Social Media Tools You Can Use:

Community, Communication, and LiteracyDr. Ann Gagné

COMMAliveJune 25, 2015

Social Media-Why?

• Help extend and foster dialogue in educational spaces• Ability to make any space an educational space• Helps reinforce community • Personal Learning Networks

Personal Learning Networks (PLN)

• PLNs are the basis of our learning experiences and are important both in educational environment but also in the workplace• Connections, Curation, Network Spread

Literacies

• Types of literacy are important in our curriculum and in the workplace• Each social media tool reinforces specific literacies

How Do I Select a Platform?

• Need platform traction & cultural currency (trends)-> keep your goal in mind!• Data(from the Pew Research Centre 2014 numbers)• Facebook has 1.4 billion accounts (90% connected to family, 50% connected

to work colleagues or connections)• LinkedIn 347 million accounts (oldest demographic, college graduates more

than 50%)• Instagram 300 million accounts (main user demographic under 25)• Twitter 288 million accounts (same amount of advertising investment as

LinkedIn)• Tumblr 230 million accounts

LinkedIn

• Excellent for finding and vetting potential employees/employers• For modules that speak to preparing documents for employment this is something

that you HAVE to cover• Elements: Picture, Information, Education, Experience…Badges (Skills)

Instagram

• Visual literacy is an important point• But what is the larger communicative piece here?• Your Instagram is my art• Need to make these teachable moments in social media usage

(privacy, ethical literacy)

Twitter

• Because it increases knowledge mobilization• Because it gives you access to scholars from around the world• Because digital literacy and information literacy are a necessity• Because it provides alternative pedagogical models and tools to use in

the classroom

Setting Up Your Twitter

• Pick a handle that is easy to remember & type (eg. @bestSenecabusinesssclass is too long) (15 character limit)• Don’t be an egg (create visual

connection)• Make your “About” clear &

interesting- communicate!• Might want to add the URL to

blog if you have one (again linking communication)

Using Tweets as Communicative Practice• Remember only have 140 characters so emphasizes need to be

creative• Also there needs to be room for hashtags where pertinent and

necessary• Add a voice!! Don’t be a ReTweet Queen or King (This is the value

added piece, a space for critical thinking and analysis)

Twitter Options in the Classroom

• Class hashtag for announcements and info• Twitter assignments• Have the students use the tools on the websites in order to embed

and disseminate info

Tools that Connect to Twitter

• Bitly (link shortener)https://bitly.com/• Hootsuite (manages Twitter)https://hootsuite.com/plans/free

Evernote

• Curate & annotate articles• Works on mobile &

directly from browser• Makes annotated

bibliographies fun & easy• Find resources & put

them in a shared notebook

Evernote WebClipper

Feedly

• A place to curate all your RSS feeds in one place• Can be managed through Gmail (or other emails)• Many companies send out briefings, reports, or press releases through RSS

so it can be disseminated quickly to many parties (really simple syndication)

Vialogues

• A way to annotate video easily and effectively to the second.• Can increase communication

across many types of media• High use of many types of core

literacies

• Seneca Library video example

Tumblr

• Strengths: Combination of visual and text means information can be contextualized• Nice way to curate and elaborate on visual components • http://academicarchitecture.tumblr.com/

• Weakness: Tracing source becomes excessively difficult which reinforces poor citational practices

Questions?

Contact me!Let’s keep this dialogue going!ann.gagne@senecacollege.caTwitter: @AnnGagne