EPU976 - Project 3 (Part I) - Course summary
For the final project for EPU 976, we were asked to take account of our learning. This included reflecting on which elements were most likely to affect our teaching practice regarding the use of social media in higher education. We were also asked to take into account issues surrounding Web 2.0 to support lifelong learning and initial and ongoing professional development. Here are my thoughts.
Elements learned throughout the course
As an avid user of social media for personal and business use, I came into this course with a rather comprehensive view of how social media can be used for distributing information, selling products and engaging with people I didn't know personally but that I knew had a shared interest. However, what I lacked was the understanding of how I could use my pre-existing skills in higher learning pedagogy and in a classroom setting.
What I learned in this course, is that social media and networks aren't restricted to Instagram and Facebook. Instead it consists of a wider variety of tools I hadn't considered like Moodle discussion boards, Google drive documents and online databanks. I hadn't considered that these tools, when used in the proper context can promote student participation, collaboration and critical thinking.
This course also helped me realize that in order to achieve higher learning, these technologies and networks had to be implemented into courses in specific ways. They're not only there to ensure students have read a required text or done a specific homework requirement, but instead are used to achieve specific course objectives and to promote higher learning. But to do so they have to be well-thought out, be appropriately chosen, supervised, directed and applicable in real-world scenarios and future careers of students. They also have to overcome specific technological and ethical limitations, as well as the consideration that every post and online documents leaves a digital fingerprint. Creating a learning and evaluation situation ("Situation d'apprentissage et évaluation") made me realize this was harder to do than it sounds.
Elements most likely to affect my practice of using social media in higher education
Currently, more and more institutions are incorporating social media and networks into classrooms. However, there is still a limited amount of research and data that supports its effectiveness across different fields. While some research encourages its effectiveness, others highlight its technological and ethical limitations. But this can be expected, since like technology itself, pedagogy is forever evolving.
Throughout my readings this course, I feel the biggest limitation lies in the disconnect between students and teachers in its use in learning activities. Students appreciate stimulating lectures, regardless of how technology is used (Fusaro et al., 2012). If students are unable to piece together how a specific technology, network or media will help them in real world scenarios they are likely to disregard its effectiveness in the classroom. Knowing this and addressing this concern is what will affect my practice of using social media in higher education the most.
Because it is up to the teacher to bridge the gaps of these disconnects, in my future practice, I will ensure:
a) I have a thorough, above-and-beyond understanding of the technology/social media/network being used,
b) that the technology/social media/network is strongly linked to the course objectives and those links are made clear at the beginning of the course and related learning activities,
c) that technology/social media/network being used in a course is applicable to real world scenarios that students are likely to encounter in the future.
How to take into account issues with Web 2.0 when it comes to life-long learning and initial and ongoing professional development.
Web 2.0 is essential for life-long learning. Because Web 2.0 makes the "adjacent possible" (Don and Anderson, 2014) it has never been easier to access new resources that help to improve our personal and professional skills. As Siemens (2008) puts it, we students have a "cafeteria" style approach to education, and as do we as educators. We can pick and choose almost any course from any institution to further our personal and professional development. This is also why teachers must be proficient in using Web 2.0, otherwise they are risk of missing out a variety of resources and networks that could help them improve. If not, they risk creating skill gaps between themselves and fellow colleagues and even between the students in their class.
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References
Dron, J. & Anderson, T. (2014). On the nature and value of social software for learning", in Teaching crowds: Learning and social media. Athabasca University Press.
Fusaro, M., Couture, A., Venkatesh, V., Rocheleau, J., Larose, M., and Chassé, D. (2012). Étudies sur les modalities d'apprentissage et les technologies de l'information de la communication dans l'enseignement. From the Conférence des recteurs et des principaux des universités du Québec. website: http://www.crepug.qc.ca.
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