1. An introduction to social media tools
Applying social media in the
educational environment

2. Topics covered
• Overview of the social environment
• Relevant social media tools
• How these tools are being used in education
• Effective (and not so effective) uses of SM
• Issues and concerns related to social media
• Digital content production: an overview

3. SM: Perspectives and uses
• The school
– Social media being used to enhance the day to day running
and marketing of the school?
• The teacher
– The pupils’ need for information and guidance for safe and
effective uses of web media and social platforms
– The potential for collecting and sharing valuable resources
– Reaching and engaging pupils in their own space
• The pupil
– Empowering the pupil and giving them a platform for
communication
– Facilitating useful discussions and sharing between pupils

4. The social environment
• Why social media? Why now?
– Broadband and the read / write web (2.0)
– Digital media creation
• Digital natives and digital tourists
• Digital content on digital platforms
• Maximum exposure with minimum outlay (most
often free)
• Connectivity between the social tools
• Communication on desktop and mobile devices

5. ‘Facebook for grown-ups’ CFO.com
• Social networking in a professional environment
– Purely career related information
• Substantial number of employers predict that it will
replace the traditional resume webrecruit.co.uk
• Vast networking potential for schools and pupils
• Schools, fellow pupils and graduates can endorse each
other’s skillsets
• Blogs and groups are used to express professional
insights and form alliances with similar minded
professionals

6. • The pupils’ existing environment
– 90% of Irish 15 – 24 year olds use the site
• Facebook can be used as a standalone platform or as a
main ‘stream’ through which other streams can added
(twitter / YouTube etc.)
• Potential for starting valuable conversations and sharing
of resources
• Facebook uses ‘timelines’ a chronological ‘stream’ of
communication
• Schools can benefit from FB pages (and likes) and events
• Teachers and classes can benefit from groups features

7. discussions around usage
• Pupils: concerns relate to privacy and
intimidation by peers
• Teachers: a mixing of personal and public spaces
• Awareness of the mechanics of Facebook (albeit
cumbersome) allows for control in most cases
• Separate identities for personal and work
• Policy and education become invaluable
• Introducing a ‘school presence’ to the pupils’ FB
could be seen as forcing an element of
accountability and transparency into their usage

8. • Twitter is a ‘micro-blog’ with a maximum character
count of 140 per post (tweet)
– Tweets appear on your twitter feed from people you are
‘following’
– Search Twitter for ‘buzz-words’ to find conversations on a
particular topic (politics, sport, entertainment)
– Help to create buzz-words through including the hash #tag
#ittkesprincipals for example
• Twitter is seen as a real-time tool that lends itself to
quick notifications and updates
• Twitter feeds can be incorporated in to Facebook
timelines

9. Blogging
• Blogs look like websites and can have web pages that contain
‘static’ information such as contact details or a profile of the author
• Blogs function like online diaries; their entries are referred to as
‘posts’
• Blogs facilitate more comprehensive material than FB and Twitter
• The social and community aspect is in the ‘following’ of blogs by
the public and fellow bloggers (the blogosphere)
• Blog posts can be automatically embedded in Facebook streams
– usually the first portion of the post is included with a link back to the blog
itself

10. Blogging: Education
• Schools can use blogs in a more one-way manner pushing
information out to the public
– ‘news-feeds’
– Announcements to pupils and parents
• Teachers can use blogs as a means of managing and
publishing material to the class
– Class material, assignments and reminders, events
– Pupils can respond directly within comment sections
(moderated by author)
• Pupils can use blogs to respond to material and
assignments (essays and reports etc.)
– Would pupils publishing to blogs feel more ownership and
accountability towards their work?

11. Wikis
• Wikis are pages of information on a particular
thing (the ‘thing’ can be anything or anyone)
• The page has multiple authors assigned to it
• In theory a wiki’s content is policed (moderated)
by the public and flagged where necessary as
inaccurate
• In theory, wikis harness the ‘wisdom of the
crowd’
• Wikipedia is a very large wiki where anyone can
contribute and / or set up their own entry

12. Wikis: Education
• Wikis can be limited to a closed group of
contributors (pupils or staff)
• A platform for collaboration on group
assignments and projects
• A legacy or archive of knowledge from class
group to class group

13. • Youtube is the second most used search engine behind
Google (who own YouTube) mediapost.com
• Videos are uploaded and discussed directly on YouTube
– Discussions as written comments and also ‘video responses’
• YT users can set up channels – pages dedicated specifically to
their collection
• Channels can contain users’ own uploads, and videos
collected from other YouTube users
• Playlists are used to categorize videos
• Importantly, YouTube videos can be set to either public or
private (invite only and not searchable on the web)

14. YouTube: Education
• A YouTube channel can turn a school into a broadcaster
– Interviews with pupils, staff visiting teachers
– Recording and broadcasting events
– Directly promotional video (tours of facilities etc.)
• Teachers can use YT as an archive of learning resources
– Students can go directly to the channel
– YouTube videos can also be embedded within a page on other platforms
(website, Blog, Facebook etc.)
• Classes can be easily (and freely) recorded as video screencasts,
uploaded to YT and distributed to class members
– Common method of demonstrating computer based tasks and processes
but also used to record ‘voice over slides’
– ‘Video blogs’ (vlogs) are also a common way of communicating through
YouTube (recorded directly to the computer’s web cam)

15. Online video case study: Khan Academy

16. Soundcloud
• An audio equivalent to YouTube
• Users create accounts and upload / collect sounds (music,
spoken word etc.)
• As with YouTube, pupils can visit the teacher / school’s
Soundcloud page or the teacher can embed a soundcloud
player in FB or equivalent
• Teachers can also use soundcloud as an audio recorder. This is
done via a headset microphone; the file is automatically
stored
• ‘Kerry Shtyle’ ITT – Music Technology project (2012) has gone
viral and drawn the attention of celebrities and the general
public to the IT

17. Other useful tools
• iTunes U: An resource of free courses and material
• Flickr: A place to store manage and share photos
• Slideshare: A tool for ‘web-enabling’ powerpoint
presentations (embedding them online)
• Podcasting: Creating video / audio material that can
be automatically downloaded to the pupils computer
• Bookmarks: Collecting weblinks in one place and
sharing them through blogs, twitter etc.