Slides for talk at Social Media In HE conference, Sydney, June 26 2012.

1. #smhe12
Social Media
Barriers & Digital Literacy
#smhe12

2. Me
easegill
Nigel
Robertson
Waikato
University

3. Intro
What I mean by Social
Barriers
Digital Literacy

4. What is Social?
People
Interaction
Scale
Response time
Reach
Images courtesy of Anirudh Koul & Giulia Forsythe and a CC license
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anirudhkoul/3786725982/ &
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gforsythe/7196460482/

7. Age 6 8
Users 140 million 860 million
Posts/hour >14 million >77 million
Who would have predicted these outcomes?

8. Or social software being
used in education ...

9. Barriers
Perceptual
Structural
Awareness
Image courtesy of Matteo Parrini and a CC license
http://www.flickr.com/photos/remuz78/463810013/

10. Time
I haven't got time to learn something new ...
Is this valid?
Do we have
the wrong
approach to
'new'?
Image courtesy of Jill Clardy and a CC license
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jillclardy/5069059182/

11. Fear
"In such a technological age as we are currently living in, I
hesitate to put myself “out there” as you so bravely have
done. I have received the invitation to try out the LinkedIn
system but began to wonder about having all that
information floating around the internet. I'm so paranoid
and I'm not sure why!" Blog comment
A lot of lecturers are entrenched in doing things
in a certain way and don't necessarily have the
confidence to try and use technology and be
prepared to get it wrong. Toothill, J

12. Pedagogical
My existing pedagogy works
What possible reason is there to use Twitter?

13. I see no reason to
change
Images courtesy of Sam Belknap and a CC license http://www.flickr.com/photos/samuel_belknap/2308071252/

14. Barriers
Perceptual
Structural
Awareness

15. Compliance
1. Be relevant to the teaching and learning, research,
administration, community engagement, marketing and
communication functions as outlined in the Policy ...
2. Be authorised by the head of the relevant
organisational unit
3. Meet mandatory content standards.
4. Comply with relevant international standards.
5. Comply with relevant legislation.
6. Comply with policies such as the Visual Standards
Policy, and the ICT Services and Facilities Use
Agreement (under development).
[(Non) Permissive Culture]

16. Permission
Who is allowed to engage with social
media?
[(Non) Permissive Culture]

17. Technical
Is Facebook blocked?
Are you able to install clients e.g. Tweetdeck
on your computer?
Are the sites you visit monitored and reported
on?
[(Non) Permissive Culture]

18. Barriers
Perceptual
Structural
Awareness

19. Leadership
Hands up if you have a VC who tweets
regularly
Take your hands down if they only tweet
marketing things or if someone else writes
their tweets for them
Where are the models and exemplars for staff
to learn from? Where is the leadership?

20. Pedagogical
Few exemplars available
Often adopted as a single intervention, not
part of developing a personal learning network
or digital literacy approach

21. Digital Literacy
What is digital literacy?
What is our approach?
How does it link to
Social Media?
Image courtesy of Antony Theobald and a CC license
http://www.flickr.com/photos/antphotos/4240266377/

22. Horizon Report NZ 2011
Digital literacy is a key skill in every
discipline and profession
Most academics are not using new and
compelling technologies for learning &
teaching, nor for their own research
The abundance of resources & relationships
easily accessible via the Internet challenges us
to revisit our roles as educators

23. Digital Literacy
"Digital literacy defines those capabilities
which fit an individual for living, learning
and working in a digital society" JISC
"Digital Literacy is about mastering ideas, not
keystrokes" Gilster, 1997
"Digital Literacy is a condition, not a
threshold" Martin, 2006

24. We are all Natives

25. Digital Literacy Project
Developing staff digital literacies
Confident & agile
This is
Lifelong learning critical
for our
university
today

26. Digital literacy themes
Wonder & curiosity
Openness
Participation
Sharing
Online identity
Safety

27. What are we doing?
"3 before me"
Self paced video help
Just in time support
Explicit help
[Permissive culture] Image courtesy of D. Sharon Pruitt and a CC licence
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/4246081958/

28. What are we doing?
Engaging senior leadership
Digital Literacy workshops
Yammer
[Permissive culture]

29. Opportunities
Social Media & Digital Literacy Benefits
Promote research Personal
benefit
Professional connection
Lifelong learning
Collaboration opportunities
Active learning
Socially constructed learning Learner
benefit

30. Personal Learning Network

31. Research
"..people will download
your research if you
tell them about it."
Nearly 3000 downloads
in 6 months over 9
papers (avg
320/paper)
Melissa Terras, UCL http://melissaterras.blogspot.ca/2012/04/is-
blogging-and-tweeting-about-research.html

32. Twitter example
Authenticity
Affordances
Image courtesy of Edoardo Costa and a CC license
http://www.flickr.com/photos/edo-finelight/4478979206/

33. Ecosystem approach
Blogs
YouTube
Flickr
Bookmarks
Twitter
Radio

34. Finally...
Be open
Participate
Share
Explore
Experiment
Be real

35. End?
Stay social, keep sharing
@easegill
#smhe12
Image courtesy of ryancr and a CC license
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanr/14245503
3