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A plethora of self-appointed social media consultants have emerged in the past two years. It would seem as though knowing how to set up a Twitter account or creatinge a Facebook page has become this decade's snake oil. Despite (or perhaps due to) the fact that social media is an ever-evolving field, there is still a dearth of best practices on what and how to teach about social media. Even more frighteninginteresting and challenging, there is a whole field that has just barely recently begun to be explored: teaching with social media. In this panel, we will share our experiences in the educational field, both teaching about social media and teaching with social media.
We will share our concerns, questions and worries about social media as a field to be educated in and as a platform/tool to educate in other fields. We will ask the tough questions that need to be asked, and hope that through this exploration, we will be able to further both social media as a field of study and as a technological tool for educational purposes.
A more detailed description of the panel
Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega will be speaking about his experience implementing social media tools in the classroom in a traditional, lecture-intensive classroom. He uses wiki tools, Twitter and Facebook to enhance learning and promote interactivity amongst his students. Dr. Pacheco-Vega teaches Global Environmental Politics and The Comparative Politics of Public Policy at UBC.
Dr. Glen Lowry, and his colleague Dr. Joy James, are working on a social media project employing Deqq, a twitter channel/integration application designed for the entertainment industry, in the context of two Emily Carr courses. The first is a lecture course with nearly 400 first year English students; the other is a small Graduate research seminar, with ten students. He will share his insights into his experience integrating Deqq to their classroom.
Dr. Glen Lowry and Professor Joy James are working on a project w/ Deqq, a twitter channel/integration app, with two groups of students: 400 1st year English students in a lecture course, and 10 Grad students in a research seminar. He will share his insights into his experience integrating Deqq to their classroom.
Tris Hussey will talk about how using blogs, both public and private, in addition to other social media tools have helped his students not only understand social media better, but has prepared them for the work world. Through social media, his students at BCIT have connected and networked with experts in the industry not only for advice, but also internships and future employment.
Andre got mixed up with all this stuff in his first year of university, around three years ago. He has spent those years consciously looking at social media's role in education by testing theories on himself and his friends. He will talk about the value of social media in the classroom and discuss some of the ways in which current technologies and practices can be modified to be of better use to students.
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About the panelists:
Glen Lowry, PhD, is the Chair of Online Learning External Collaborations at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (ECUAD). A writer, educator, and editor, Dr. Lowry received his PhD in English from Simon Fraser University, where he specialized in contemporary Canadian literature and culture. His current research focuses on collaborations among artist researchers and other academics.
Raul Pacheco-Vega, PhD., is the Regional Director for Western Canada of the Canadian Institute of Environmental Law and Policy (CIELAP) and an instructor of public policy in the Department of Political Science at The University of British Columbia. His personal blog (http:/hummingbird604.com) has gained notoriety in the Vancouver and Canadian blogosphere. He blogs about his research at http://www.raulpacheco.org – his research focuses on comparative cross-national environmental policy, and he is keen and eager in his use of social media for teaching and research purposes.
Tris Hussey (MscM.S.) is a long-time technologist, blogger, and writer, who started off as an academic and found tech support much more to his liking In addition to giving workshops and speaking at conferences, Tris also teaches social media, blogging, podcasting, and WordPress at UBC, BCIT, and other organizations. His first book Creating Your First Blog: 6 Easy Blogging Projects to Start Blogging Like a Pro was published January, 2010 and his second book, Using WordPress, is due out July, 2010. Currently Tris is a consultant on to companies on social media and the social media concierge for Media2o Productions. You can find his posts on trishussey.com, VancouverObserver.com, and the Future Shop Community Tech Blog.
Andre Malan is a Computer Science student at the University of British Columbia specializing in human-computer interaction. Andre worked for UBC's Office of Learning Technology, helping to develop frameworks for the use of blogs in the classroom and coded WordPress plugins to support those frameworks. He blogs at http://www.andremalan.net
Raul Pacheco-Vega (PhD) is this panel's organizer.
