Ideas for Using Social Media in Higher Education

What Brenda Has Done with Her Students

Twitter Use Twitter to allow student in class or at a distant to share ideas and comments pertaining to a particular topic. This works particularly well if students are viewing the same live presentation (in person, being broadcast, or online) but students could also access the same online resource at roughly the same time an discuss that resource and share resources via tweets to referencing a particular agreed upon hashtag.

Set up your own Twitter account - http://www.twitter.com Please make sure you bring your usernames and passwords for these accounts to class on Tuesday if you don't have them memorized.

Twitter Hashtags Twitter hashtags provide a method for organizing posts about a particular topic. Uses:  In Face-to-face or online courses use with student groups - Work in groups and use hashtags to share resources.  Live presentations or simultaneous viewing of recorded speeches, TV shows, etc. - attendees both in the room and at distance locations can comment and share information while viewing a presentation either in person or virtually.  Conduct a twitter interview – a Twitterview.

Twitter #hashtag resources:  Helpdesk Goddess: http://www.helpdeskgoddess.com/2009/03/twitter-301-hashtags- explained.html  Mashable.com: http://mashable.com/2009/05/17/twitter-hashtags/  Sample search - http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23haiti

Workshop hash tag: “#mtsocial” This is the course hash tag for Technology in Teaching Spring 2010 Section 1 at Middle Tennessee State University

Add this hash tag, # mtsocial to every posting that you want the entire group to see. Course group hash tags: You would divide your students into groups and have them search for and share resources within their groups using a Twitter hashtag. I did this with senior education students. They divided themselves into groups by subject area taught and searched MERLOT for resources. Most of the students liked MERLOT. Many of the students liked using Twitter hashtags and Twapper Keeper for archiving the resulting postings. (Note: hashtags.org can also be used for archiving tweets by organized by hashtag.) They also copied their postings to a Word document and followed the links to MERLOT resources they sent each other and put them in their respective MERLOT bookmarks.

 Group 1: #mtsocial1  Group 2: #mtsocial2  Group 3: #mtsocial3  Group 4: #mtsocial4

Viewing only messages with a specific hash tag:

1. Search for the current hash tag you are using. 2. Save the search 3. Click on the name of the saved search

Searching for Archived Hashtags  Twubs: A website for registering hashtags. Users can also follow and post to the hashtagged topics using this website. http://twubs.com/ Our workshop hashtag is registered here - http://twubs.com/mtsocial

Features: Geotagging

Geotagging seems to best fit in the Mobile Learning, or m-learning, context. Geotagging: Including geotagging in your tweets displays the location from where a tweet was posted. Adding this information adds valuable context when reading tweets. Example: Find out what music is currently playing live in your neighborhood. You have to opt-in to geotagging by enabling them in your Twitter settings, https://twitter.com/account/settings. Twitter displays the city. I believe that other 3rd party Twitter applications can display more specific information.

Geotagging your tweets will allow you to Tweet about places and add context to your tweets.

 Connect with other users at a local level.  Join the local conversation.  Things you should consider:

Geotagging uses your exact location.

 Anyone can see it: even if you delete it, we cannot guarantee it will be removed from every partner.  Turning it off does not remove historical data. You can, however, remove all of your prior data.

Mobile Phone Twitter Applications Blackberry:

 Ubertwitter - http://www.ubertwitter.com/

 Twitvid - http://www.twitvid.com/ (Send video) iPhone:

 Tweetdeck - http://www.tweetdeck.com/ - most recommended.

 Echofon - http://www.echofon.com/

 Twitbird Pro – You buy this through iTunes.

 Twitvid - http://www.twitvid.com/ (Send video)

Other Mobile Phone Applications you might like to try Swaggle (http://swaggle.mobi/about) Swaggle is a free, group-centric SMS service. When you send an SMS to a group through the Swaggle service, it will automatically be sent on to everyone in that group.  Comments about using Swaggle with students: Maria Edlin – my experience with Swaggle was interesting. Some of the students who voluntarily signed up ended up asking to be taken off the list because I initially allowed “chat” and they complained that their classmates were “driving them crazy with their stupid questions.” I was amazed. These are the same kids that get literally hundreds of text messages in a week and a few from people they did not know well put them over the edge. Personally, just like with spam email, I can just ignore the stuff that is not important to me but they, seemingly, do not have the ability to filter the information. I thought you might want to know that as you are presenting new communications tools to other faculty. Delicious

Network, Subscriptions, and Inbox What is my Network, and how do I use it?

Your network connects you to other Delicious users: friends, family, coworkers, even new people you run across while exploring Delicious. It is a "people aggregator", collecting your favorite users' latest bookmarks in one place for you to view and enjoy. You can view and manage your network by going to your Network.

How do I add and remove people from my Network?

 To add a person to your Network, you can select Add a user to Network from the top right of your Network page and then type their username, or you can visit their bookmarks page and select the Add to my Network link at the top right of that page.

 To remove a person from your Network, mouse over their name in the sidebar of your Network page, then click the "edit" icon to the right of their name, and select Remove.

Are nicknames for people in my Network publicly displayed?

No, you're the only person who can see the nicknames you create for the people in your Network.

Can I share a bookmark with just the people in my Network?

No, bookmarks can only be public or private right now. We may add something like that in the future, though.

What are subscriptions, and how do I use them to watch my favorite tags?

Subscriptions allow you to watch all your favorite tags in one place. After you add a tag to your subscriptions, Delicious watches for everyone's bookmarks saved with that tag and delivers them to your subscriptions page. It's really a "tag aggregator", good for watching what people are bookmarking about a favorite topic or series of topics. For instance, if you're an Ohio State fan, you can subscribe to bookmarks tagged with 'buckeyes' to see what everyone has bookmarked on your favorite school. To get started, visit your Subscriptions page and click "Add a subscription" in the action box on the top right of the page. Enter "buckeyes" or some other tag of interest, and you're done! Also, if you'd like to narrow your subscription to tags from specific users, you can enter their usernames when creating your subscriptions.

What are Network Bundles?

A Network Bundle is simply a way to organize the people in your network into groups. For example, you might want to view all your friends bookmarks separately from your coworkers' bookmarks. To do this, you can create network bundles for your friends and coworkers seperately. Then clicking one of these bundles will filter your Network list to only the bookmarks saved by the people in that bundle.

 To create Network Bundles, go to your settings page and click "Edit Network Bundle".

What are Subscription Bundles?

A Subscription Bundle is simply a way to organize your subscriptions into groups. For example, you might want to organize your football, baseball, and auto racing subscriptions into a "sports" bundle. This bundle can then be viewed individually, so you can now see all your sports subscriptions without seeing anything from your other subscriptions.

 To create them, simply go to your settings page and click "Edit Subscription Bundle".

How can I make my Network not visible to other people?

Your network is visible to other people by default. If you do not want others to see to whom you are connected, you can hide your network. The link to this setting can be found in your Settings page or via the network options link on your Network page.

What is my Inbox and how do I use it?

This is where you can receive bookmarks from other Delicious users. Your Inbox is not visible to other users. The Inbox link, which is at the top of all pages on Delicious, shows the number of new bookmarks that you have received.

 (Note: I think this was the old way of sending bookmarks. Now you can just click the person’s name on the Send Tab.) To send a bookmark to another user who's part of your Network, you can click the "for:auser" tag provided for you when saving a bookmark, or you can type "for:auser" directly for anyone (in your Network or not). Sending a link within Delicious can be easier and quicker than email or instant messaging, and your friend or coworker will have a permanent copy of the link that's easy to add to their own bookmarks.

When you tag a bookmark with "for:auser" , only you will be able to see that tag, even though the whole bookmark may be public.

Can I send a private bookmark to another person's Inbox?

Yes, you can tag both private ("not shared") and public bookmarks with "for:" tags.

Can I delete bookmarks from my Inbox?

Yes, you can either delete bookmarks individually, or use "bulk edit" to remove several at once.

Facebook Fan Pages vs. Groups

Tool Groups Pages

Wall X X

Info X X

Notes - X

Discussions X X

Links - X

Photos X X

Events X X

Video X X

Restrict Tool Groups Pages

Wall postings X X

Photos X X

Videos X X

Links X X

Open/Close/Secret X -

Customize who can view postings - X

Feature Groups Pages

Email all Members X Only by request

Make Officer (Titles only) X -

Make Admin X X

Mobile Upload - X

Add More Apps - X Facebook  Students can use a group or fan pages as a group tool to gather resources for a group project. These resources can include videos, photos, wall postings, group information, events, and links if they are using either Fan Pages or Groups. If Fan Pages are used a discussion area will also be available.

 Use as an information source for students. People do not need to have a Facebook account to view the Fan Page. They will, however, need a Facebook account to post to the page. Search engines can find fan pages but group pages cannot be found.

Brenda’s Fan Pages  Second Life in the Higher Education Classroom - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Second-Life- in-the-Higher-Education-Classroom/275526501892

 Social Media in the Higher Education Classroom - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Murfreesboro-TN/Social-Media-in-the-Higher-Education- Classroom/220401502830

Google

Texting Google Voice: Jackie Johnson Gardner - I have an iPhone and am too cheap to pay extra for text messaging, but students prefer to text. I found I could use Google Voice with my students and they can text me for free.