Week 5 in Review

This week was insane.  I learned so much from my colleagues at the Social Media and Society International Conference.  It was so perfect that the timing aligned with this course.  I leave Toronto tomorrow evening, so I am spending the rest of my time here "playing tourist."

Here is a quick recap of the conference (the stuff I didn't mention in my previous post):

There were A LOT of brilliant "social media minds" at this conference.  The photo below is really difficult to see, so here's what it says: we (the attendees) were multi- and inter-disciplinary and we represented over 100 institutions from 27 different countries and territories.  

Lee Rainie (who co-wrote our course text "Networked") was yesterday's keynote speaker.  He was actually introduced by the co-author, Barry Wellman.  He discussed a lot Pew Researcher Center's current research about social media.  Some of the topics included: social media use, onlien harassment, and trust.

Today's keynote speaker was Ron Deibert.  He is the Director of the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto.  He discussed a lot of the Citizen Lab's work regarding censorship, digital security, privacy, human rights, security, and surveillace.  

One of the really cool things about the conference was that a group was hired to create visuals of each of the keynote addresses.  Here they are:

In other news, I tried two of the tools: OER commons and Periscope.  I really liked OER commons and I am very excited to explore it further.  And then there's Periscope... Honestly, I don't quite understand it, so I am very excited to use it next week with Vanessa, Taehyeong, and Ray!

Our Presentation at #SMSociety

Vanessa and I are presenting our paper this afternoon.  So exciting!

Our paper is titled "Context Collapse and Student Social Media Networks: Where Life and High School Collide."  In addition to Vanessa and I, there are four other authors who are not present at the conference.  This is an ongoing project, so stay tuned for more presentations/publications in the future!

If you are interested in checking out our paper, you can find it here:

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=3097286.3097318

#SMSociety Conference Day 1 Recap

Vanessa and I are having a great time in Toronto!  Yesterday was Day 1 of the Social Media and Society Conference.  Here's a little recap of our day at the conference:

We arrived at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University at 8:30am.  One of the sponsors of the conference is Starbucks, so our coffee/breakfast spread was pretty amazing.  I digress...

Our morning session was titled "Augmenting Social Media through Data Linkage."  It was presented by Dr. Luke Sloan (Cardiff University, UK), Dr. Anabel Quan-Haase (Western University, Canada), Dr. Dhiraj Murthy (University of Texas at Austin), and Dr. Frauke Zeller (Ryerson University, Canada).  Data linkage is, essentially, using different sources to connect data about individuals/groups/events/etc.  Researchers use data linkage for validation, corroboration, discrimination, and evaluation.  The presenters discussed using data linkage to evaluate virtual identities, such as:

• Discrimination based on differential disclosure of information on social media
• Understanding the creation (and curation) of online profiles
• Are people what they say they are?
• Behavior patterns (taking risks, trolling, talker/lurker)

This session was collaborative and we had small and large group discussions.  One of the primary conversations was ethics.  We were presented with the following ethical concerns of data linkage:

• Consent
• Context
• Data usage (REB, ToS)
• Anonymization of tweets
• Storage
• Access
• Individual (data ownership)

It was really interesting to discuss ethical concerns with scholars from other cultures and backgrounds.  

Our afternoon session was titled "Uncovering Deep Context in Social Media Preferences: Analyzing Social Media Use Using Free Pile Sort and UX Methodologies."  It was presented by Dr. Jaigris Hodson (Royal Roads University, Canada), Dr. Brian Traynor (Mount Royal University, Canada), and Dr. Gilbert Wilkes (Mount Royal University, Canada).  Pile sorting (or card sorting) is usually used to design and/or construct a website or training module.  Participants use cards (you may be more familiar with sticky notes for this!) to organize topics that make sense to them.  Most of the session was exploring an online card sorting tool.  It was really interesting!

#SMSociety Adventures

Hey everyone!

As Vanessa stated in the course blog, we are heading Toronto tomorrow (on a 5:40am flight guhhh) for the Social Media & Society conference.  We are presenting about Teens, Social Media Networks, and Context Collapse.  In addition to our presentation, we are attending some really interesting workshops and panels that are very relevant to our class.  Hopefully, we'll be able to squeeze in some fun "touristy" things too!

I'll be blogging, tweeting, instagramming (insta'ing?), and snapping during the conference and our other Toronto adventures, so please feel free to follow along!  Here's how to follow:

Blogger (well, you have that one!)
Twitter: @LaurenBagdy
Instagram: Lbagdy (I'm private on Instagram)
Snapchat: Lbagdy

Week 4 in Review

This was a busy week!  Now that I'm back in the country, I did took the advice to "disconnect" for a  few days.  It was really nice!  When I was out of the country and forced to disconnect because of Internet issues, it was really difficult.  However, it is a totally different experience when you make the choice to disconnect!

The topic of instructional design for social media is very important.  Sometimes, I feel like so many people (teachers, instructors, etc.) include social media because of the novelty.  Yes, it's cool.  It should also be meaningfully integrated.  I am thrilled that a chapter about "Social Media and Instructional Design" will be added to the Trends and Issues text.  Social media has a lot ot add to teaching and learning, so it will be nice for graduate students in our field to understand opportunities best practice.  

I explored many of the tools this week, including: Wikispaces, Edmodo (and Google Classroom), and Google Maps.  I love exploring the new tools each week to add to my "Technology Tool Box."

On Thursday, I am heading to Toronto with Vanessa for the annual Social Media and Society conference.  We are presenting about high school students' social media networks and context collapse (discussed earlier in the semester).  I plan to attend many of the other presentations, so hopefully I'll be able to report on some new Web 2.0 tools for teaching and learning!

Does your Bitmoji actually look like you?

It seems like everyone has a Bitmoji these days.  I recently created one and use it on Snapchat.  When I look at many of my friends' Bitmojis, I think to myself, "Um, that looks nothing like you."  Maybe it is a reflection of how they want to look?  Here's an article from the NY Times that touches on the subject.

I checked and, alas, no empirical research on Bitmojis and identity.  Maybe a fun project for the future?

For your entertainment, here is a funny video called "You Look Nothing Like Your Bitmoji."

Bitmojis and Teaching/Learning

I checked to see if there were any uses of Bitmojis in teaching and learning.  I did a quick search and actually found an example! Jackson (2016) suggested that Bitmojis can be helpful for students with special needs to communicate emotions. Interesting!

So, fellow EME6414 bloggers... any ideas about Bitmojis in teaching and learning?

Jackson, N. (2016). A-Z of great ideas for the classroom – BITMOJI. Retrieved from
https://teachlearncreate.com/teaching-learning/a-z-of-great-ideas-for-the-classroom-bitmoji/

Face-Off: Edmodo vs Google Classroom

Note: I've never used either of these tools in a classroom setting.  This is solely based on exploring both LMS tools.

Since Edmodo was one of our tools this week, I spent some time getting to know the LMS.  I also asked some of my friends who are classroom teachers about their preferred LMS.  Two of the most common were Edmodo and Google Classroom.  

Edmodo:

There are many things I liked about Edmodo.  It is free and user-friendly.  Teachers can organize grades, distribute assignments, and create interactive quizzes.  Smaller groups can also be created within the larger "classroom."

I also noticed some drawbacks.  First, the self-enroll feature can be a bit confusing for students, especially if the original password changes.  Also, it doesn't seem like individual users can contact each other.  This would be a really helpful addition!

Google Classroom:

Google Classroom has a lot of the same tools as Edmodo.  One of the primary benefits of Google Classroom is that A LOT of useful tools fall under the Google Identity Platform.   

There was one major drawback about Google classroom.  There wasn't a gradebook (or at least I couldn't find one!).  

Classroom teachers (or anyone who has experience with either Edmodo or Google Classroom): What are your thoughts?  Are there any other LMS platforms you prefer?

Wiki Wiki Wiki

Thoughts on Wikispaces

This week was my first time using Wikispaces.  I love this Wiki tool!  My previous Wiki experience involved a tool called PBworks (formerly PBWiki).  PBworks is fine, but the functionality is definitely not as good as Wikispaces.  PBworks is complicated and two users cannot work on content at one time within the same Wiki.

Wikis in Teaching and Learning

Wikis are excellent platforms for online, collaborative projects.  They can also be used to support the creation of classroom community.   Here is a fun video by Common Craft (FYI the Common Craft YouTube channel is amazing!) showing how to collaborate using a Wiki.  

Duffy and Bruns (2006) suggest additional uses for Wikis:

• Documenting resources for a research project
• Creating a collaborative annotated bibliography for assigned classroom readings
• Concept mapping

Duffy, P., & Bruns, A. (2006). The use of blogs, wikis and RSS in education: A conversation of possibilities. In the proceedings of the Online Learning and Teaching Conference 2006, p. 31-38, Brisbane.  Retrieved from  https://eprints.qut.edu.au/5398/1/5398.pdf

Caught Informal Learning

Informal learning is one of my research interests.  Specifically, I want to know how teens use social media and online applications for informal learning.  Kids are taking charge of what they want to learn more than we may think!

Although he is not an example of a "teen," I caught my husband doing some good old informal learning using a mobile app.  It was my turn to drive on our trip home.  I looked over and he had his face in his phone.  When I asked what he was up to, he told me he was learning Dutch.  My reaction: Huh?  He told me that he downloaded the Duolingo app and was learning Dutch on his phone.  He wants to be able to communicate with some of our friends in their native language next time we travel to Aruba.

Aruba is a very diverse country.  While everyone speaks English, the other languages include: Dutch, Spanish, and Papiamento.  Many of the friends we've made over the last two visits are Dutch.  Although they speak English to us, they often speak Dutch to each other.  It will be pretty cool to finally know what they're saying!  I hope to have some free time soon (haha) to give Duolingo a try!

Week Three Technologies: Goodreads and Pocket

This week I tried two of the technologies on our weekly list: Goodreads and Pocket.  Here are my thoughts on both:

Goodreads

I love to read.  I am always asking family and friends for book recommendations.  Using Goodreads, I can receive book recommendations based on my reading interests.  I can also track books I’ve read and make a list of books I want to read.  I can also look at other members’ reviews and opinions of different books they’ve read.  There are also groups, almost like book clubs, to join via Goodreads.  While I think Goodreads is a great concept, I’m not sure I will use it long-term.  Currently, I use Amazon (they currently own Goodreads) to track books I want to read.  I can also see reviews and recommendations on Amazon.  I think, however, one of the benefits of Goodreads is the groups.  I requested to join two groups, so hopefully I will have an update soon! If you currently use Goodreads, let me know if you have any advice.

Pocket

Pocket is wonderful.  I had some issues with the mobile app, so I’ve only used it on my computer.  If you haven’t explored Pocket, I’ll give you the rundown.  Pocket allows you to store content (e.g., websites, video, articles) to view later on any device with Pocket installed.  I am guilty of aimlessly wandering the Internet when I am working or writing (oops).  Now, I can save these items for later rather than wasting valuable time.  Installation is through a Google Chrome Extension and very simple.  I also currently use Diigo, which I have now dedicated to school-related content.  

Copyright: How a School Got Busted

For this post, I am not going to give any identifying information about the school, people, or specific content involved (but if you're an expert "Googler" you can probably find the info...)

Schools are safe from copyright infringement, right?  Wrong.  When I was working at an independent school in the Mid-Atlantic region, one of our "rival schools" was involved in a very tricky lawsuit involving copyright infringement.  It was all over an admissions video they produced and released for the upcoming admissions season.  The school produced a beautiful, two-minute admissions video with children engaging in all sorts of academic activities, sports, and fine arts.  They did all of the filming and editing in-house.  So what was the problem?  The background music.  The school chose a popular ballad to run through the background of the video.  Although they credited the singer at the end of the video, they did not get the proper permission from the copyright holder.   The school eventually settled out of court, but it was a long tedious process.

It is important to educate students about copyright and fair use.  I think it is also important to re-educate teachers and school administrators, so that they don't make the mistakes we warn our students about.

Disconnected

I just returned to the United States from Aruba late last night.  Starting Wednesday, July 12th until last night, I was almost completely disconnected from the Internet... and social media.  Our resort's Wi-Fi was "overloaded" (basically, their Wi-Fi could not support the number of people who wanted to use it) and I didn't have an international cell phone data plan.  Some of the restaurants we visited had limited Wi-Fi, so I could check-in on the happenings of family and friends and check-in with school-related items.  You don't really realize how active you are on social media until you are without it.  

I've heard people say "when you disconnect from social media, you reconnect with life."  From my experience, I'm not really sure that's true.  I wasn't able to communicate with my family and friends in the United States.  At all.  Many of my family and friends are going through life events and I couldn't check-in:

• My dad is recovering from a hip replacement
• My mom just bought a new home
• One of my sisters just announced she is pregnant
• My other sister started a new job
• My best friend's grandmother is in the hospital

Rather than reconnecting with life, I felt shut-out from it.  

What do you think?  Does disconnecting from social media reconnect you with life?

LinkedIn as a PLN

Confession:  I used to think of LinkedIn was just an online resume.  

I created an account in 2008 and I am pretty good about updating my information.  I connect with family, friends, and former colleagues.  That's about it.  I never really understood the breadth of what LinkedIn has to offer.  

This week I spent a lot of time taking a closer look at LinkedIn as a PLN and I'm really glad that I did!  I connected with students in our program, graduates of our program, and professionals in the field.  Now, my network is full of great posts and articles, many that are very relevant to what we are working on in this class.

I'm planning to continue working on my LinkedIn network, as it will likely be very beneficial once I graduate!

Loving and Loathing Twitter: Part Deux

Last week, I wrote a post called "Loving and Loathing Twitter." After immersing myself in Twitter for this class, I am feeling a lot more love and a lot less loathe.  I've really enjoyed connecting with you guys and learning more about Web 2.0-based learning and performance.  And, for those of you who gave me support to go down the water slide on the 4th of July... it still hasn't happened.  Womp.  Hopefully, I'll go before I head back to the U.S. on Friday!

For those of you who are still unsure about Twitter (or may have some the of the gripes listed in my previous post), I offer some advice to you:

• Make Twitter your own.  Work/school-related? Keeping up with friends? Following celebrities/athletes? Staying up-to-date with current events?  Maybe a mixture?  
• Clean-up your "Following" list.  I looked through mine last week and unfollowed people/accounts for various reasons.  Which brings me to my next piece of advice...
• Yes, follower reciprocity is polite.  You follow me, I follow you.  Yay!  But, sometimes I get really random followers.  If I don't know them or of them, I usually won't follow back.  This helps keep my feed more manageable.  A lot of these people/accounts are just fishing for followers, anyway.
• Hashtags are a great way to navitage Twitter.  Use them!

If you have any other Twitter advice, please let me know!

Snap Maps: Fostering a Global Community?

Earlier this week, I read a post by Alexis about Snap Maps.  Snap Maps are a new Snapchat feature that allow you to get a location-based glimpse of your friends and events happening around the world.  Here is a glimpse at my Snap Map:

I like the feature.  I think it's interesting.  Snapchat filters the content so that users aren't exposed to innapropriate or explicit snaps.  Also, Snapchat users can turn off the feature so their location isn't public.

I wanted to see what the Internet was saying about it.  Obviously, there were a lot of negative opinions about it regarding the safety of Snapchat users (especially young children who technically aren't supposed to be using it anyway...).  I want to focus on the positives.  I read an interesting NPR article that is relevant to our course material this week:

"'There's something incredible about this,' says Jill Walker Rettberg, a professor of digital culture at the University of Bergen in Norway. 'You can see the whole world. You can see life in a community you might not see otherwise,' she says...The notion that the map could foster a global community or sense of togetherness was important in Snap Map's development...Snaps are so often the most quotidian scenes that you'd see in the U.S. — only they're happening abroad: silly faces at happy hour, snippets from long car rides, a man salivating over a blurry plate of rice and meat in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, a woman trying to coax a squirrel over with food in Mexico City."

I like this perspective of Snap Maps fostering a global community.  Based on what you know about Snap Maps, do you think it has the potential to work?

What Do You Think?

Disclaimer:  This post includes some "colorful" language.

This week, I started reading The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F***: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson.  In the first chapter of the book, he offered an opinion about social media:

"Our society today, through the wonders of consumer culture, and hey-look-my-life-is-cooler-than-yours social media, has bred a whole generation of people who believe that having these negative experiences- anxiety, fear, guilt, etc.- is totally not okay.  I mean, if you look at your Facebook feed, everybody there a f***ing grand old time.  Look, eight people got married this week! And some sixteen-year-old on TV got a Ferrari for her birthday.  And another kid just made two billion dollars inventing an app that automatically delivers you more toilet paper when you run out.

Meanwhile, you're stuck at home flossing your cat.  And you can't help but think your life sucks even more than you thought."

Social media doesn't make me feel like my life sucks.  My life doesn't suck.  In fact, it's pretty awesome.  Even when I'm feeling down, it doesn't make me feel worse. However, I kind of see his point.  After reading the chapter, I scrolled through my Facebook account. Many of the posts were in the category of hey-look-my-life-is-cooler-than-yours.  But I also noticed that people felt okay to post about their negative experiences.  For example, my sorority sister's three-year-old son just had surgery to remove a brain tumor.  He is currently undergoing more treatment and she posts updates about his progress.  She also posts about her guilt when she has to leave him to go to work and her fear that the treatment won't work.  She receive messages support and encouragement from her family and friends and but people have used Facebook and other social networking tools to start a fundraising campaign and meal deliveries.  

So, what do you think? Do we live in a  hey-look-my-life-is-cooler-than-yours culture where people feel it's not okay to post negative experiences?  Does social media add to the anxiety, fear, guilt, etc. that people already feel?

Some Quick Qualitative Research

I had some time to kill in the Orlando airport before I boarded a flight this morning, so I figured: "Why not collect some data?"  I decided to ask some of my fellow passengers about their social networking tools and habits.  I had a conversation with a gentleman and his granddaughter:

(Note: I received permission from the participants to post this information.  Their names have been changed)

Stanley (age 76)

Stanley was sitting in one of the large armchairs (you know, the ones with the outlets) reading a newspaper.  He was dressed for his Caribbean vacation: floral t-shirt, linen pants, and sandals.  Here's what Stanley had to say about social networking:

"I have a Facebook, but I don't know how to use it. My grandkids set it up for me.  They love the social media.  Their faces are always in their phones.  Heaven forbid they have a conversation with each other.  [My wife and I] don't have WiFi at our house and you'd think their world was over.  I do have the Internet.  I go on the Internet to check email.  Thats about it."

Alison (age 14)

Alison was sitting in the airmchair next to Stanley.  She didn't seem as thrilled to be going on the family vacation.  The entire time I spoke to Stanley, she was on her phone.  When she realized I was talking to her grandfather about social media, she was very interested to join the conversation.  Here is what Alison had to say:

"Snapchat is my favorite.  I'm on Snapchat all the time.  Old people don't use Snapchat, which is cool.  It's just for, like, younger people.  I like it because you can be private when you want.  Not like Instagram where you have to make the choice to be public or private.  I use Instagram sometimes, but Snapchat is way better. "

It was interesting having this social networking conversation with two different generations.  I'm hoping to talk to some locals when I get to Aruba about their tools/habits, so stay tuned!

Introducing: Context Collapse

Since we are discussing Web 2.0/social media and communities/networks, I wanted to post about context collapse.  I hadn't heard of context collapse until I started doing some research with Vanessa last spring and it is very relevant to our discussions this week.  Here's the best offline description of context collapse: When you were a kid, did you ever see one of your teachers outside of school?  Maybe when you were out with your friends?  How did that make you feel?  Your "personal world" collided with your "school world."  Who you were in school was likely very different than who you were outside of school.  

Context collapse happens frequently in online spaces.  Take Facebook... You are probably Facebook friends with family, high school friends, college friends, colleagues, etc.  How do you manage your self-presentation when all of these different contexts merge onto one platform?

It is a really interesting phenomenon.  I linked an article discussing context collapse and Twitter.  If you have time, it's a good read!

Click HERE for the article.  Happy reading!

Loving and Loathing Twitter

"Hi. My name is Lauren and I am a social media junkie."

I connect on my smartphone and on my computer.  I am a producer, a consumer, and I even conduct research about it social media. However, there is one popular social networking platform that hasn't quite clicked with me: Twitter. I have a love/hate relationship with Twitter. I think that's why I can't totally get on board with it, yet I can't quite let it go.  

Why I love Twitter...

• Real-time updates about current events
• Exposure to perspectives other than my own 
• Access to celebrities (yep, I'm that girl...)

Why I loathe Twitter:

• It's confusing (well, at least to me...)
• It requires A LOT of effort to keep up with conversations and hasthags (posts get buried)
• Bots/spam accounts (#amiright)
• Users hiding behind their keyboards to disseminate offensive content (fun fact: kids these days are calling them "keyboard warriors")

While my biggest gripe is the keyboard warriors (and there's nothing I can really do about that), conversations and hashtags getting buried is a close second.  

So, friends in the EME 6414 blogosphere... any tips or tricks to help alleviate this particular frustration?