle

Advisory Group involves representatives from faculties – vital bridge to tutors and course teams Tutors from Business and Health and Social Care worked as a distributed group with video and how to guides to enable them to set up and use SN tools Each set up a personal account on Delicious, Google Reader and Facebook Communication via A private Facebook group to discuss experiences Flashmeeting - audio-visual conferencing tool A group wiki to document how they used the tools & to design activities for OU courses

Structured activities designed for tutors to use, enabled them to get to know each tool and use it to achieve a goal for the project. E.g……. Each tutor designed an activity for students to use Delicious on a course they knew well Tutors worked in their faculty group to agree on priority RSS feeds for keeping up to date in their area Tutors used the project wiki to document their experiences and upload their response to tasks Use of Delicious, RSS and Twitter now designed into a module in the MA in Online and Distance Education H800 Technology Enhanced Learning: practices and debates

Delicious, RSS & Twitter now used on OU Masters in Online and Distance Education H800 Module: Technology-enhanced Learning: practices and debates Tutors & students set up own accounts using ‘how to’ guides Course study activities include setting up your tutor group as a network on your Delicious account Students, tutors and course team save relevant resources using shared tags: H800_2009 H800_block1_2009 H800_block2_2009 H800_block3_2009 H800_block4_2009 Students use Delicious and RSS to search for resources addressing key issues in the course

Demonstrating independence in learning - going beyond course resources by searching and describing found resources from the Web Skills in information literacy - Active processing through tagging and description of resources Collaborative learning - The network makes one student’s work available to all – increases likelihood of finding good material, promotes idea of learning from each other, builds resources from year to year Link to learning outcomes – important if you’re going to get take up by teachers and learners

Tutors had no difficulty designing activities to deliver learning outcomes such as: For Health and Social Care Locate Information relevant to health and social care issues through reference to a range of sources Evaluate the reliability of different sources of evidence Use a wide range of study skills appropriate to degree level For OU Business School You should be able to reflect and critically appraise the human and technological dimensions of developing and implementing strategies for managing knowledge in practice

Using new technologies involves learning new practices not just picking up a tool The tool is waiting for you to pick it up and just use it You’ll find out how to use it for teaching and learning by being told its functionality Tools that are easy to use can be easily explored - exploration/play are the approach that teachers will use ‘naturally’ – because you COULD just use it without support, you will do and you’ll then see how it can be used for teaching Think practices/practices with tools This approach usually doesn’t work

reflections To use a technology is to make a change to your own practices Practices with technology take time and Require a positive trade off between time & benefit The value-added potential of Delicious and RSS for T&L was identified in advance and made the focus for practical activities Structured activities based on selecting and using key features of social networking tools enabled teachers to see the possibilities for teaching and learning and commit to using them

http://delicious.com/marythorpe/SNPL My bookmarks for SNPL project on delicious http://www.open.ac.uk/pbpl/activities/details/detail.php?itemId=499992885667b&themeId=49887a1373845 Or http://tinyurl.com/ou-sn-pbpl Website for SNPL project on PBPLCETL website Social networking Learn About Guide http://kn.open.ac.uk/workspace.cfm?wpid=8738 Social networking in plain English video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_KF7TYKVc&eurl=http:/facebooklife.net/blog/facebook-tutorials/understand-what-is-social-networking/ What is social networking? http://www.whatissocialnetworking.com/ Map of Web 2.0 apps HQs http://www.platial.com/map/Web-2-0-HQ-Map/1768 List of social networking sites http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites ‘ Social network services’ definition from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network_services Social networking blog http://www.socialnetworking-weblog.com/

The course team sets up defined tags that tutors and students will use for bookmarking on the course e.g.B823_Technologies, B823_Communication B823 tutors set up their own Delicious account, search and tag resources using the defined tags so these already on Delicious before students start Student welcoming letter includes tutor’s Delicious name and links to guide & video on setting up Delicious account Students set up their own Delicious account and create a network of their tutor group During the course they search for and tag at least 10 websites using the Delicious notes field to explain what their resource contributes to course understanding A tutor designed activity for a Business School Course: B823 Managing Knowledge

Email, wiki, explanatory videos, video conferencing software and closed Facebook site used to work together as a group, Tutors worked on a series of tasks clearly specified in advance, so they built up confidence and skills stage by stage Key features of the tools that proved their potential: Shared tags, tag subscription and setting up a network across group members on Delicious Management of RSS feeds via Google Reader Working together to establish an agreed set of feeds for tutors in each faculty Course teams now getting involved SNPL: A learner generated context

Edmedia2009 Thorpe Social Networkingv1v1

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Edmedia2009 Thorpe Social Networkingv1v1