#SocialMedia & #HigherEd – Policy vs. Guidance

Last week, I attended the free @EDUCAUSE #EDUlive Developing Social Media Guidance in higher education with respect to #Privacy and #Security concerns. The presenters, from the University of Pennsylvania, shared ideas for how to promote safe usage of social media and detailed how to  draft guidance for addressing issues in teaching, research, administrative, and other functions.

Click here for the Twitter Cloud interactive image =>  http://www.infomous.com/node/15059

If you missed the #EDUlive event, you can check out the webinar recording and archives posted on the EDUCAUSE website, Developing Social Media Guidance, and you can also read through the Storify of #EDUlive tweets I collected.

During the webinar, I shared the Social Media: Sharing Strategies, Policies &  Privacy Concerns in Higher Education open & shared Google Doc that was 1st created for a @BreakDrink Campus Tech Connection (CTCX) Show in September 2010. This document has been circulated around and curated for a while by myself and high ed professionals and faculty. Since there were a number of social media guidelines/policy examples shared during the webcast, I added  them to this doc. For others interested in developing guidelines, I think there are a few solid examples I like in here, and I know that @EricStoller shared some of his favourite #SM guidelines from the list on InsideHigherEd recently as well.

Before diving into creating rules, guidelines or policies for social media, it is important to consider how this emerging technology is being used on your campus. In Chapter 6 of Social Media for Educators, Tanya Joosten (2012) shares her thoughts around institutional considerations for social media policy and practice [which we chatted with Tanya about on #CTCX Episode No. 61 as well]. There are often concerns about the use of social media at educational institutions, since these social and  connected resources impact student behavior, online interactions, privacy concerns, and communication practices. When developing a social media policy, Joosten (2012) offers a few helpful suggestions for educators:

• review current technology use at your institution
• do not link policies to specific tools
• revise current student conduct and institutional policies
• use policy to address behaviors and activities, rather than focus on the technology
• learn about FERPA (or FIPPA in Canada) issues and privacy of student information at your campus
• develop best practices on campus for use by students, faculty, and support units

When thinking about the language of policy vs. guidelines, I am partial to establishing guidelines. There are probably already policies that address the actions and outcomes of student, staff, and/or faculty behavior on your campus. I think that it is important to review your home institutional policies and/or guidelines to best understand what is already being “regulated” on campus. It is also helpful to chat with your institutional office who deals with policy development, legal concerns, and/or questions you might have around privacy legislation.

Have you searched the terms “social media+policy” or “social media+guidelines” on your institutional website? Go on. See what shows up. If you find something, then start connecting and collaborating with that unit. If there is nothing to be found, then gather your peers and start the conversation.

References:
Joosten, T. (2012). Social media for educators. San Francisco, CA: Wiley/Jossey-Bass.

Social Media Strategies in Student Affairs

Last night, the Break Drink Campus Tech podcasting crew decided to tackle the hot topic of Social Media Strategies in Student Affairs. During the Campus Tech #14 show, the three of us shared some thoughts and ideas that are currently being put into practice for many higher education institutions, and discussed how social media is impacting our university and college campuses.

Photo c/o http://www.policytool.net/

The hot topic included the following discussion points:

• digital citizenship
• education and awareness of Student Affair practitioners and students
• the evolution of social media on campus
• questions & concerns for best practices of social media in higher ed
• examples of current social media policies & guidelines
• resources for developing social media strategy for your campus

Image c/o The Advanced Human Technologies Group

Here are a few great resources to check out if you are designing your own social media strategy on campus:

• ELI 7 Things You Should Know – 64 Resources http://www.educause.edu/Resources/Browse/ELI%207%20Things%20You%20Should%20Know/33438
• Nonprofit Social Media Tips http://www.convio.com/signup/guides/social-media-tip-sheets/Nonprofit-Social-Media-Tips.html
• Policy Tool for Social Media: http://socialmedia.policytool.net/
• 21 Rules for Social Media Engagement http://mashable.com/2010/05/18/rules-social-media-engagment/
• 10 Must-Haves for Your Social Media Policy http://mashable.com/2009/06/02/social-media-policy-musts/
• 4 Tips for Integrating Social Media Into the Classroom http://mashable.com/2010/05/11/social-media-school/
• Social Networking Security – Internet2 Wiki https://wiki.internet2.edu/confluence/display/itsg2/Social+Networking+Security
• Social Media Policy Generator http://socialmedia.policytool.net

In thinking about this grand topic, the Campus Tech posse realized that it was a daunting issue to tackle in a 60 minute podcast. The discussion about emerging technology and social media in higher education will not be over soon. To help continue the conversation and support best practices using social media, I initiated a digital archive of resources we hope other Student Affairs practitioners will contribute to:

Social Media Strategies in Student Affairs Google Doc

If your campus has a social media strategy or you have further resources for best practices, please share them in the above document. The Campus Tech show would love to know what you think about social media on campus, and we will be sure to talk about updates or comments we receive.

NEXT WEEK on the Campus Tech Podcast:  Speaking of Social Media in Higher Education….

Stay tuned for the show next Monday (8/4/10) at 7 pm CDT as we connect to the LIVE happenings of the 2010 NACADA Annual Conference for Academic Advising professionals. This year is the first year @NACADA has recruited a team to support social media and a backchannel for participants near & far.  Here’s the NACADA Social Media Guide & be sure to follow the hashtag #nacada10.

Open, Connected & Social With EC&I 831

The next online, open education course I am involved with this semester is EC&I 831: Social Media & Open Education from the University of Regina with Dr. Alec Couros that meets only every Tuesday evening (8-10pm CST). I first learned about this course through a few online networks in the ed tech arena, and I thought it may be an interesting lens to review curriculum and content development for learning. Here’s the 5 minute elevator pitch for the course:

The Tuesday evening elluminate session provided the basic introduction to the course schedule and outline. I am looking forward to connecting to other students to further explore the role of the educator/learner in terms of media literacy, knowledge and social networks.

It was great to hear the parallels between my personal philosophy of education, and how it ties into the learning objectives of this course.  Dr. Couros’ believes that there are great strengths in learning relationships and connectiveness amongst students, rather than just the specific content or knowledge.  It will be interesting to see how this sentiment is interpretted by the various weekly session speakers and participants throughout the course of the semester.

Although this course is similar to CCK09, I think that EC&I 831 will challenge me to:

• get perspectives of social media education – history, ideas & development
• expand my social learning theories & applications
• experiment & play with NEW social learning & open educational tools/resources
• provide a critical lens for curriculum development with social media & open education
• build up my learning network – connect & enage with new online peers

Open Learning Courses: EC&I 831 and CCK09

Summer always leads to much needed time outdoors and away from the computer. It’s nice to be off the grid, but also good to plug in and reconnect with friends and learning ideas online.

To kick off the new academic year, online education, and career development I have signed up for a couple of online, open education courses to compliment the grad program I start this fall.

Here are the two courses that I am connecting with mid-September:

1. Connectivism & Connective Knowledge 2009 (CCK09)

This course is led by Stephen Downes and George Siemens. The CCK08 Syllabus and supporting content can be found on the CCK09 Wiki.

You can register to receive course information here. Learners can also get formal credit as part of the Certificate in Emerging Technologies for Learning can enroll through University of Manitoba’s Extended Education Faculty. The course will begin on September 14, 2009.

2. EC & I 831: Social Media & Open Education

This is an open access graduate course from the Faculty of Education, University of Regina by Dr. Alec Couros. Although this courses is for credit, there is also an opportunity for participation from non-credit students. All lectures in this course, from September 15/09 to December 8/09 will be publicly available. To access the lectures, look for the appropriate date under “Synchronous Sessions“, then look for the weekly Elluminate link. I will also offer the appropriate Elluminate link via tweet via @courosa.

If you’re looking to learn from interesting and experienced educators, while connecting to peers and resources online, than one or both of these courses may be of interest to you. Sign up & join in the fun. Although I’ll be busy with work & school, I’ll be sure to continue to share my thoughts, ideas and resources that I learn here.

If you are currently interacting and learning from another open course… please share. Happy open learning!

AACE Global U – Social Media Seminars

AACE Global U will be hosting a series of seminars around “Social Media: Trends and Implications for Learning.” I was able to listen to the archived seminar for July, however I hope to participate in a future monthly online seminar:

August 10, 2009, 9:00 PM Eastern USA
September 8, 2009: 3:00 PM Eastern USA
October 13, 2009: 9:00 PM Eastern USA
November 10, 2009: 3:00 PM Eastern USA
December 8, 2009: 9:00 PM Eastern USA

The seminar series, led by George Siemens and David Cormier, is without fee and will include live interactive sessions, in addition to discussions with guest speakers and participants. All sessions are co-sponsored by and will be archived in the Education & Information Technology Library (EdITLib). And you can join in the discussion on AACE Connect.

During these Elluminate sessions, the conversations will be active in the webinar and recorded for those who cannot participate at these specific times.  By using the #SMTI hash tag you can find conversations on Twitter, archives in blogs and resources in Delicious.

Here were a few key discussion pieces I found useful from the first social media seminar:

• Networking in Everyday Life by Bernard Hogan
• Examples of learning outcomes for social media & digital technology use in learning
• The Digital Melting Pot by Sharon Stoerger
• Open Educational Resources: Opportunities and Challenges in Higher Education paper
• Cover It Live
• Educating the Net Generation – EDUCAUSE
• wikiEducator
• FREE by Chris Anderson
• Does Technology Really Enhance the Quality of Teaching & Learning? by Tony Bates

Social Media Bullying Awareness

Great poster-making activity from the BullyingUK website. Excellent tools & resources here to share a positive message against cyber bullying with your students.

Social Networks Are for the Kids.

Silly adults. Social networks are for kids (too)!

Although my interests lie in technology use in higher education, I stumbled upon an interesting article, Child-friendly social networking tools, in the eSchool News.

Many child-friendly applications have been created for students in the K-12 realm, which include various security and privacy features to keep educators at ease.  These arenas allow schools to develop online learning communities within their classroom, schools and/or school districts.

The article describes more specifics about the following tools:

• ConnectYard
• eChalk
• ePals
• SayWire

I think an introduction to these types of technologies in school at an early age is excellent. This provides  a great classroom model and hands-on experience for the instruction with various tools, i.e. wikis, blogs, and more! Students learn to design, create, share and interact with their peers online for learning.

Most students in higher education are VERY aware of social networking tools.  The only issue is that many college students would not think to utilize these online technologies to support learning and academic success (unless their current faculty is ‘hip’ to the technology jive).   To best support academic learning in the later years, instructors need to use these online resources during formative, educational years.

10 High(er Ed) Fliers on Twitter

Check out 10 frequent fliers that are active on Twitter in Higher Ed c/o the Chronicle article from late last week. (Sorry for the delay.)

Most of these micro-bloggers study new media & the impact of Twitter on higher education.  Follow on, friends.

@PRSAjobcenter

@jayrosen_nyu

@hrheingold

@amandafrench

@academicdave

@dancohen

@paullev

@mcleod

@mwesch

@presidentgee

Happy Birthday ACE!

For those of you thinking about implementing a new online, web 2.0 project for student learning… I say: GO FOR IT!

This is the 1 year anniversary of the ACE pilot project that was initiated at The Academic Advising & Career Centre, University of Toronto Scarborough.  Happy Birthday, ACE!

ACE (Academic & Career Explorer) is an online, peer buddy who connects with students at UTSC to share information & resources about job search, academic questions, career options and study skills support.  You can connect to ACE various ways online:

• Website
• Facebook
• Blogger
• Flickr

The ACE project was a fun project to work on with staff and students.  Kudos must go out to E-Lin, Suzanne, Esther & the great team of student staff at the Centre for all their creative work and on-going support.

Here’s a shot of E-Lin celebrating ACE’s birthday today with some cake (office tradition), of course:

Successful Virtual Communities

Here’s the latest video post from Howard Rheingold who writes about cultural, social and political implications of modern communication media such as the Internet, mobile telephony and virtual communities (term he coined).

Here is the full video: http://unescochair.blogs.uoc.edu/18022009/rheingoldlargevideo/

It’s pretty straight-forward and summarizes a great deal of what is being discussed and shared by adminstrators & educators within higher education. He presents his thoughts about social media and facilitating online collaborative communities in this clip, which I find very interesting.

Other learning pieces and items by Rheingold that you should check out include:

• Social Media Classroom: http://socialmediaclassroom.com/
• Electric Minds archives: http://www.rheingold.com/electricminds/html/
• Digital Jounalism (Berkley): http://socialmediaclassroom.com/digitaljournalism09/
• Community/Social Media (Berkley): http://socialmediaclassroom.com/vircom09/