Social Networking in Higher Education
September 4th, 2008 by Shannon RitterOpen educational resources and personalized learning environments are hot topics these days in higher education and you’ve seen many related discussions here on Terra Incognita about these subjects. This idea of openness and personalization is something that I’m extremely passionate about, but from a slightly different perspective – social networking.
Social networking is a term that’s being tossed around quite a bit lately and is a pretty sweeping term used to define the use of tools and sites to develop and build online communities. I’m quite certain that everyone reading this blog has used some form of online social networking.
At Penn State World Campus we’re beginning to take advantage of the opportunities with tools like twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Second Life in the hopes of building a true, active community of faculty, staff and learners. I’ll be talking about these tools in detail in future posts, but for today we’ll concentrate on twitter. If you’re tired of hearing about twitter, just give me five minutes of your time and let me tell you how twitter has really, truly, changed things at Penn State.
When I first read about twitter I thought, as many others have, that it was the most ridiculous, waste of time, arrogant social networking site I’d ever seen. I could not for the life of me understand why anyone would care what I was doing and I could not fathom any reason why I would need to know those details about anyone else either. I thought that anyone that had time to sit around all day and just answer twitter’s simple question of “What are you doing right now?” in 140 characters or less really needed something more to do in life.
Once I took a step back and started thinking less about what valuable content I could possibly provide via twitter and more about what I could learn from others, twitter changed for me. The brilliant thing about twitter is that it’s simple, easy to use, and you choose who you want to learn from. For instance, if I’m interested in learning more about social networking, I can go to Summize (a twitter search engine recently acquired by twitter itself) and type in “social networking.” Summize will give me a feed of people on twitter that have been discussing social networking and then I can learn about those people and follow them with twitter. So now twitter isn’t about me, but about what I can learn from others in the field.
At Penn State, twitter has changed the culture on campus and has given us ways to connect across our university that we couldn’t have imagined. We’ve used twitter to ask for help, work on projects, discuss topics during conferences, schedule impromptu lunches, and offer things for sale. We’ve planned meetings, found opportunities to collaborate and have become a much more connected, intelligent, communicative group that now includes people from several Penn State campuses, departments and academic colleges. We are IT professionals, professors, advisers, learning designers, and students. We have used twitter to build a community that now thrives at Penn State.
For some examples of how the Penn State community has used twitter, you can go to Summize and search for “#LDSC08″ or simply visit http://hashtags.org and take a look at the twitter discussion from Penn State’s most recent TLT Symposium held in March of 2008.
We’re incredibly excited about the things we can do in online and distance education with social networking and I can’t wait to share more of it with you. In the meantime, if you’re using twitter or have decided to give it a try, feel free to follow me on twitter. I’d love to meet you.
September 10th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Great post, Shannon. I completely agree with you about Twitter. I, as well, thought it was going to be such a complete waste of time, but I was pleasantly surprised.
Not only have I met so many people around Penn State that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise, I’ve met so many people at other universities, other companies and literally around the world. I am conversing with professionals around the world about web analytics, a field that I’m very much interested in. This never would have happened as easily without Twitter. Never.
Shelby
P.S. Folks can follow me on Twitter as well.
September 11th, 2008 at 4:14 am
I have recently created a Twitter account (during the past month) and tend to lurk. I have heard a number of friends and colleagues describe an “S-shaped” curve that describes a rapid increase in Update volume, which I have not experienced. That said, I do keep my “People” side bar open to Twitter in my Browser, so I am not ignoring what others are tweeting about. I am not an inherently “quiet” person, and do participate actively in other face-to-face and virtual communities. This leads me to a question:
Do lurkers serve an important role in virtual community?
You can follow me on Twitter, but don’t wait up late for my next update. That said, I could surprise myself and I will happily follow you!
September 12th, 2008 at 11:32 am
I tweeted this question Do lurkers serve an important role in virtual community? and got some great responses and thoughts. Most implied that the value or contribution that the Lurker provides to the community does require some action eventually. That is, if the community allows the Lurker to spend time, get comfortable, and process what is going on, the individual may eventually do things like fact checking, etc. There is also a more general notion that we ought to “come as we are” provided that we do not represent a threat. If the Lurker is perceived as a threat then they might be blocked. I am wondering if there is some sort of connection with the rapidity that a Lurker is blocked and the “Openness” of community. I guess that we all have different tolerances for a variety of behaviors including silence.
One comment hit on something that I sort of had in the back of my mind - the notion of contributions that Mavens make across communities.
This function might be particularly important with the types of community that Twitter supports, which will have all sorts of connections due to the Follower/Followed relationships, some fragmentation due to character limits, and mixing of topics. In some ways the Lurker-Maven would serve as an unofficial archivist-publicist for the community.
Just some thoughts.
September 24th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
I think that many people, when they first heard of Twitter, thought the same thing you did. Just about everyone (from what I’ve heard) have changed their mind like you did. Social Networking, like Twitter, can be a really handy tool.
Angela
October 1st, 2008 at 5:59 am
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October 7th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Twitter really is a great tool and like most tools you really need to know how to use it to see it’s full potential.
Milo
October 15th, 2008 at 8:20 am
It is truly amazing how fast twitter has caught on and just because of the simple fact that it is so easy to use. This day of age, time is so important that it only makes sense that we embrace technology and use it to our advantage. I look forward to seeing whats next!!
KeyCanada
October 23rd, 2008 at 4:18 pm
I think that people like twitter because it is the Instant Messenger of the social networking services. So many people really enjoy communicating in 140 characters or less.
GMC
http://www.dynamiteschoolassembly.com
November 17th, 2008 at 10:43 am
[...] An interview with David Parry; • Twitter at Penn State World Campus; • Can we use Twitter for educational [...]
December 2nd, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Like many Web 2.0 tools, educational use is at the forefront of Twitter use. I am not sure why that is. Perhaps social media is just more core to their work and mission. Or perhaps they just have some more time in the classroom to promote the tool. Whatever the reason, there are good reasons for classroom and online teachers to use it. These include:
1. Twitter is very easy to sign-up for and to use
2. Twitter is an effective communication tool for concise messages and news items, or links to longer messages and news items.
3. Twitter is fun to use and may, therefore, be effective in engaging students in discussions who do not need to write longer essays.
The tools…they are a changin’…
J
FLiXER
December 8th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
The tools absolutely are changing, Jane. It’s so exciting to think about what we might be using 5 or 10 years from now.
December 17th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
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December 18th, 2008 at 4:11 am
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December 18th, 2008 at 4:12 am
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January 14th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
As a young person recently out of college, and now working entirely online, I wish my school had picked up on and promoted social media tools faster. Of course the students used them on a personal level, but it would have been great to have gotten used to the flow of using them in a professional environment. There are so many uses Twitter and other forms of social networking can be put to in the business world.
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:19 am
Social Networking has proven it`s use in both personal and business environments on internet. In my opinion Twitter is invaluable and it`s easy to use or understand.
Tools like this make the online world spin
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:41 am
I completely agree with you. I personally use twitter on a daily basis and it has become such a part of my routine that I’ve come to really depend on that “instantly available” network of people.
February 17th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Social Networking and Higher Education equal more collaboration. What are most students doing during the day? They are on social networking sites. The faster colleges realize that social networking sites help collaboration, the faster the colleges will grow.
Ambit Energy
February 19th, 2009 at 8:19 am
I agree. When I walked into a computer lab recently that was packed with students, 99% of those students were updating Facebook profiles. It’s amazing how things have changed.
February 21st, 2009 at 2:33 am
As much as I love twitter, I also find it to be a huge time waster. Anyhow, whoever came up with idea is an absolute genius. The simplicity of it is brilliant. A lot of people don’t have the time or energy to figure out all of the features on facebook, twitter on the other hand can be mastered by just about anybody.
Mzbt Articles
February 22nd, 2009 at 6:29 pm
I think it certainly could be a time-waster, but it depends how you look at it, I think. To me, any time at all spent learning new things about people and interacting with my community (no matter how dispersed) is not time wasted. I like twitter because I can read and interact when I have time - some days that’s quite often, some days not at all. I’ve found it to be a wonderful way of collaborating, spreading information and an excellent resource.
February 22nd, 2009 at 7:49 pm
I completely agree with Shannon. Twitter is what you make of it. If you want it to be a time-waster, it is. If you want to use it for only professional purposes, then it’s that as well.
Twitter is a communication tool … like … the telephone. You can waste 3 hours with your friend on the telephone talking about nothing but gossip and such. You can do the same thing on Twitter.
Likewise, you can talk to someone via Twitter that you don’t know, but you know shares interests with you (programming, gardening, marketing, second life, whatever).
The difference between Twitter and the telephone, beside the obvious ones, is the ease of meeting people beyond your inner circle. That’s where the real learning comes in. You have to get out of your box, your comfort zone. Then the real learning and conversation begins.
Don’t forget that Twitter is just another communication tool, with one big advantage … the ability to *know* people you don’t know (and visa versa).
February 23rd, 2009 at 8:19 am
[...] very comfortable using these sites, so why not use them to complement our teaching. At Penn State, students and faculty use Twitter to ask for help, schedule meetings, and collaborate on projects. I believe in working [...]
June 19th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
I will never be a fan of twitter myself as it is really just facebook to me with only the option to add your status! But mainstream seems to have caught on, so maybe it is just me! http://www.video-poker-online.org/
June 20th, 2009 at 6:18 am
i totally agree with angella
Social Networking, like Twitter, can be a really handy tool.^^
Buzz News
June 30th, 2009 at 5:34 am
I think that the incorporation of social networks into higher education is an absolutely phenomenal thing.
As a refugee of the 5,000 plus students in my class at Michigan State, I know that if there had been a way that would allow me to communicate with my fellow students and faculty I would have jumped on the chance!
Don’t fear change accept it and make it your own.
Just my 2 cents
Andrew Brinkworth
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