Understanding Networked Scholars: Experiences and practices in online social networks
4 likes2,162 views
The 4th International Conference on E-Learning and Distance Education explored the role of social media in the academic landscape, focusing on scholars' experiences and practices online. It highlighted the importance of understanding how emerging technologies affect digital scholarship and emphasized the positive impacts of open practices in teaching and research. The presentation noted the unique characteristics of scholarly networks, revealing the complexities of identity, conflicts, and personal disclosures shared by academics on social media platforms.
Understanding Networked Scholars: Experiences and practices in online social networks
- 1. The 4th International Conference on E-learning and Distance Education, March 2015, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Understanding Networked Scholars: Experiences and practices in online social networks George Veletsianos, PhD Canada Research Chair in Innovative Learning & Technology Associate Professor School of Education and Technology Royal Roads University Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
- 2. What do professors do on social media? Why are professors on social media? What are some characteristics of online social networks? Overview
- 3. In the broader Higher Education Landscape, we observe… Increasing engagement with open practices in teaching, learning, and scholarship.
- 4. What are open practices? In general, openness is an ethos. Open Publishing activities (e.g., publishing open data), Open Teaching activities (e.g., creating/ using open educational resources) Open Participation (e.g., keeping a blog with an open license)
- 5. Why the increasing interest? Open practices are expected to lead to a variety of positive outcomes
- 6. Focus: Open participation Specifically: The experiences and practices of individual scholars on social media and online networks in order to explain, What do scholars do on social media? Why do scholars do what they do on social media? How can we characterize online scholarly networks? In this presentation
- 15. Social media and online networks are an integral part of open and digital scholarship Open and digital scholarship: seen as major breakthroughs in radically rethinking the ways in which knowledge is created and shared (Nielsen, 2012; Weller, 2011). Thus, examining social media = understanding & advancing open and digital scholarship. Why is this topic important?
- 16. The ways that emerging technologies and social media are used and experienced by scholars are poorly understood Open/digital/social scholarship are largely driven by advocacy rather than evidence (Kimmons, 2014) We need to understand “state-of-the-actual” rather than the “state-of-the-art” (Selwyn, 2011) Why is this topic important?
- 17. Networks of scholars have arisen that function (& succeed) outside formal university structures Their potential for teaching, learning research, collaboration, and mobilization is enormous. Why is this topic important?
- 18. Why is this topic important? https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-beta/are-moocs-working-us-part-2
- 19. Pervasive use of social media in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 1st in Twitter penetration per capita with 41% of Internet users tweeting (BII, 2013) Twitter: 6th most visited site in the Kingdom Other social media: equally popular Why is this topic important locally?
- 20. • Networked Participatory Scholarship “scholars’ use of participatory technologies and online social networks to share, reflect upon, critique, improve, validate, and further their scholarship” (Veletsianos & Kimmons, 2012) • A non-deterministic perspective Framework
- 21. Guided by gaps in our understanding of scholars’ online practices Pragmatic selection of methodologies to answer research questions – Basic qualitative studies (e.g., analysis of tweets, participant-observer journal) – Phenomenological analysis of interviews – Social Network Analysis of data trails – Inferential statistics on large datasets (“big data”) Conducted a series of investigations
- 22. What do scholars do on social media?
- 23. • Academic-specific technologies • Repurposed technologies Technologies
- 24. Veletsianos (2013) Announcements Draft papers Open textbooks Syllabi + Activities Live streaming Live-Blogging Collaborative authoring Debates + commentary Open teaching Public P&T materials The doctoral journey (e.g., #PhDChat) Crowdsourcing Activities
- 25. Veletsianos (2012) Activities Faculty use these Twitter to: Share information, resources, and media Open classrooms Provide opportunities for learning Request assistance Provide help and support
- 26. Why do they do what they do?
- 27. Why do they share? • Faculty use social media to: – Explore scholarly ideas – Share knowledge – Debate & critique – Advice & reflect – Connect with other researchers – Reach multiple audiences – Re-envision their identities (as public intellectuals) Kjellberg, 2010; Kirkup, 2010; Martindale & Wiley, 2005; Mewburn & Thompson, 2013; Veletsianos, 2012
- 28. How can we characterize scholarly social networks?
- 30. Identity Online Two perspectives We create it à Intentional web presence (e.g., Lowenthal & Dunlap, 2012) It is created and/or structured for us
- 31. Expression of identity online consists of various fragments that we consider acceptable to others Each fragment that we share, is • Intentional • Authentic • Transitional • Incomplete • Socially-responsive (Kimmons & Veletsianos, 2014) Identity Online
- 32. Theme #2 Networks of Conflict
- 33. Networks of conflict • Academics often post their papers online
- 34. Networks of conflict • Academics often post their papers online • Elsevier sends copyright infringement notices (late 2013) • Systems and tools that have been used to circumvent restrictions are the following…
- 39. But why?
- 40. But why?
- 41. Theme #3 Networks of Disclosure
- 42. Vulnerabilities (e.g., areas of personal growth) Struggles (e.g., a workplace issue) Passions (e.g., soccer) à Unrelated to the profession, but… there is the value of these activities?
- 43. Certain practices question elements of traditional scholarly practice Social media transforms practice Practice transforms how we use social media How can universities support and encourage networked participation without fear? Implications
- 44. Thank you! Research available at: http://www.veletsianos/ publications This presentation: www.slideshare.com/ veletsianos Contact: veletsianos@gmail.com @veletsianos on Twitter