1. Embracing Social Media in the
Classroom:
Why? Why not? How?
Valerie Lopes, PhD
Advancing Learning Conference
Thursday May 26th, 2011
Lambton College

2. Agenda
• Setting the context
• What is social media
• Guiding Principles for using Social Media
• Considerations for Integrating Social Media in the
curriculum

3. Learning Objectives
At the end of this session you will be able to:
• Describe Social Media
• Discuss some ways that it may be used in the classroom
• Discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages to
using social media for teaching and learning
• Identify the preliminary steps to implementing social
media into curriculum delivery

4. Setting the context
―
―Just as print technologies and literacies shaped the
Enlightenment, the social media technologies and literacies
will shape the cognitive, social and cultural environments of
the 21st century‖… Harold Rheingold
What's most important is not access to the Internet — we have more than a
billion people on the Internet now and there are over 4 billion phones in use—
but access to knowledge and literacies for the digital age.
The ability to know has suddenly become the ability to search and the ability to
sift and discern.

5. Who are our learners?
The claims about the net generation fall into three categories:
• their widespread and intensive use of digital technologies;
• the impact of this use on how this generation accesses and uses
information, how they interact socially, and how they learn;
• the unique behavioural characteristics and learning styles of this
generation.
With the exception of the first category a review of the popular and
academic literature shows that there is no empirical support for the most
prevalent claims in the other two categories and methodologically sound
research contradicts this claim.

6. Our learners….
• ―Digital learners in higher education – Generation is not
the issue‖ – Mark Bullen, Tanis Morgan, Adnan Qayyum – Canadian
Journal of Learning and Technology
Students born before and after 1982 are not significantly
different in how they learn
THIS IS NOT AN ARGUMENT FOR MAINTAINING THE
STATUS QUO ….what it means is that we MUST:
Avoid the temptation to base our decisions on generational
stereotypes

7. Generation is not the issue – CONTEXT is…
• Seek deeper understandings of how students (all of us) are
using technology and what role it plays in learning and
teaching
• Identify the issues associated with both social and
educational uses of social media – and resist the urge to
make institutional wide decisions that may not be
appropriate for all subjects/programs/groups of learners
• Find technologies/social media tools that are specific to
context and content

8. Social Media – defined?
Wikipedia
Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into
interactive dialogue
Joe Thornly
Social media are online communications in which we shift instantly and easily between the
role of audience and creator – without needing to know how to code. We do this by using
social software that incorporates functions like publishing, sharing, friending, commenting,
linking and tagging
Chartered Institute or Public Relations - UK
Social media is the term commonly given to Internet and mobile-based channels and tools
that allow users to interact with each other and share opinions and content. As the name
implies, social media involves the building of communities or networks and encouraging
participation and engagement

9. “Social Media” – just another meme?

10. Let’s take a look…
• Social Media Explained Visually

11. What is social media?
Includes the various online technology tools that enable people to share
information and resources – text, audio, video, images, podcasts and other
multimedia communications – It’s all in the clouds…. It’s all about Communication

12. Social Perspective

13. Social Networks
• Redefine communities, friends, citizenship, identity,
presence, privacy, geography
• Enable learning, communication, sharing, collaboration,
community
• Networks form around shared interests and objects

14. The challenge
How do we make learning so interesting that we engage
learners in more ways that what’s in/on their laptops, mobile
phones, ipads, playbooks, android devices?
How do we learn to teach in ways in which
we never learned to learn?

15. Rheingold’s 5 Social Media Literacies

16. A new way of communicating
• education that acknowledges the full impact of networked
publics and digital media must recognize a whole new way
of looking at learning and teaching….Henry Jenkins
• This is not just about using new tools in the classroom – it
is about adopting new ways of teaching and learning and
living and being…..
……..that’s what so difficult….

17. Why use social media?
Why use anything in the classroom?
It depends…What do you want to do?
• Deliver information in a virtual space
• Broadcast information
• Extend the classroom
• Collectively share and gather resources (co-construct knowledge)
• Increase access
• Enhance dialogue
• Share information
• Assess learning
• Create a virtual social space
• Explore new ways for students to express themselves and be
creative

18. So many choices…
Examples of Social Media

19. Effective uses of Social Media
It’s all about Communication
Collaboration:
Shared document
Social Bookmarking Synchronous and creation
asynchronous
Content
Streaming media – communities Real time
videos, audio Commenting, networking
reviewing, reflecting

20. Uses for social media
• Collaborating • Reviewing
• Moderating • Questioning
• Negotiating • Replying
• Debating • Posting and Blogging
• Commenting • Networking
• Meeting • Contributing
• Skyping • Chatting
• Video conferencing • Twittering
• Texting • Microblogging
• Broadcasting • Instant Messaging

21. Multiple Pathways to Demonstrate Knowledge
• YouTube • SlideShare
Video Presentations
• Vimeo • Presi
• Wordpress Photo • Picasa
Webpage
• MediaWiki Collages • Flickr
• Amazon
• Glogster
Poster Reviews • Yelp
• Wordle
• Netflix
Debates • CreateDebate

22. Experiential Learning Potential
• Facebook
Simulations • Second Life Role Playing
• Twitter
Professional • Ning • Museums
Virtual Field
Learning
Networks • LinkedIn Trips • Art Galleries
Guest
Develop • Digg
• Skype Personal
Lectures and • Diggo
Conversations • U Stream Learning
Networks • RSS Feeds

23. Bloom’s Cognitive Pyramid

24. Social Media in the classroom
• Conduct Office Hours via Skype • Use Foursquare for students to check
in at assigned locations
• Use Twitter hash tags to organize
weekly discussions • Debate a topic using CreateDebate
• Use Social Bookmarking to Note • Create a course Wiki for study notes
Important Sites for Learning
• Write a review of a book or restaurant
• Create a Class Group Page on on Amazon or Yelp
Facebook
• Use Google Docs for Group Work and • Use Google Earth or Google Maps to
Collaboration Explore Cities or Regions of the World
• Use Skype to Bring in a Guest • Have students create blogs to journal
Speaker (and record the talk) and display work
• Digital Literacy • Media Literacy
100 Inspiring Ways to use Social Media in the
Classroom

25. Let’s Debate
Is Facebook good for people?

26. Why not?

27. Challenges/Major Concerns – The Why Nots
• Reluctant Students • Time Requirements
• Buy in • Reluctance from others
• Multiple Log-ins and • Learning the necessary skills
Passwords
• Multiple systems
• Many choices
• Relevance
• Institution’s Acceptable Use
Policy • Digital Bling
• Online Safety and Security • Miscommunication

28. Protect your Identity Online
• Think before you click!
• Know who your friends are.
• Pay attention to privacy settings.
• Avoid disclosing your location.
• Don’t share your password and change it regularly.
• Trust your instincts.
• Be ultra-careful with your SIN.
• Protect your e-mail address.
• Protect your privacy, as well as your friends’ privacy .
• Be discreet.

30. The Path to Implementation
Identify the
Objective
Redesign
Explore the
Tools
Think in terms of
desired outcomes
first, and then find the Design the
Revise tool that can aid in Task/
reaching those Assignment
outcomes.
Explain in
Class
Reflect
Detailed
Guidelines
Assess the
Outcomes

31. http://thestar.blogs.com/stargazing/2011/03/finally-social-media-explained.html

32. Thank you for listening
Valerie Lopes – valerie.lopes@senecac.on.ca
416-491-5050 x 2111

33. Resources
• Centre for Learning and Performance Technology –
Social Learning Tools 2011
• Skype in the Classroom
• Examples of educational wikis
• Directory of Learning Tools – 2011
• Twitter Basics – Video

34. Resources
• Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
• Ten Guiding Principles for the use of Technology in Learning –
Contact North
• Ontario College of Teachers - Professional Advisory: Use of
Electronic Communication and Social Media
• Attention and Other 21st-Century Social Media Literacies

35. Resources
• To Bloom or not to Bloom – probably the best
explanation of Learning Objectives around
• Bloom’s Cognitive Pyramid – using social media
• Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy
• Twelve Cognitive Processes that Underlie Learning