The following abstract is an extended version of an abstract we submitted to Alec Couros’s call for papers, and for which we be submitting a full paper.
Marshall McLuhan’s statement “the medium is the message” is interpreted as encouraging us to notice changes that accompany a new medium, in order to shape the development of the innovation and use it effectively (Federman, 2004). Such an approach is suited to our challenge: to develop and deliver an undergraduate module called Emerging Technologies to 450 students across eight different degree subjects in a United Kingdom Business School.
Many, if not most, of these students will already be using personal digital technologies such as mobile phones, MP3 players and digital cameras. Once acquired, these devices can become almost invisible tools for the consumption (and production) of social media - video sites, message boards, photo sites, linked through social networking services to sustain and extend networks of interpersonal relations. Apart from the social cachet of particular brands, it’s the media and experience that are present in the mind of the individual not the medium itself. Our expectation, based on the literature (Selwyn, 2009) and our own experience, is that many students will have some proficiency in the use of social media but may not yet be critical consumers, or see them as relevant to either their study or their future career. Indeed, they may resent the intrusion of academics into their social sphere, what Chris Lott called “the creepy treehouse effect” (Education Guardian, 2007; Krutsch, 2007).
Our goal is to help students become critical consumers and producers of social media by bridging the perspectives of personal use, and organizational use of social media as a product/service or in the delivery of other products/services. Our approach is enthusiasm tinged with scepticism, employing practical experiences to inform the development of critical faculties in choosing and using social media. Even Neil Postman, an excoriating critic of technology promoted the value that media literacy education could bring to civic life (20 seconds into video, Postman, 2007). The relative newness of social media to teachers as well as students creates a space for constructive engagement where reflexive use of the media can generate dialogue and learning. Students from a variety of different degree subjects and staff with different subject and life experiences comprise a depth and breadth of theoretical knowledge and practical experience.
The module design employs structure, innovative use of social media technologies, a focus on the public/private nexus and context; to work with students in achieving the module goals over one academic year. The focus in the first semester is on the development of practical skills in consuming, producing and choosing social media technologies and services, and includes profile creation, blogging, media plugins and the ethical use of resources. In the second semester, we turn to the impact of social media on organizations, with students working in groups to produce an emerging technologies strategy for an organization within the domain of their degree programme. Themes running throughout are ethics, identity, collaboration and network creation.
Our choice of learning technology reflects the complex mix of public and private that we all experience online, reflected in the example of the tenant who posted on Twitter about mould growing in her flat being sued by her letting agents (Harvey, 2009). BuddyPress plugins to the Open Source blog platform, Wordpress (Groom, 2008) will enable us to create a public academic social network where students create a profile, connect, blog and microblog. Support for learning activities, schedules, assignments, etc. will be located on the standard university learning environment Blackboard, but linking out to resources located, where possible, in public spaces: bookmarks on delicious.com, slides on slideshare created by us, and the wealth of resources created by others. Thus students can develop a public profile in the supported environment of our academic social network, yet link their experiences of identity in Facebook, Bebo, etc., and later to the professional online identity that they will develop through work placement and employment.
References
Education Guardian. (2007). Students tell universities: Get out of MySpace! Guardian.co.uk. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2007/nov/05/link.students
Federman, M. (2004). What is the Meaning of the Medium is the Message? Retrieved 27 July, 2009, from http://individual.utoronto.ca/markfederman/article_mediumisthemessage.htm
Groom, J. (2008, 15 May). Integrating WPMu, BuddyPress, and bbPress. http://bavatuesdays.com/integrating-wpmu-buddypress-and-bbpress/
Harvey, M. (2009). Tenant sued for $50,000 after Twitter post - Times Online. Timesonline. Retrieved from http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6732451.ece
Krutsch, J. (2007, 26 June). http://technagogy.learningfield.org/2007/11/19/are-you-building-a-creepy-treehouse/
Postman, N. (2007). YouTube - Technology and Society by Neil Postman 7/7. from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8VQGTzy2Yo&feature=related
Selwyn, N. (2009). The digital native: myth and reality. Aslib Proceedings, 61(4), 364 - 379.
We would very much appreciate any comments or suggestions you have to improve our practical work and our writing about it.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Ed Webb // Aug 4, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Sounds fun. Is there no way to deliver this without Blackboard? In addition to its obvious intrinsic deficiencies, it might have a dampening effect on students’ engagement with the other elements of the course, making them seem less ‘official’ since they are outside the relatively safe and unchallenging environment of the institution’s own IT infrastructure.
2 Frances Bell // Aug 4, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Oh I wish Ed!!I’ll be interested to see if the ‘mix’ has the impact you suggest. We need to rely on Blackboard to some extent since we are managing such a large group of students and need to mobilise support from others. Student interaction within Blackboard will be minimal but we will use it to deliver feedback on assessed work (better than email) and act as a skeletal jumping off point for content - much of which will be public and elsewhere. Face to face will also be important on this course.
3 ailsa // Aug 4, 2009 at 7:05 pm
sounds promising, just wondering what a strategy for an organisation might look like…might be of greater value to work with an organisation in a more cooperative way, negotiating what would be undertaken.
4 Frances Bell // Aug 4, 2009 at 7:19 pm
That’s a good suggestion Ailsa though I don’t think we can place 450 in groups for this module (they will engage with clients elsewhere in the programme). We could encourage them to do this themselves - I will think about that.
5 Robin Trangmar // Aug 7, 2009 at 4:10 am
Thanks for this synopsis Frances. I’ve been struggling to get a coherent framework together to support teacher training students. They need to use a social network to support their studies, and also see how it can be used to in relation to thier own groups.
I think the brain is too full of holiday at present!
6 Agin // Sep 7, 2009 at 6:25 pm
sounds promising, just wondering what a strategy for an organisation might look like…might be of greater value to work with an organisation in a more cooperative way, negotiating what would be undertaken….
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