Social Media & Teaching at NSCC

Social Media & Teaching at NSCC

Social Media:

• Can foster student to student, student to faculty, and student to content interactions.
• Can facilitate communication expediently.
• Can encourage informal learning and the development of personal information networks for students.
• Can aid in developing meaningful connections with students.

When to Use Social Media in the Classroom:

• To encourage informal discussions between students and faculty.
• To identify and share new or recently-discovered content that is course relevant.
• To provide a voice for those who find classroom settings intimidating or challenging.
• To make education accessible in unique ways the classroom inhibits.
• To collaborate on a piece of media (text, image, sound, video, etc) for meaningful discussion that can be captured and reproduced in other settings.

Different Social Media & Potential Assignments or Projects

Blogger Student journals Faculty observations & students comment Course blog where all students contribute relevant posts related to the course Collaborative note-taking Group blogs based upon different course-topics

Google Hangouts Student-faculty video conferences Student group conferences Collaborative work space Office hours Peer reviews Small-group workshops with students and faculty

Twitter News-tracking for different disciplines Live classroom question forum Encouraging dialogue with professionals within a given field Collaborative note-taking Tweeting live events

Diigo Social bookmarking Organize online course readings Collectively annotating course material Research space for project/paper Develop a collection of supplemental resources that can be reproduced for the next course.

Recommendations for Using Social Media in the Classroom

We always encourage faculty to contact the Instructional Technology and Design Team - Andrea Milligan (amilliga@northshore.edu), Lance Eaton (leaton@northshore.edu), David Houle (dhoule@northshore.edu), & Patricia Lavoie (plavoie@northshore.edu) for help in addressing some of the following concerns:  

• Gaining familiarity with the tool.
• Aligning usage of social media with course goals and objectives.
• Making the tool accessible and easy to learn for students.
• Developing guidelines about the ways in which the tool will be used (and how students will be evaluated with regards to its usage).

For More Information

Please visit the ITD Social Media Resources page at: https://sites.google.com/a/northshore.edu/itd/technology-tools/social-media

GETTING STARTED WITH BLOGGER

1. Log into North Shore Gmail (http://gmail.northshore.edu).
2. Click on More in the black toolbar across the top of the screen.
3. Click on Blogger.
4. You will be prompted to create a profile.  Select Create a Limited Profile for Blogger.
5. You will then be prompted to select a Display Name.  This is the name that will show up when you post on Blogger.

Once in Blogger:

1. Select New Blog to create a new blog.
2. Provide your blog with a name.
3. Create a name for your Blog's address (often an abbreviated version of your blog's name)
4. Select a Design Template for your Blog (how you want the blog to appear--this can be changed later on).
5. Select Create blog!
6. You will be returned to your Dashboard where it will list your blog.  To start composing a blog, click  Start posting or the pencil icon under your blog's title.

GETTING STARTED WITH GOOGLE+

1. Log into North Shore Gmail (http://gmail.northshore.edu).  
2. To set up your Google+ account with the northshore.edu domain:  
1. Click on the +You in the black toolbar across the top of the screen.  
2. Click on the down arrow next to your email address and then the Join Google+ button. 
3. In step 1 (Upgrade):  
1. You will need to check off the box that reads: “I understand the changes to Picasa Web Albums”.  
2. We recommend that you uncheck the box that reads: “Google may use my account information to personalize +1s content”. 
3. Click the Upgrade button. 
4. In step 2 (Add people):  
1. You can just click the Continue button at this point.  You do  not need to add any people.  
2. Click the Continue button at the “Follow interesting people and pages” screen.  
3. Click the Continue anyway button at the “you might be lonely...” screen. 
5. At step 3 (Be awesome):  
6. Click the Finish button.  You do not need to add a photo or fill out the rest of the information (unless you want to). 
7. Once you have set up your Google+ account, you will see +Your Name in the black toolbar across the top of the screen instead of +You.

Once in Google+:  

1. Click on the Start a hangout button (on your Google+ home page) to create a video conferencing space.  
2. Enter in the email addresses of students or colleagues to invite to the hangout.  
3. Provide your hangout a name (for example: CPS100 Office Hours)  
4. Click the Hang out button.

Note: Google+ is available on iPhones, iPads, and Android devices.  Also, use of Google+ and Blogger fall under NSCC’s Computer Use Policy (http://www.northshore.edu/legal/computer_use.html).  For full Social Media Guidelines, visit: http://www.northshore.edu/legal/social-media-guidelines.html.