Earlier this week I was in Scotland to give two workshops at the University of the West of Scotland where I did my undergraduate (and now my PhD) degree. The first workshop was for PhD students as part of a series of training on social media delivered by myself and Ana Adi on a range of discussion around social media, teaching and research. The first session, “Academia 2.0″, really a broad introduction to social media and research, was designed to get PhD students to think about ways in which they can use free tools online to help investigate, promote and collaborate within different areas of their research practise.
The workshop was open to any level of PhD and from any department, which meant that there was a broad range across the disciplines from Chemistry, Business studies and Computer Science present at the session – with experience ranging from those who have never taken their laptop outside of the house right up to those who are building platforms of their own. The session began by reflecting on the historical context of social media, as well as making some predictions for the future that might be useful for PhD researchers. It then went on to show a number of ways in which the Internet can be used to compliment research and encourage collaboration through promoting work to wider audiences and networking with those from different disciplines – as well as demonstrating the different levels of engagement with tools (as in, you don’t need to jump straight into content making or adding people to social networks) There were also some case studies where social media can go wrong and where social media can be used within activities such as literature reviews or presentations. It concluded with a workshop exercise in order to encourage PhD students to begin their own blog to document their research online. This was a take away exercise on how to set up and write their first blog post on posterous.
Their were some initial questions which emerged around the use of social media as part of the PhD process, namely around the usefulness of trying new things outside traditional academic contexts – as well as the lack of critique around the subject, both of which could be expanded through further sessions which were more specifically based on academic rigour, rather than a training workshop. There was also a request for literature review specific workshops, where tools such as mendeley and cite-u-like can be introduced in more detail (in a similar format to existing endnote sessions) – the fact that these tools are not only free, but offer a new route to discovering related literature, as well as shaving time off citations, was a positive effect.
The next sessions will be by Ana on the 17th of November who will be looking at “Web 2.0 Research Tools” and “Social Media and the Classroom” more specifically. I will be holding a session on Amplifed Conferences and Events on the 9th of December.
Abstracts below:
1. Provide a broad historical contexts of, and issues concerning, the development of new media in the context of academia.
2. Explore and examine the forms, methods of delivery, levels of engagement and technical specifics of emerging Internet technologies (such as blogging, content making and communication devices) for the purpose of a research career.
3. Work towards building strategies and exploring online tools for short, medium and long term profile management. Bring your laptops and an open mind! 2. Social Media Tools for Research This 3 (?) hour session will focus on how social media tools can be used to collect, analyse and visualise data, whilst examining social routes to collaboration with other researcher – both in your field and between disciplines. It will debate the relevance of online data in the context of existing methodological approaches and how this new form can be used to supplement and transform existing results. There will be particular attention spent raising questions about ethics in the online world and how data can be protected and made sense of in a wider context. Outcomes:
1. Provide an overview for tools (both free and paid for) currently available for online data collection, with a particular focus on how to assess and seek value in the ongoing emergence of these platforms.
2. Examine how online data can be used to support your existing research methods.
3. Explore online data collection in the context of existing methodologies – specifically looking at data protection, ethics and research context. 3. Social Media in the Classroom
This 3 (?) hour session will focus on two aspects: a)teaching about new media; b) teaching with new media to enhance students experience and ensure reach of learning outcomes. The first area will ask questions surrounding the practice of new media and explore whenever it should be integrated into courses, or to be taught as a separate module – using examples from business, communication and journalism studies. The second section will demonstrate tools and techniques that can be used to increase class participation, expand learning borders, increase student to student and student to lecturer interaction and methods to make information available beyond the classroom. Outcomes:
1. Provide an overview of tools and techniques for teaching with social media through use of twitter, blogs, guest lectures and video streaming, collaborative platforms and personal learning environments (recording sessions, podcasts, screencasts)
2. Discussion around challenges, advantages and disadvantages of using new media in a university/education context
3. Explore case studies for developing social media policy for a classroom. 4. Amplified Events: Beyond the Academic Conference This 3 hour session will focus on the realm of the academic conference – from the view point of an amplified participant, speaker and moving towards the process of organising an amplified event, where social media is used to increase online participation around the topic.) The workshop shall explore the concept of an event “back channel” using tools such as Smartphones, Twitter and CoveritLive. It will then move on to look at techniques for speakers to project their presentation beyond the conference room, using tools such as blogging, slide sharing and live-streaming video and audio. It will conclude by looking at considerations event organisers can explore when looking to facilitate an event using social media – from providing the tools to following up with archiving and research. Outcomes:
1.Provide an overview of tools and techniques for using social media as a conference participant – focusing on the back-channel and mobile capturing.
2.Discussion around challenges, advantages and disadvantages of using social media within and beyond conference presentations
3. Explore case studies for developing social media policy around conference organising, before, during and after the event.
Presentations from the 1st of November:
Pa
rt 1:
Part 2:
