Category: Social Media

Social Media

Social Media Guidelines for Teaching and Learning

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The university where I work has an extensive Acceptable Use Policy for students, faculty, and staff. It also has very detailed Social Media Guidelines for faculty and staff. The established guidelines address the official use of social media and external professional blogs.

I put together Social Media Guidelines for Teaching and Learning for faculty and students which specifically addresses the use of social media for teaching and learning. After consulting the resources listed below, I developed some simple guidelines that would work in accordance with current policies and expectations.

Social Media Guidelines for Teaching and Learning


Blogs, wikis, social bookmarking apps, social networks, digital media, and creative apps provide a multitude of ways to create, connect, collaborate, and share with with people in class and around the world. The following guidelines and best practices were developed for the use of social media for teaching and learning in accordance with university policies that are currently in place.


LMS & Integrated Applications
It is the preference of the university that when possible, instructors opt for the social media applications and integrated tools that are available within the LMS.


External Social Media
When selecting external social media to use with students, consider the following:
  • Select appropriate tools for meeting lesson objectives.
  • Have knowledge and experience using the application.
  • Must meet ADA accessibility requirements.
  • State in the syllabus that external social media sites will be used during the course.
  • Provide clear instructions to students for how to setup and use the application.
  • Know privacy policies of applications selected.
  • Consider students’ privacy.
  • Give students the option of using an alias.
  • Have a Plan B for backup.


Social Media Best Practices
  • Be honest and transparent.
  • Be mindful and purposeful.
  • Be respectful to everyone.
  • Use good judgment.
  • Maintain confidentiality.
  • Respect copyright laws.
  • Update privacy settings.
  • Report inappropriate use.
  • Be accurate and concise.
  • Monitor and update regularly.
  • Be professional.
  • Keep personal and professional accounts separate.
  • Use disclaimer if not speaking officially for the university.

 

The following resources were consulted when developing these Social Media Guidelines

Resources:

Anderson, S. (2012, April 11) Social Media Guidelines [Web log post] Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/social-media-guidelines-steven-anderson

Best Practices for Social Media in Teaching and Learning (n.d.) Retrieved from The Ohio State University https://odee.osu.edu/sites/default/files/odee_best_practices_for_social_media_in_teaching_and_learning.pdf

Dunn, J. (2014, September 11) An editable social media policy for schools that works [Web log post] Daily Genius. Retrieved from http://dailygenius.com/editable-social-media-policy-for-schools/

Guidelines for the Instructional Use of Social Media at USM. (2011). Office of the Provost. Retrieved from https://www.usm.edu/provost/guidelines-instructional-use-social-media-usm

Johnson, S. (2010, March 11) Guest Blog: Making the Case for Social Media in Education [Web log post] Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/social-media-case-education-edchat-steve-johnson

Social media guidelines. (2010). Retrieved from Brock University https://brocku.ca/marketing-communications/social-media/guidelines

Social Media

Teaching with Social Media in Higher Education

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It took me a little while to decide on the approach I wanted to take with this assignment. As a former fourth grade classroom and virtual teacher, I could have looked for experiences using social media in the fourth grade. As a former instructional coach, I could have widened the search to K-6 or looked at how social media has been used in professional development. However, I wanted to make this assignment relevant with what I’m doing now.
As an instructional designer, I work with faculty and adjuncts across a variety of content areas. Part of my work is working on new online courses and revisions, part is assisting faculty with educational technology in the classroom, and part is faculty development. Limiting my search to one content area didn’t seem practical for my position. So my search was for higher ed examples of having used social media in teaching either online or face-to-face or for professional development. I didn’t limit the content areas so that I could expand my toolbox of ideas to share with faculty regarding the use of social media across content areas. I was thinking that I would end up with a list of ideas really content specific and some that would transfer across areas.
At first it seemed like examples of where social media had been used were hard to find. There are lots of lists out there with suggestions, however the stories of where these ideas have been implemented are a little more difficult to find. I’m not sure if that’s because social media isn’t being implemented in higher ed, or if the stories aren’t being shared. Either way, that’s something thing consider.
Eventually, I started to find some resources showing it’s use. I found an article that shared research on using Twitter and blogs in two courses. Then I found another article that shared a couple ideas and linked to some blogs and bloggers that were really helpful and led to some other good finds. I’m adding those to my PLN!
For this curation, I tried out Pearltrees which I hadn’t used before. It was easy to use and offers many ways of adding resources. See my curation by clicking on the link at the top of the page. Included in the curation are ideas for using Twitter, blogs, Facebook Live, Snapchat, Slack, Pinboard, and RSS feeds. I added a note after each link to share a little about the resource.
As I consider the instructors included in my curation, most are risk-takers that are not afraid to try new things and who were on the hunt for better and more natural ways to communicate and engage students. They also were not afraid to share their ideas, successes, and failures for the rest of us to learn from.
Really what it all boils down to is that the gist of social media is communication, and we communicate in every course – so each of the ideas in the curation can be implemented in any content area in face-to-face courses and online. I’m pleased that rather than finding the listings of content specific ideas that I was expecting, these are ideas that I can share with anyone in any content area, and that I can use myself in the online course that I teach from time to time. Using these ideas is kind of like finding a good recipe that is more like a method (Rachel Ray) where you can change out a few ingredients and come up with lots of different great things to eat.
PD, PLN

Real Time and Live Virtual Professional Development

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Over the past couple of weeks I’ve participated in four live Twitter chats and four live webinars as real time and live virtual professional development. It was a great experience. The webinars were made even better by participating with several other students from EdTech 543, and just about every time I’ve logged in to Tweetdeck, I’ve seen students from 543 in chats, and that’s been really fun.
Before this class, I had participated in two or three chats. Now that I’m using Tweetdeck, it has made the chat experience much more fun and easy to manage. Most of the chats are fast moving, so you have to be on your toes. I was able to keep up and answer each question and enjoy the responses of others in the chat. I gained some new followers, some likes, and retweets in the process. I can see that the time spent interacting is definitely helping me make connections. I’ve been logging in to Tweetdeck every day since and have noticed that I’m spending more time there now, than I am on Facebook. With the live chat, I like that there is usually a topic with pre-planned questions. Everyone seems cheerful, positive, encouraging, and wanting to learn new things.

Since 2013, I’ve attended a number of live webinars because of my work in virtual environments. The first webinar I signed up for for this assignment didn’t have a back channel conversation. You couldn’t see if there were other participants or not, and there was a place specifically labeled for questions, but it didn’t look welcoming for comments. So next, I attended four straight sessions on Google Apps hosted by SimpleK12. What made these a little different, is the chat in the webinar was only for asking the presenter a question, and you couldn’t see the questions others were asking. The rest of the chat was on another site. In a way, I found that a little bit distracting, probably since I was trying to contribute to the chat often though. I really like that they keep the transcript of the chats posted. Even though I’ve used Google apps for awhile and I’m Google Certified, I found these sessions very valuable.

Here is the list of chats and webinars I participated in and a brief summary. In each chat, I answered all the questions, liked tweets, and found some new people to follow. In the webinars, I tried to keep a fairly steady stream of comments or questions going. Click on them to link to the transcripts.

6/15/17 #EduAr Twitter chat
This chat for Arkansas educators was all about books.We shared books that are inspiring and have contributed to shifts in our thinking. We shared quotes or other things to inspire others to read the books and shared how we decide what to read next. Also discussed was how to share new learning from the books we read. Lists of must-read professional books were shared. I have several books on my list to read that I’ve found on Twitter.
6/21/17 #Educoach Twitter chat
As a former instructional coach, I have lurked on this chat several times in the past. This time we discussed what culture looks and sounds like where coaching is important, what barriers are there to schools valuing coaching, what supports help build a culture that find coaching valuable, what coaches can do to help build rapport to build a coaching culture, what leadership can do to build a coaching culture, and how coaches and principals build trust. I’ve had a lot of coaching training and the strategies coaches use in building relationships is also what I’ve been doing as an instructional designer to build relationships, so it was a beneficial chat. I will participate in this one again.
6/22/17 #EduAr Twitter chat
Since I enjoyed connecting with the Arkansas educators, I participated in this chat again. Blogging was the topic – something I’ve been thinking about quite a bit, so I was excited about it. We talked about how blogging supports professional learning, what inspires you to read a blog, how blogging can empower you to voice your thoughts, reasons why people may not blog, tips for blogging, and shared blogs that we like. There was a lot of encouragement and useful ideas in this chat. I will be returning to the transcript to get inspired.
6/24/15 Google Tools: An Introduction for Educators
Since there were to be six sessions on this day, I was hesitant to start with the introduction since I’ve used Google Tools for some time. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find some new ideas. Bunny Pad was new to me for back channel chat. I also learned about new presenter settings in Slides, and that Google Classroom is now available for all, not just schools that use GAFE. For students using mobile devices to collaborate on a doc, they have to have the specific doc app – something I thought was the case, but I asked the presenter to find out for certain.
6/24/17 Go Google for Presentations
I learned that you can embed videos from YouTube or from Google Drive in Slides. I also learned that slides can run automatically embedded in a webpage. The insert picture with the copyright information right there is a great feature that I learned about. You can do Q & A, and there is a laser pointer now available. A good source for templates was shared. http://www.slidescarnival.com/ The presenter shared her presentation as a resource.
6/24/17 Make Google Forms Work for You
Forms are my favorite, and I wasn’t sure how much I would learn from this session. But, I learned that they are now adaptive, and that there is an extension for eliminating answer choices for when you’re using the form as a sign up sheet. Once a choice is selected it goes away. There is a multiple choice grid that’s available.
6/24/17 Amazing Digital Projects for All Students with Google Tools
This presentation was packed with ideas and great visuals. The presenter shared his slide deck in exchange for completing a survey at the end. The presentation focused on locate, capture, create, and remake – a version of SAMR using images. Ideas were shared for using Google Photo, Drawings, Screencastify, Blogging, publishing video in Google Drive, uses for Google Maps, and Photosphere. I’ll be revisiting his presentation in the future.
6/26/17 #EdtechAfterDark Twitter chat
This chat was very quick moving during ISTE week from San Antonio. Lots of GIFs. Rather than a specific topic, there were questions related to a theme of quotes from past speakers from ISTE. We introduced ourselves and named our favorite villain – Catwoman for me. We talked about whether happy accidents are the best way innovation comes about, ideas about how professional development should be, learning from failure, benefits of our PLNs, and engaging students.

Moving forward, I plan to continue participating in chats and webinars. I loved the freedom and flexibility to choose when and where I want to participate. I appreciate the jumpstart this class has provided in helping me move from more of a lurker to a full participant.

Digital Footprint, Social Media, social presence

My Digital Footprint

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We are living in the world of George Orwell’s book, 1984. I read it a number of years ago, but each year I see more and more in our world that correlates with that book. Yikes! When first I read it, I remember thinking how odd it was that there were cameras and microphones everywhere, but that is the world we live in today. So interesting that it was written so long ago. I keep thinking that I want to reread it and just need to take the time to do it.

I’m not crazy about the idea of living in the world of 1984, but there are so many good things that it doesn’t seem too bad. However, sometimes I wish things could be simpler again. My kids are just old enough to remember simpler times, but my grandkids will not experience that. I sometimes wish they could.

I’m one of those people who probably care too much about what others think about me, so I’ve been very cautious about my digital footprint from the beginning. Even so, whenever I’ve applied for a job or volunteer position, I’ve done pretty thorough reviews of my public self in preparation as part of the process of filling out applications and updating resumes. So this is not the first time I’ve Googled myself or taken a high level view of my Facebook profile or Twitter account.

My name is a common one, so most of the time you have to add some other information, such as middle name or maiden name, or city and state to actually find me. Not too long ago, I did this and was surprised to find my voter records right away. There my full name, age, address, family members, party affiliation, voting status, and even street view of my house were posted for all to see. They did have my phone number wrong though.

Through another browser and a similar type of site, I found my high school, year I was born, and every address that I’ve lived at since 1983. They had an incorrect email address and employment listed though. I was happy to see that my reputation score according to this site was “good” with a 4 out of 5. Not sure where they got that.

Not surprising, my Facebook and Twitter accounts were prominent. In Google images, I only found two. One was linked to my EdTech 502 website and one was linked to my MET portfolio, so both professional and attached to good information about myself.

All in all, it was a positive footprint that I found, however there was more information about me out there than I would like to see. Even when you try to protect yourself somewhat, it’s not entirely up to you. It’s easy to see how identity theft is so common.

Photo attribution:

“Footprint” by Fil.Al is licensed under CC BY 2.0

PD, PLN, Social Media, Twitter

Twitter Hashtags & Tweetdeck

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app-apple-application-58639While attending Arkansas Leadership Academy in 2010, I registered for my Twitter account and began following leaders in education. Now I follow approximately 1300 mostly educators, and I have participated in a few chats. However, I hadn’t ever tried using Tweetdeck. Usually, I would just check Twitter now and then on my phone and came up with many useful things that way. I didn’t do much sharing, but I hope to change that. Now, using Tweetdeck makes it much easier to manage, especially during a quickly moving chat.

So, I started following six hashtags on Tweetdeck including #edchat, #edtechchat, #highered, #EduAr, #edtechafterdark, and #ISTE17. #edchat is really all things education. #edtechchat and #edtechafterdark have more of technology focus. #EduAr is where I can connect with other educators in Arkansas. #highered is focused on teaching and learning in higher education. #ISTE17 will provide a continuous conversation of all that’s going on in San Antonio during this year’s conference. That’s a good mix for me.
It didn’t take long to find several valuable ideas and resources. EdTech for Higher Education posted a list of 50 must-read higher ed blogs on #highered. Nice to have a resource like that that kind of weeds out some blogs and lists some of the better ones. Also on #highered, I found a blog called Teaching Academia that looks interesting. In this post, the author is reflecting on developing content for her online course. Lately, I’ve been considering trying my hand at some academic writing, and I found a post on #highered with a video explaining the different levels of acceptance from editors. That was new information for me.
An educator that I’ve followed for some time posted a paper.li which I’ve never looked at before. It looks like an interesting tool that I may try out for curating and sharing current news in education and educational technology.
In addition, I picked up a couple resources from Free Tech 4 Teachers. One was a list of three resources for images and videos in the public domain. They happen to be ones I’ve used in the past, but a couple of them had fallen off my radar.  Another was a citation tool called Cite It In – something new to try out.
When I first signed up for my Twitter account, I would never have dreamed how beneficial it would be for me professionally. I’ve been picking up resources and ideas on Twitter for years. Now as I plan to step up my game on the sharing and interacting side of it, I can only imagine that it will be even more valuable to me. For just-in-time PD, I really can’t think of anything better. This quote from Dave Mulder rings true for me.

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