student living in a small college town
in Kansas my friends and classmates were
using this new website called Facebook
it was and I quote a better version of
MySpace I had never used it so I started
using Facebook of course started
friending others and posting pictures of
my social life it took me about three
years but eventually I became
overwhelmed so I proceeded to delete my
Facebook account
a year later I had moved to a different
state and City I was a doctoral student
and I was volunteering as a graduate
noticed in my interactions with my
classmates and friends that I felt a
little bit left out for example most of
my classmates and friends had enroll in
this MOOC massive open online course
about a statistical research that was
taught by a well-known scholar in our
field they have found out about it
through a Facebook group posting again I
have never heard of it at the end of
that conference I really started to
reconsider my decision and wonder if I
should join Facebook again it took me
about six more months but eventually I
joined Facebook not only did I join
Facebook I joined other social media
online groups that allow me to exchange
information with others connect with
individuals who share a similar interest
and informally learn about topics that I
now let’s fast forward to 2018 today
social media is ingrained in the way we
communicate with one another there is
evidence that the use of social media
will continue to grow as existing
applications expand and new applications
enter the market because users are eager
to try applications that offer unique
and engaging ways to communicate with
others for example many of you many of
us are snapchat Instagram and Facebook
users right if your snapchat user you
are one in a hundred and sixty six
million daily active users according to
the Pew Research Center the use of
social media in the United States has
grown from five percent in 2005 to 69
percent in 2016 this growth is global
trends these are not unique yes to the
United States now most of us use social
media to communicate informally with
family friends and acquaintances however
it is not uncommon to see concerning
headlines about the use of social media
for example Megan Marco just quit social
media here’s what you may want to as
well Facebook admits that social media
can be bad for you social media is
changing how we think and not
necessarily for better and one of my
favorites stop over posting your
vacation photos because we have all seen
those picture-perfect vacations the type
of vacations that you just dream of well
just recently I also have my picture
perfect vacation
my husband my two-year-old and I embark
on an adventure to our sunny destination
Cartagena Colombia the pictures did not
disappoint but let’s be honest my
husband and I were traveling with a
two-year-old his behavior was not always
picture-perfect yes he cry
yes he had temper tantrums and yes he
was loud when asked to be quiet he is a
two-year-old after all though to some
extent it is true social media can be
harmful for us affect our mental
well-being too public
it can be too distracting and just like
our vacation photos it can influence and
misinform us so I’m not here to tell you
that it’s all rainbows and unicorns
nor is it doom and gloom what I want to
share with you is that we need to find
ways to positively use these mediums
recently there has been a large number
of research efforts that are focusing on
how to better understand and analyze the
use of social media for teaching and
learning purposes as an educator and
researcher myself I have experimented
and investigated with the use of social
media for informal learning since 2013
the graduate students in the program in
which I teach have been using social
media online communities to learn more
about our field of study instructional
design we have both public private
online social communities and this
online communities the students exchange
information post jobs and internship
opportunities
seek recommendations ask questions and
they just simply stay connected in my
research I have found that this online
social communities keep the conversation
going outside the classroom and as some
graduate students have mentioned the
posts tend to trigger their curiosity
and internally done to exploring
different topics and potentially develop
skills however this online communities
informal learning opportunities are not
unique to the graduate students in the
instructional design program at the
University of Tampa as a knowledge
seeker I wanted to know if graduate
students in other institutions were also
using social media online communities to
pose share network and connect and
here’s what I found
graduate students in other institutions
are using social media online
communities to facilitate social and
knowledge sharing they also use these
social media online communities because
conversations tend to happen in a far
more candid and a spontaneous way so
communication seems easier we also have
students that are in fully online
programs I use this social media online
communities because it provides a sense
of belonging a sense of community what
was really striking to me was that the
students mentioned in the research that
they not only enjoy interacting with
individuals who share common interests
but they also interact with others who
have different perceptions because this
perceptions challenged their views and
in turn lead them to rethink reflect and
in some instances reshape their own
knowledge
of course not all students were just
eager to share their tots with the world
some students enjoy lurking around and
quietly participating while reading the
content provided by others so you may be
wondering you’re here in a Saturday
morning thinking why is it important to
listen to this lady talk about informal
learning in social media communities
well
because instead of solely focusing on
the bath or thinking of social media as
a waste of time we need to find
innovative ways to use and repurpose
this environments in a way that is safe
beneficial and ethical for us and how
can you do that you can start by
becoming surfs I like surf directed
learners and use social media to gather
information about trends related to
topics that interest you or perhaps your
field of study
what are new and emerging topics that
you can explore who are leaders in your
field that you should follow where can
you find rigorous research related to
your field of study or interest also
consider connecting with individuals
outside your network yes it is important
to interact with individuals who share
your same ideologies but it’s equally
important to connect with individuals
outside your network because this in
this conversations can lead to
innovation what it really boils down to
is using social media for transformative
learning opportunities in which you
engage in this course engage in critical
reflection and potentially transform
but don’t get me wrong I’m not saying
that we need to stop hosting our cute
cat videos gifts and means or that you
should stop posting your selfies I can
most certainly appreciate a good selfie
I’m also not saying that we need to
overlook the challenges that social
media present for our physical mental
and social well-being we absolutely need
to find ways to cope with those
challenges what I am saying is that we
can enrich our social media learning
experiences by considering educational
opportunities we as users have the power
to control what we pose when we post who
we interact with on how we interact with
others we cannot simply rely on social
media developers to think of healthy
ways for us to use these platforms it is
our responsibility to make it work for
us thank you
[Applause] you