Using Social Software Tools for Learning & Teaching

Using the Cloud

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Joan Walker & John MaguireJISC RSC Scotland

Overview of Social Media

Using WIKIs

Using Blogsbreak

Curating Web Resources

Social Networking

•Wikipedia

•Wikispaces / WetpaintWIKIs

• Blogger / Wordpress / Elgg / Typepad

• TwitterBlogs / Micro Blogs

• Scoop.it / Tumbler / Paper.li

• Delicious / Diigo/ Digg / CiteUlike / Stumbleupon

Social Bookmarking/Digital

Curation

• Facebook / LinkedIn / Bebo / NingSocial Networking

http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/social-software/index_html

WIKIs

• Website which can be edited collaboratively

• A range of media can be incorporated (text, video, images, hyperlinks)

• All editing is recorded and easy to revert to the previous version of the wiki

• Good for group activities as changes can be documented and thought processes recorded

Social Bookmarking / Digital Curation

• Enables storing, organising & sharing favourite websites

• Meaningful keywords added so collections are searchable

• Bookmarks can be shared with students or colleagues

• Sets of resources can be presented in visually stimulating ways

Blogs

• Online journal with chronological posts that are also searchable

• Commenting facility

• Other media can be easily incorporated (e.g. video or images)

• Excellent tool to encourage reflection

• Records distance travelled

• A good tool for building up evidence

Micro-blogs

• Post small pieces of digital content (maximum number of characters)

• Posts followed (by friends, colleagues, students)

• Instant publication with few restrictions

• Portable tool which feels organic and spontaneous

• Good collaboration and information sharing tool

• Can encourage reflection, peer review with the potential to enrichlearning experiences

Social Networking

• Users create a profile and make it available to “friends”

• A network of contacts is built-up

• Tools include blog, photo & video upload, IM & chat

• Now being used more than email

Multimedia sharing

• Photo sharing – Flickr

• Video sharing – YouTube, Teacher tube

• Presentation sharing – Slide Share

Benefits

Social Media applications are easy to use and and can be easily accessed online using a browser

Modernises the curriculum with many already being used by young people -Can communicate with students outside class time

Increases choice and the scope for personalisation & learner autonomy

Improves possibilities for deeper & reflective learning

Supports collaboration & communication (tutor to student & student to student)

Largely free or very inexpensive & inherently scalable

Things to Consider

Older people are not familiar with social software services to the same extent & lack web2.0 skills and attitudes

Learners & staff may not find mixing social and academic spaces desirable

Start with one tool and add others later – Think quality not quantity

Awarding Bodies require to have confidence in systems - Rubrics for assessing work that use social software tools require to be developed

Use tools to collaborate and communicate with colleagues

Using Social Software Tools for Learning & Teaching

Using the Cloud

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Contact details

http://www.rsc-scotland.ac.uk/

support@rsc-scotland.ac.uk

Twitter: @RSCScotland

Mail List: http://bit.ly/RSC-info