The Tweet is On: Social Media Belongs in Education

Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter get a lot of flack for being overrated. Many people don’t understand the fascination for personal use and they are even more in disbelief when it comes to using social media for a practical purpose such as to make money (business), or to engage and educate (education).

In my (humble) opinion, systems such as Facebook and Twitter can be immensely beneficial to education. The caveat is that social media needs to be strategically and purposefully implemented based on sound pedagogy and based on the objectives that need to be met for any given lesson or course. For example, if an instructor is teaching a class in which group discussion and engagement is valuable to meeting objectives, Twitter could be used to serve those needs. The instructor could show a live class Twitter feed during an in-person class. The students could be presented with a question and be asked to reply on the Twitter feed. Students may include research or personal experience to add to the discussion. One advantage to using the Twitter feed over just having regular class discussion is that more students are likely to interact. Students that are typically introverted may feel more inclined to contribute to a Twitter discussion. A second advantage is that students can be encouraged to “continue the conversation” outside class throughout their day. As students are at work, at play, or doing homework, they can continue to post research, thoughts, pictures, or videos that can add to the discussion.

Social media systems such as Twitter are not just for leisure tweeting anymore. With a little bit of forethought and a little bit of creativity, educators can create engaging, interactive lessons for students in an environment in which they are already connecting.

Have you thought of using Twitter for education before? Have you already implemented it in a course or lesson? I would love to hear about it in the comments.

Collaborating Asynchronously and Synchronously in Online Environments

How well do you collaborate in asynchronous and synchronous online environments whether for learning or for professional contexts? Regardless of who you are or your level of technological expertise, online collaboration is expanding and simplifying making it easier for most people to find and use the tools necessary for connecting with others. I truly enjoy working with new technology and exploring the capabilities that lie therein. I fully embrace asynchronous and synchronous tools in online environments.

So which do you prefer? Asynchronous or synchronous online collaboration? Some educators say one is superior to the other and that the “lesser” should be abandoned. I say, “why choose one over the other when we can have both?” I feel that both asynchronous and synchronous collaboration and learning have a place. Flexibility of time and space necessitates the use of asynchronous communication with tools such as blogs, discussion forums, and document libraries. The need for deeper connections, vocal nuance, visual cues and facial expressions all warrant a need for synchronous collaboration using tools such as Skype, Blackboard Collaborate, Google Video, or GoToMeeting.

In my experience working as part of a group online, I found that a greater sense of connectedness arose among the group members from using synchronous tools such as Skype. We were able to verbally talk together as though we were sitting in a room together. We added this to the synchronous interactivity of Google documents so that we could talk and write together in the same document at the same time. Had we not used Skype to actually talk with one another, I do not feel we would have been able to connect as much on a personal level as well as quickly and easily talk through the nuances of our project. During the weeks the group worked on the project, basic asynchronous tools such as email were still vitally important to continued communication throughout the process.

In short, I appreciate and advocate the use of both asynchronous and synchronous communication methods in the online environment. If you ever find you are unfamiliar with a new tool, do not be afraid to search Google for how-to videos. A world of knowledge is forever at our fingertips!

Effective Video Training for Education

I just recently had a discussion with a friend about what methods of presentation work well for me as a learner. This is a topic that I would love to examine further. For me, I really enjoy learning from training videos. Training videos are spread all throughout the Internet from both professional content providers as well as novices. For a quick, one-off type of tutorial, even a novice video can suffice; however, the most effective online training videos I have every watched come from www.Lynda.com.

In the discussion I had with my friend, I mentioned how Lynda provides thorough software and computer training in a very systematic manner. The learner can go from complete rookie to mastery by watching every video in a course. For example, if you want to learn how to use Adobe Photoshop, you can access the Photoshop training that best fits your level of experience with Photoshop from beginner to expert. The “Photoshop CS5 Essential Training” course alone is over 11 hours of step by step video training. That might sound like a lot, but when the training is interesting (and it helps when it’s in an area you enjoy), 11 hours goes by fast.

Learning with video works for me. I can watch at my pace, rewind if I miss something or need to watch something again, and I can use it as a reference later when I actually have a project that uses the specific skills and/or tasks I learned. What I wonder though is how much of higher education can follow this model. When thorough training videos are created, can most subject areas stand to benefit? I understand that software and computer skills can be easily taught in a video medium, but what about counseling, statistics, nursing, history, biology?

I think these questions are difficult to answer for several reasons. I think that all of these subject areas and more can use videos to train students. But I also believe there is a point where certain skills cannot be trained merely through video. In other words, eventually, a nursing student must get a real syringe and be able to take a blood sample! Another issue with saying videos are a great solution for all of education is quality. There are so many educational videos out there (even at multi-million-dollar universities) that are absolutely awful; however, just because awful videos are not effective, does not mean we should abandon the use of videos; it just means we need to invest what it takes to create stellar, effective videos!

Obviously training videos existed before the boom of the Internet, but the manner in which a user can engage with the videos and quickly access and navigate videos has changed. I think that I am much more likely to watch and reference Lynda.com videos since they are in small chunks on my computer than if I had countless DVDs to navigate. It’s just different.

So what do you think? Are videos underutilized in education? Do you think video training can and should be the primary form of training for courses in counseling, statistics, nursing, history, biology, and others? Are video trainings effective for you like they are for me?

Online Communities: What Field Trip Did You Take Today?

Remember the joy of being a care-free kid? Do you remember the excitement of field trips – going new places, and seeing and learning new things? Now consider the age of the Internet. Each of us “Web surfers” take field trips every day as we travel from one website to another. We meet people we know (Facebook), and we interact with people we do not know (Web forums). We also see (YouTube) and learn (Blog posts and news articles) something new along the way.

Take joy in the limitless exploration and opportunities found on the Internet. Your Internet-connected device is a portal. The destination of that portal is up to you for better or for worse. These field trips are not merely journeys to a destination, however. They are connections with a worldwide community and with a world of sub-communities.

So what do people do? What do you do? Individuals in the online community tend to fall into three categories: 1) Creators (those that create content), 2) Lurkers (passive readers that consume content), and 3) Contributors (those that respond to others’ thoughts/conversations). Most of us assume more than one of these roles, but we still tend to be more of one than another. To be honest, I have been more of a lurker over the years. Even when I am engaged in an online conversation, I am seldom motivated enough to respond. On the other hand, there are people that always feel the world needs to hear what they have to say. :) I have seen over the years that being a creator has many benefits, but that is a threshold I have yet to cross.

At this point in my life, I spend most of my time gleaning knowledge from the online communities. I am a Web designer, so I spend a lot of time honing that craft. I do create content for Web as part of my job, but not extensively.

In short, what field trips do I take in the world of online communities? Facebook, Web forums, YouTube, Wikis, Google+, blogs, and email conversations. Wow. No wonder I am hard pressed to find free time.

So where do you go? What do you do? What does your family do?