Using Social Media to communicate with students
Hello Dr. Crews and class,
I am excited to be a part of this class.
My Program Chair just started a LinkedIn IT group for our IT professors and students.
I was surprised at the level of participation within the group by students. They use it to re-connect with classmates with whom they shared past classes and share ideas both academically and professionally. Our classes are all online.
I have garnered many insites from their online conversations in the forum.
Dr. Paulette Stephens
Paulette,
Thanks for your excitement and sharing in this forum. LinkedIn is a great way to connect and it's good to teach your students about the professional social media they can use.
Dr. Crews,
The students who joined the group are equally as excited. They seem to share information related to the course and the university more freely within this group than they do in the school's forums.
I am very curious about this. I have posted this question to them and I am awaiting their answers.
Paulette
Paulette,
Awesome. It will be great to see what they have to say. Thanks for your input in these forums.
Dr. Crews,
Two of them confirmed that they are more comfortable with social media that with the school's forum. They are used to collaborating with friends and family on social family and find it more natural.
Paulette
Paulette,
Good to hear from them. It's interesting to learn more about what students thing. Thank you.
Dr. Crews & Colleagues:
As more and more online universities adapt their communication technology offerings to fit the needs of younger students they are designing and adjusting their course interfaces to look and function more like social media sites such as Facebook. I think this is a good thing because it allows for a degree of comfort among students versed in social media and helps to encourage the communication process and exchange of ideas across all student learners in the class.
Don Olsen
Donald,
The younger generation may accept this format more quickly. I do have a lot of non-traditional students in my classes as well and I may need to help them adapt. Thanks for your input.
I think this is a great idea! Social media is a great tool, but it must be used properly. I am also a huge advocate of oversight, which is why I am glad to see that the program chair started the LinkedIn group. With use of LMS boards and school e-mail, the supervising chair or director can monitor what is occurring while not interfering with the instructor's ability to run the class. Certain unwanted issues may arise when instructors fail to keep administration in the loop of what is occurring in any social media site (i.e. inappropriate interaction, posted links, attachments, etc.). I advocate the productive use of any communication tool, but there must be accountability in place also.
Aundrea,
I agree. The LinkedIn Group we formed is strictly for IT students and we have established guidelines for its use. Students know that it is a community for them to bond in a way that they cannot in the classroom and contribution to this forum is not assessed, but they also know that they are responsible for what is posted there.
As a result their converstions are civil. We have gleaned useful information that has helped to enhance their classroom experience.
Paulette
Aundrea,
The key phrase you offer is "productive use of any communication too." We do have to make sure it's productive, doing what we want and we are accountable. Thank you.
Paulette and Aundrea,
Thanks for continuing the conversation. We can find community in many ways through many technologies.
