Social Media: Changing the Face of Education

Talk to Social Media Club Gold Coast, 26 March 2009

Social Media
Changing the Face of Education
Michael Rees
School of IT, Bond University
Education in classes of today
Laptops
Smartphones
Problems to be Overcome
Teaching staff not aware how to exploit the technology

Social media already in use by students in class and out

Need to exploit social media to improve teaching outcomes
Blogging for Students
Introduced on voluntary basis in late 2005

Made compulsory from 2006

Every subject includes blogging worth 10%

8 subjects of experience

emphasise study journal & recording tool
Student Blogging Outcomes
Most gain significant blogging skills

Some hate blogging and do as little as possible

A few use blogs to communicate with friends and family

Teacher gains insight into study & social activities
Remember 
IT students
hate writing prose!
Blogging Assessment
10 set blog post tasks

10 posts of choice

must be completed in 12 weeks
Delicious Social Bookmarks
Shared Wikis
Twitter in Class
Screencasting
What Next?
full-scale Twitter experiments

selective screencast use by students

spread word amongst colleagues
http://prezi.com/20995/