Best practices for teaching with social media(Web 2.0)

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Best practices for teaching with social
media (Web 2.0)

• Karen Neves
• W.K. Kellogg Health Sciences Library
• Dalhousie University

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Todays topics

• What are social media/web 2.0?
• How do we teach?
• Considerations for using social media in teaching
• Examples of social media teaching in action

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Social media briefly defined

• At its most basic sense, social media is a shift
  in how people discover, read and share news,
  information and content. It's a fusion of
  sociology and technology, transforming
  monologuesinto dialoguesand is the
  democratization of information, transforming
  people from content readers into publishers.
  (Source Wikipedia.)

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How do we teach?

• Classroom
• Large group
• Small group
• One on one
• Hands on vs didactic
• Single session vs repeated contact
• Videoconference, telephone, web conference

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Examples of social media

• Facebook/MySpace
• Twitter (Find other librarians on Twitter)
  (Kellogg Library Twitter account)
• Wikis (wiki for this session)
• Blogs (Kellogg Library blog)
• YouTube (University of Florida Libraries YouTube
  channel)
• Flickr, (CHLA/ABSC 2008 Conference Flickr Pool)
• Digg, Reddit
• delicious, StumbleUpon

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Rules for teaching with social media

• Rule 1 There are no rules
• Photo used under creative commons license. Credit.

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When might you use them?

• Single session
• YouTube/Flickr, wiki, blog
• Repeat contact
• Facebook, blog, wiki, delicious, YouTube/Flickr
• Hands on
• Twitter, web portal (like LibGuides), wiki
• One on one
• Instant message, Twitter, blog, wiki, Facebook

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Considerations for you

• Are these media blocked in your organization?
• Who is your audience?
• How much interaction do you want?
• Do you want participants to change or contribute
  information?
• Do you want synchronous or asynchronous contact?
• How steep is the learning curve?
• How much upkeep is required?

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For learners

• Should be as much about learning as teaching
• Should make contact easier for you and your
  participants
• Should allow for input dynamic exchange of
  ideas
• Should be fun
• Just because we can doesnt mean we should

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Case study Facebook fan page

• The good
• Students live on Facebook
• Free
• Allows user input
• The bad
• Asynchronous interaction
• Some features require HTML programming skill
• Needs to be manually checked
• The ugly
• Difficult to keep regularly updated
• RSS feeds wont work

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Why didnt this work?

• Our goal was not clearly defined
• We misunderstood our audience
• We misunderstood our medium we got it
  backwards social tool with educational component
• Interaction is labour intensive
• The chosen tool is not flexible enough

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Case study Undergraduate Medicine LibGuide

• Kellogg Library home page
• Main point of access for users
• Undergraduate Medicine LibGuide
• Web portal bringing together library resources in
  support of program.
• Architecture of site based on curriculum units.
• Social media features include feedback boxes that
  go to librarian, boxes where students can share
  resources theyve discovered with each other and
  an instant message widget to reach librarian.

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Why does this work?

• Clearly defined goal
• We understood our audience
• We understood our medium educational tool with
  social component
• Interaction is more immediate with library
  each other
• Ease of use for students librarian minimal
  upkeep, minimal learning curve
• Allows user-generated content
• One-stop shopping confidence in resources

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In summary

• Have a clearly defined goal
• Know your audience
• Choose the appropriate media
• Understand the time constraints
• Decide which aspects of social media you want
• Have fun!

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• No social media were harmed in the making of this
  presentation.
• They were, however, manipulated mercilessly and
  used exhaustively.
• Thank you.
• Flickr, Creative Commons, Wikipedia, Facebook,
  LibGuides