The collegiality of twitter

Delivering a workshop at Aquatnet (Image: @jbaqua)

Last week, I spent a great two days taking part in the AQUATNET Digital Teaching Skills Workshop, as well as helping to deliver the social media element of the workshop. As the two days came to a close in sunny Malta, it seemed appropriate to draw together some concluding thoughts on the issue of social networking in education.
The workshop kicked off with a very informative talk delivered by Mike Moulton of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Mike discussed the realities of teaching and learning in the "age of tweets", emphasising the growing importance of twitter amongst educationalists. Twitter and other social media tools, Moulton encouraged, were means of "creating trustworthy pathways through the internet".
In this respect, I was reminded of occasional responses I have received from non-tweeting academics to my use of twitter. "I don't know how you find the time to do all the tweeting", they might say or "shouldn't you be doing some proper work?".
My response to that is often: "How do you find the time not to tweet?". Social media allows you to establish a trustworthy network of contacts who are willing and able to do some of the leg-work for you. For example, my twitter network is able to

• highlight the newest research in my area
• share the latest news in my discipline
• inform me of funding opportunities, job opportunities, etc.
• allow for interaction and collaboration with others
• inform me of upcoming conferences, workshops, etc.

As well as this, I form part of many other peoples' network where I hopefully perform many of the same roles for my followers. At its best, twitter and other forms of social media are about sharing and collegiality. For this to work, it's really essential that you are following the right people: those who share generously, inform, enlighten, challenge and debate. A well-curated twitter network has the capacity to reach much further than you can. Instead of you, as an individual, trying to keep an eye on emerging trends in a discipline, your twitter community can do so and share that information with you. An efficient use of your time, if ever I saw one.

I'm not alone in holding those views. Recently, I posed a question to my own twitter followers:

Student or teacher, can you sum up why twitter & social media are useful TO YOU for teaching & learning in one tweet?? #scisocialmedia RT?
— Eoin Lettice (@blogscience) June 16, 2014

And got some interesting results, including:

@blogscience I like that it is short, sharp and encourages factual statement or further exploration (e.g. linking out) #scisocialmedia
— bren (@brenstrong) June 16, 2014

@blogscience gives access to thought leaders you may not traditionally be able to access
— Ali Sheridan (@SherSustainable) June 17, 2014

@blogscience Hundreds of opinions and ideas, plus a great way of seeing things you otherwise wouldn't have a chance to. #priceless
— Paul Smyth (@paultsmyth) June 17, 2014

@blogscience Mostly use Twitter for research, and by following a few top scientists in a field you get info. before it reaches journals etc.
— Martin Hodson (@MartinHodson1) June 17, 2014

@blogscience #SciSocialMedia allows me to continue to learn during my 'leisure time' + is a great tool to spark ideas + foster collaboration
— NoSiree (@cairotango) June 16, 2014

@blogscience #socmedia is Tch/learn: infinite txtbook, tchr guide, staffr:-)m, class message board, curated resources, library access point
— Al Smith (@literateowl) June 16, 2014

One use of microblogging in education that I tried to highlight in the recent workshop was the idea of 'live-tweeting' the lecture. Corey Ryan Earle has written a really useful blog post on this idea based on his experience teaching a history course to nearly 400 students at Cornell University. Earle found that encouraging the students to tweet during the lecture encouraged active engagement, reduced distractions and provided instant feedback to the lecturer. Live-tweeting is something I'll be introducing in my first-year biology lectures this year. With over 400 students enrolled, it will be interesting to see whether it boosts interaction with the course material. I'll let you know how it goes!

Social Media in the Lecture Theatre

I'm in search of your thoughts on social media in the classroom.

I've been asked to deliver a workshop this Summer regarding the use of social media in teaching at higher education (and in particular, in the sciences). It's very general and aimed at beginners to social media.

Of course there is lots I could talk about from my own experience and elsewhere. However, I really want to get at the diverse methods people are employing with social media in the classroom, lecture theatre, laboratory and field course.

From twitter to facebook, youtube to blogger. How are you employing social media in your classroom? Have you heard of people doing innovative things with social media for teaching?

I'll use a snapshot of the examples during the workshop and will pull everything together in a blog post later in the Summer.

There are a few ways you can contribute:

• Tweet me your ideas, links and thoughts at @blogscience using the hashtag #scisocialmedia. If it fits into a tweet- great. Shows the power of microblogging. If not, 
• Email me here with your thoughts and views.
• Leave a comment at the end of this post.

Science 140: Tweeting for #science

If you think you can explain a scientific principle in 140 characters then Science 140 would like to hear from you.

A new social media project coordinated by science bloggers Humphrey Jones (@thefrogblog) and Maria Daly (@maria_daly), the aim is to communicate science in an innovative way with contributors submitting their science definitions, biographies and explanations in 140 character snapshots.

After 24 hours online, the organisers say they have had hundreds of tweets offering explanations on everything from the definition of science to forces to aerodynamics to astronomy.

This project reminds me of a book I was given last Christmas called Tweeting the Universe by Marcus Chown (@Marcus Chown) and Govert Schilling. They tried to do a similar thing but with a narrower focus on astronomical topics (hence the title). Why is the sky blue? What is a black hole? etc.

They faced the challenge of converting what was a popular twitter stream into something that somebody would like to read in book form. A challenge, in my view at least, they didn't really deliver on.

Hopefully, with a broader remit, Science 140 will have more success when they release the curated results of the project in book form later in the year.

Speaking about the project, Humphrey Jones of Science 140 said “As a science teacher it’s always exciting to explore new ways of communicating science to young people and the general public. There is a very active science community on twitter and a project like Science 140 seems to be getting their attention. I think people love that their short contributions could be included in a book. We don’t want all the tweets to be too serious - science can be fun too".

You can find out more about Science 140  on the project website and on twitter @science140