Would I friend my lecturer if I was a student answer to @amcunningham
I really wonder what it must be like to be young again and say
entering higher education for the first time. How would my use of
social media tools be framed? And would the use of social media tools
really help my learning. The last question posed by @amcunningham
this weekend was would you "friend" your lecturer on Facebook? Social Media platforms have increasingly coalesced into discussing
various aspects of professional/ personal life on various platforms.
I don't know whether platforms have consciously done this but
considering they all have financial valuations and business models
generated on adverts, I would consider it surprising that there isn't
some invisible hand guiding exactly what is being discussed on what
platform. In many ways it's horses for courses and that's not for
now. For many people (Opinion: I don't think it's just the young) Facebook
is their "go to" place to catch up with their social network. Whilst
I care a lot about my Facebook friends (btw people not brands ) my use
of this platform is really about entertaining watercooler things. My
work colleagues who have access to this may see more of my trivial
side and a wider context to some family life happenings. But what if I was joining a medical school? A colleague recently told
me of his daughter who whilst studying at college posted something
about being "fed up" with college. There was a couple of comments
from other friends that obviously were in close contact with her
discussing their course and then her Grandfather chimed in with a
comment saying not to worry and that God always loves her. My
colleague relayed this story due to different contexts that Facebook
is used and had subsequently asked his father that it may be ill
advised posting this type of thing to his granddaughter. Is this
confusing? A few weeks ago I had a conversation with another colleague (at work)
who enjoy conversing with- probably more true to say gossiping with.
I had seen that she had posted a couple of comments on an another
colleagues FB posts and I told her that I was considering "friending"
her. Her reply, whilst surprising at the time and adds to this
discussion as that she said that on that media she prefers to be be
dumb! It brings me back to intent, and how clear you are about WHY you are
using these media. Firstly my opinion is that we are still making
these rules up. For some people social media is still about
broadcasting their message, believing if you shout at me loud enough
that I will hear them. For others conversation is a key part of
learning and helping build capabilities, I would hope those
capabilities are put to good use but hey that's a matter of opinion as
well. So if I am a student entering higher education would I be using
Facebook to link with my lecturers? YES
One of the main benefits is that people know this platform, they are
now accustomed to "liking" something, to comment on something.
We are all getting more relaxed about openness and transparency with
trusted friends. I think less and less often as to why people have
shared certain aspects of their life on FB
We cannot deny that often students are funded from other people for
their education. Hence sponsors of education may see the interaction
as further tangible evidence of their money being well spent, in fact
they may even interact? Even further it may inspire other people in
the learners social graph to enroll on a course of learning if they
are inspired. NO
The big one is for me around learning and further openness is the
ability to have a safe environment in which to make mistakes and be
vulnerable. The aspect of "being on show" has to be considered for
students. OK if you are mega confident about showing how you are
learning in the open, but again is learning and the potential to fail
one of those last taboos for many of us? And what about the
lecturers, how easy for them to engage with comments - would they for
instance engage with people who are not enrolled on their course and
no doubt as sure as eggs are eggs there will be the age old debate
about managing the learners welfare and the age old arguments of
positive and negative behaviours? I also think back to what I was like as an 18-21 year old. Whilst
Facebook hadn't been invented then - my final year project was about
linking the BBC micro computer to chemical reactions, I know as an
trainee innovation junkie I would have been on that platform. Yes I
would have posted plenty of those pictures with beer glass in hand and
a worse for wear look, made comments about how boring physical
chemistry was and how lecturers from Prof Mason (polymer chemistry)
were both entertaining and stimulating and how much I liked the
conversation with my friends in halls about social science and winding
them up about how little work they seemed to do, apart from their all
nighters on writing essays. (saying that I did fall in love with one
of them and we got married) But all this in those days was in the
comfort of a closed community, our contact with other family and
friends was by letter or weekly telephone call - no mobiles! Yes they
were the good old days and for me it was a sandbox where I could
explore so many different parts of my identity. The last point is that students now will be the workforce of the
future, however that looks. There are many attempts at getting the
use of social tools within organisations. This is changing greatly.
HR teams can no longer control the career details of someone if they
are laid bare on LinkedIn. For many the boundary of professional life
and personal learning life can be difficult to navigate especially
when working on something that you are passionate on doing. We've got
not only to future proof these students but also make sure they are
given the leadership skills to use these tools to great effect, to
create movement, change. So on balance as we enter this new world we need helpful small
experiments with willing lecturers / students ready to accept all the
benefits and unintended aspects that this may release. It's not going
to be easy though!
Sent from my iPad
entering higher education for the first time. How would my use of
social media tools be framed? And would the use of social media tools
really help my learning. The last question posed by @amcunningham
this weekend was would you "friend" your lecturer on Facebook? Social Media platforms have increasingly coalesced into discussing
various aspects of professional/ personal life on various platforms.
I don't know whether platforms have consciously done this but
considering they all have financial valuations and business models
generated on adverts, I would consider it surprising that there isn't
some invisible hand guiding exactly what is being discussed on what
platform. In many ways it's horses for courses and that's not for
now. For many people (Opinion: I don't think it's just the young) Facebook
is their "go to" place to catch up with their social network. Whilst
I care a lot about my Facebook friends (btw people not brands ) my use
of this platform is really about entertaining watercooler things. My
work colleagues who have access to this may see more of my trivial
side and a wider context to some family life happenings. But what if I was joining a medical school? A colleague recently told
me of his daughter who whilst studying at college posted something
about being "fed up" with college. There was a couple of comments
from other friends that obviously were in close contact with her
discussing their course and then her Grandfather chimed in with a
comment saying not to worry and that God always loves her. My
colleague relayed this story due to different contexts that Facebook
is used and had subsequently asked his father that it may be ill
advised posting this type of thing to his granddaughter. Is this
confusing? A few weeks ago I had a conversation with another colleague (at work)
who enjoy conversing with- probably more true to say gossiping with.
I had seen that she had posted a couple of comments on an another
colleagues FB posts and I told her that I was considering "friending"
her. Her reply, whilst surprising at the time and adds to this
discussion as that she said that on that media she prefers to be be
dumb! It brings me back to intent, and how clear you are about WHY you are
using these media. Firstly my opinion is that we are still making
these rules up. For some people social media is still about
broadcasting their message, believing if you shout at me loud enough
that I will hear them. For others conversation is a key part of
learning and helping build capabilities, I would hope those
capabilities are put to good use but hey that's a matter of opinion as
well. So if I am a student entering higher education would I be using
Facebook to link with my lecturers? YES
One of the main benefits is that people know this platform, they are
now accustomed to "liking" something, to comment on something.
We are all getting more relaxed about openness and transparency with
trusted friends. I think less and less often as to why people have
shared certain aspects of their life on FB
We cannot deny that often students are funded from other people for
their education. Hence sponsors of education may see the interaction
as further tangible evidence of their money being well spent, in fact
they may even interact? Even further it may inspire other people in
the learners social graph to enroll on a course of learning if they
are inspired. NO
The big one is for me around learning and further openness is the
ability to have a safe environment in which to make mistakes and be
vulnerable. The aspect of "being on show" has to be considered for
students. OK if you are mega confident about showing how you are
learning in the open, but again is learning and the potential to fail
one of those last taboos for many of us? And what about the
lecturers, how easy for them to engage with comments - would they for
instance engage with people who are not enrolled on their course and
no doubt as sure as eggs are eggs there will be the age old debate
about managing the learners welfare and the age old arguments of
positive and negative behaviours? I also think back to what I was like as an 18-21 year old. Whilst
Facebook hadn't been invented then - my final year project was about
linking the BBC micro computer to chemical reactions, I know as an
trainee innovation junkie I would have been on that platform. Yes I
would have posted plenty of those pictures with beer glass in hand and
a worse for wear look, made comments about how boring physical
chemistry was and how lecturers from Prof Mason (polymer chemistry)
were both entertaining and stimulating and how much I liked the
conversation with my friends in halls about social science and winding
them up about how little work they seemed to do, apart from their all
nighters on writing essays. (saying that I did fall in love with one
of them and we got married) But all this in those days was in the
comfort of a closed community, our contact with other family and
friends was by letter or weekly telephone call - no mobiles! Yes they
were the good old days and for me it was a sandbox where I could
explore so many different parts of my identity. The last point is that students now will be the workforce of the
future, however that looks. There are many attempts at getting the
use of social tools within organisations. This is changing greatly.
HR teams can no longer control the career details of someone if they
are laid bare on LinkedIn. For many the boundary of professional life
and personal learning life can be difficult to navigate especially
when working on something that you are passionate on doing. We've got
not only to future proof these students but also make sure they are
given the leadership skills to use these tools to great effect, to
create movement, change. So on balance as we enter this new world we need helpful small
experiments with willing lecturers / students ready to accept all the
benefits and unintended aspects that this may release. It's not going
to be easy though!
Sent from my iPad
