Harnessing the power of new media for learning, teaching and research

Gráinne Conole, Leicester University12th June 2012, UNISA

Outline

• Characteristics of new media

• Harnessing the net for research

• A new approach to design

• Reflections and implications

Activity

• What are the characteristics of new technologies?

• What are their implications for learning, teaching and research?

New media

Characteristics Implications

Conole and Alevizou, 2010

5

• Technology immersed• Learning approaches: task-

orientated, experiential, just in time, cumulative, social

• Personalised digital learning environment

• Mix of institutional systems and Cloud-based tools and services

• Use of course materials with free resources

Sharpe, Beetham and De Freitas, 2010

Learner experience

EDUCAUSE study• Students drawn

to new technologies but rely on more traditional ones

• Consider technologies offer major educational benefits

• Mixed views of LMSs

http://www.educause.edu/studentsAndTechnologyInfographic

Game changers

• Harness the power of new media

• Need to rethink education• How can we reach more

learners, more effectively?• Impact of free resources,

tools and expertise?• New business models?• New digital literacies?

http://www.educause.edu/game-changers

Activity: What’s your digital network?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/factoryjoe/195492568/

My network

Activity: fb love it or hate it?

Pros• Overseas family, fun, quick

updates, time zones, search on names!!, snooping, contact with people you wouldn’t be in touch with otherwise

Cons• In your face, not sharing

everything, not preferred tool for many things, friends reunited, inappropriate, quality vs. quantity, overload, emotional outbursts,

Activity: using new media for research• How would you use the following for research (i.e. data

collection, dissemination, discussion)?–Blogs–Facebook–Google+–LinkedIn–Academia.edu–Twitter–Flickr and Youtube–Diigo–Mandeley–Dropbox–Others?

What tools do you use for research?

• Terese iTunesU analysis of tweets about iTunesU in different languages

Blogs• Of the moment

reflections• Digital archive• The power of peer

review• Record of events, reviews

and resources• Wider audience reach

and hence profile• Link into facebook and

Twitter• Complements traditional

publication routes

e4innovation.com

gconole.wordpress,com

Bloggers worth readingM. Weller

G. Siemens

T. Anderson

Using facebook

Ideas for harnessing Web 2.0?

Twitter

Twitter and facebook #fb

•Think about strategies to make the most of each of the following and then think about how you can do this both in a face-to-face and virtual context– Conferences– Networking– Publishing

Blending real and virtual

Conferences• Purpose: presentation & feedback• Network, network, network!• Potential collaborators & bid partners• Put in a symposium of experts• Expert validation workshops• Put papers/presentations online• Follow up contacts afterwards: email,

fb, Twitter, blogs, etc.• Work up into a research paper• Work the hashtag• Live blog or follow conference-related

blogs

A personal example

Networking• Build links with

international colleagues•Get on national-level

committees• Invite key researchers in

your field to be involved in a joint research activity• Invite people to give

seminars at your institution• Build connections online

via Twitter, facebook, etc. • Participate in online events• Leave comments on blogs

Publishing•Write books - edited or single authored (post drafts)•Become an editor for a special issue of an online

journal• Keep publication list up to date in your research

repository• Set up a writing group or workshop (real/virtual)•Co-write with lots of different people (using a wiki)•Disseminate publications via Tweet, fb etc • Post up drafts for comment on blogs etc• See Twitter, blogs, journals, books as complementary

GO OPEN!!!!

Conclusion

• Structured guidance to think about design

• The power of visualisation• Beyond content to activities and

experience• Iterative, creative and messy• Making designs explicit• Social media to foster

communication and collaboration

Final thoughts• Participatory and social media enable new forms of

communication and collaboration• Communities in these spaces are complex and

distributed• Learners and teachers need to develop new digital

literacy skills to harness their potential•We need to rethink how we design, support and assess

learning•Open, participatory and social media can provide

mechanisms for us to share and discuss teaching and research ideas in new ways•We are seeing a blurring of boundaries:

teachers/learners, teaching/research, real/virtual spaces, formal/informal modes of communication and publication

http://www.slideshare.net/GrainneConole/conole-workshop-jtelssConole, G. (forthcoming), Designing for learning in an open world, New York: Springer

Chapters available on dropboxgrainne.conole@le.ac.uk