Social Networking

3 C’s of Social Networking in Education: Consistency

I thought I would start my look at the three C’s of social networking in education by tackling the hardest one: consistency. I know I made that sound like I had a choice on which one of the three to start with. And the truth is, I did – I don’t think these three C’s go in any order. We really need to consider them all at once, and also work on them as they come up. You can look at the context first, or community first… but you need to look at all of them before jumping in.

So, consistency. You need to think of your social network as a television show. If you watch a television show that starts out on Monday nights, then goes off the air for a few weeks, and then comes back on Saturday afternoons, and then goes away for a while, and then comes back once on a Friday morning – you would give up watching it after a while. The same is true with any social networking site – be it a blog, or a podcast, or a wiki even. You need to look at your site visitors as an audience – if you aren’t consistently giving them new content to read or look at, they will check out after a while.

This gets hard for the working professional that is attempting to social network as part of their job. The modern mindset is that when the deadline is on, then that is ALL you can focus on and nothing else. Even five minutes spent off task and you will miss the deadline.

We know this isn’t true – but that is how we work sometimes. And I think we are seeing subtle changes in the younger generations – they value networking as much as the older generations do, but they are more willing so carve out a few minutes each day to do it.

So, that is what you have to commit to if you want to get some type of social network going – you have to make the time for it, even of the deadline is looming. The amount of time you commit would be in proportion to the size of your networking tool and also the expected update frequency. Micro-blogs and FaceBook take less time to update, but need to be attended to daily or every other day or else people will start to lose interest. So set aside 10 minutes a day to update those. Blogs and wikis take more time, so they probably need to be updated weekly – either at least once or maybe a few times a week. So find that 30 minutes to a couple of hours each week that you can update these. Set aside this time as almost sacred – you will do something no matter what the deadline crunch is (even if it is a short “Auuhhhh – deadline!” update).

I also need to point out that consistently also applies to your actual content – make sure that it is interesting and applicable to your target audience.Your online history students don’t want to read about your newest toothpaste adventures in your micro-blog.

Coming up next: Community

Matt Crosslin

Matt is currently an Instructional Designer II at Orbis Education and a Part-Time Instructor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Previously he worked as a Learning Innovation Researcher with the UT Arlington LINK Research Lab. His work focuses on learning theory, Heutagogy, and learner agency. Matt holds a Ph.D. in Learning Technologies from the University of North Texas, a Master of Education in Educational Technology from UT Brownsville, and a Bachelors of Science in Education from Baylor University. His research interests include instructional design, learning pathways, sociocultural theory, heutagogy, virtual reality, and open networked learning. He has a background in instructional design and teaching at both the secondary and university levels and has been an active blogger and conference presenter. He also enjoys networking and collaborative efforts involving faculty, students, administration, and anyone involved in the education process.

www.mattcrosslin.com

The Three C’s of Social Networking in Education

Here is a typical scenario in education when an instructor or administrative person decides to explore some online social networking tool. Let’s take micro-blogging for an example. You sign up for Twitter, learn to use it, and then Tweet away for a few days or even weeks. They you get busy and disappear for about the same amount of time – a couple of days or weeks (or months). Then you magically appear online again, apologizing profusely for your absence and Tweeting away… but for a shorter period of time than your first episode of activity. Then life creeps back in and you disappear again for a while. You come back to Twitter when life settles down, take a good hard look at it, and decide to give up. “No one was commenting on anything I read” or “no one seemed to respond to me or post on my wall or whatever” is your typical response, depending on the tool.

Sound familiar? I was pretty much describing my experience with several programs. The problem here is that we are applying an older educational paradigm to a new educational tool. With the old “sit and soak” educational method, your audience was still going to be there when you came back to that cool idea because, well, they had to be. You can start a cool new idea in class, then put it aside for a few weeks to get the “real” content in, and then come back to the new stuff when you get time. In the traditional educational setting, many things can be put off so that we can focus on “the basics.” Your audience – your students – will still care about their test grade even if you got to busy for a while to get it graded.

Online social networking is different. You have to look at it like building a successful television program. You have to make choices that will give people a reason to tune in… and sometimes, you may have to make a sacrifice to get that done. The sacrifice I am talking about here is not as painful as you would think. I am just talking about making some changes in mindset to get social networking happening in your educational setting.

Over the next three blog posts, I will take a look at the three C’s of online networking in education:

Consistency
Community
Context

Stay tuned!

Matt Crosslin

www.mattcrosslin.com

The Web Has Gone Social – How About Your Class?

Google has been bit by the social bug. A big, crazy, infectious social bug. Social networking is becoming a part of everything they do. I was recently working on an online Google Presentation for an upcoming conference presentation and noticed that GTalk is integrated in to Google Presentations. You can chat with people online as you give your presentation.

Now Google is going to let any website tap in to existing social networks – some how. Details are still sketchy, but Google Friend Connect will allow web site owners to add snippets of code and add social networking features. Site visitors will sign in to these features using existing Facebook, AIM, Yahoo, or other OpenID accounts. Yep – they did say Facebook on their site. Yes, Google’s Orkut is a direct competitor of FaceBook. That is just the way the Web is going – competitors are actually starting to work together.

So as the web grows more interconnected and social – where does that leave your online class? What does this say about building courses in huge walled fortresses called “Learning Management Systems” ? If your students create work that is only seen by the 15-30 or so other students in your course, will they really be ready for the social world out there?

What about you as the instructor or expert in your field? Experts in many fields are increasingly being determined by the voice that they have in an online community as much as they are being determined by older concepts like “publications.” I get more requests to contribute to publications through this blog than I do through my conference presentations.

And what does this say about current learning management systems? If websites that interact with competitor websites becomes the norm – where will that leave BlackBoard? Programs like Moodle and Studeous are taking steps to create social networks that cross course boundaries. Moodle admins have found that they can even network their Moodle installation with other Moodle installations at other campuses. But will they start being able to connect their social networks with their competitors?

The issue of course is not the tool or the medium. The issue is how you use it. For example, many people call for the death of the learning management system. I just say – why? It’s just a container for your class content. Content that can build a big, walled fortress of information, or content that can get students out in to the social world. How are you designing it? Almost all social network tools provide you with code that can be inserted in to any web page. Do you like the idea of Google Friend Connect and want to use it in a course? Paste the snippet in to a page and upload that page in to your LMS.

Instead of looking at killing the poor LMS, or figuring out how to transcribe our course lectures in to text and putting that online, why not look at our LMS course as the launching pad… a good place to securely store necessary information like grades, course rosters, course specific sensitive discussions and reflections, and other stuff like that. Then insert links to social sites or embed social widgets and features in to the course. Get students the basic information they need and then get them out there participating in the global conversation on your subject. Trust me – your students will be glad to have a “home base” to serve as a starting place for all online courses. Where I work, we hear all the time from so-called “digital natives” that get tired of having to hunt for lost links or bookmarks for the instructors that have moved out on to the social web without leaving a “home base” back on our WebCT installation (and there really are not that many instructors that have done this yet). Yes, I know we are told that “digital natives” would love to free float and jump all over the web for online learning – but we are finding that they do appreciate an easy to find “home base” on the school’s website.

Matt Crosslin

www.mattcrosslin.com

Education + Social Networks + Games + NBC Video

I get weekly emails toting some service that is going to take e-learning to the next level, several steps forward, into the next century, etc. If this was even the case half the time I get a notice, e-learning would already be in the 25th century. But, obviously we’re not there yet.

So I wanted to take a skeptic look at a new service by NBC called iCUE. And I did, but I also think they are on to some great ideas here. What is iCUE? Well, basically, it’s a learning environment built around NBC video archives. It uses social networking to connect with friends and discuss activities, and educational games to make it fun. Not a bad mixture.

One quote caught my eye: “Our mission is to demonstrate the social, cultural, and educational potential of video games.” Well, its about time… or maybe a little late? Grand Theft Mind-Number CCXXVIII might have already calloused millions against even considering the educational potential for video gamers – but let’s hope not.

Elliott Masie also posted a podcast interview today with Adam Jones, Sr. Vice President of Network Development & CFO of NBC News about iCUE, if you want NBC’s take on this. Listen to the podcast over at The Masie Center.

Hopefully, we can see other television networks in the US and abroad get in on this, maybe even all collaborate together? It would be so interesting to see different perspectives on world issues or historical events from India, England, Russia, etc. Just a dream of mine, I guess.

I need to still sign up and kick the tires on it a bit, but just wanted to report on the idea. Only time will tell if this actually works out, but it is fun to test out new stuff, regardless of whether or not the hype is over-the-top.

Matt Crosslin

www.mattcrosslin.com

The EduGeek Journal Social Network is Launched

If you are like me, you get random emails, IMs, Jaiku/Twitter notices, etc from random people about random cool Ed Tech stuff. You try to pass them on to as many people as possible, but you inevitably leave someone out. Then, you remember the people you forgot and can’t find the original message anymore. Wouldn’t it be great to have a central spot for every one to gather together and share stuff? One that can be searched, tagged, and easy to navigate?

Well, I decided to do something about that, at least with my small circle of friends. Thanks to Ning, I start a social network specifically for Ed Tech people. Of course, there is a discussion board for sharing new ideas and discussing stuff (attachments allowed). But you can also stream photos from a Flickr account into the site (or upload straight to the site). You can add a YouTube (or any other online video service) video – or upload one straight to the site. All of this can be tagged and commented on. Plus all of the other features of social networking. RSS feeds are everywhere, including the latest updates list – so you don’t have to constantly hit the site to see if there is anything new.

Click here to go to the EduGeek Journal social network.

If you want to join the site, I recommend first going to the main Ning site and getting a Ning ID. Doing this will let you join other Ning social networks, too.

You’ll also notice that there is an EduGeek Journal Jaiku Channel. Anyone with a Jaiku account can join the channel and send micro-blogs to the channel. Jaiku isn’t currently accepting new accounts, unfortunately, as they were just bought by Google. I wanted to put off announcing the channel until new accounts were allowed, but that is taking a while. But for those of you that like to micro-blog but not social network, this is another avenue to add ideas to the EduGeek Journal network.

Matt Crosslin

www.mattcrosslin.com

New Study of Online Behaviour

Teach42.com reported yesterday about a new study by the National School Boards Association and Grunwald Associates LLC that explored the online behaviors of teens and ‘tweens’ in the United States. The press release can be found here, and the report itself can be read here.

The report contains a wealth of information that can be chewed on for hours. What I found really interesting is the fact that blogging and content creation online is increasing (when compared to 2002). Wasn’t blogging supposed to have died out, or at least become ‘uncool’ with the younger generation, several times over the past few years? I guess not.

Also, I found the student use of social networking stats very interesting, and also full of ideas for educators. Using social networks to create virtual objects? Or how about participating in collaborative projects? Interesting stuff.

The report also suggests that the Internet is also not as dangerous as the news makes it seem. Only 0.08% of teens report that they have met someone in person from an online encounter without parental permission. To that I say – so what? Just because parents gave the permission, it’s automatically safe? Not true. Also, we’re talking about self-reported data here. No matter how you promise to a teen that you won’t share this data with parents, I think fear of getting busted, or even the desire to make the Internet look safer so parents will ‘chill out’ (or what ever the correct lingo is now-a-days), would skew the data significantly.

Also in the report is some great statistics and suggestions for teachers and administrators.

Matt Crosslin