The use of Social Media in the creative curriculum
I teach 2D digital animation, character design, motion graphics, graphics for games, vocational investigation, pre production, post production, drawing development, self-promotion, online identity and intellectual property rights... I have probably forgotten something, but that mostly covers it ;).
I teach level 3, 4, 5 & 6 at a Further Education College. I am passionate about FE & HE and I think that we do an excellent job of providing relevant skills that are applicable to the qualification but also, very importantly for the appropriate industries that learners are progressing into.
My personal experience with social media
I have personal Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+, YouTube and Vimeo accounts. I also have a College animation twitter account and a teaching twitter account. I put my course showreels on my Vimeo account, but the YouTube account is solely personal. I have a personal Blog on Blogger, a personal WordPress website, Behance and Tumblr.
I use @AnimNetwork to tweet about jobs, animation events, animation festivals, interesting blog posts and anything that would be useful for our animation students. This twitter account is linked to an animation network that I run through SocialGO (an online service provider through whom you can create an online social network).
Although I do have a Facebook account, I like to keep this personal and linked to family and friends and not use it professionally. It was suggested that we could create Facebook sites linked to our College, but I have not yet done this.
How is social media used in your organisation?
The College has a Twitter account, which I follow and they follow the animation network and me. I link to them or use hashtags as is relevant. The College also have a YouTube channel and often have live shows and interviews recorded in our own recording studio. There is also a College Facebook. A colleague of mine from another curriculum discussed his course Facebook page at a TeachMeet gathering on using digital technology and he finds it very useful and communicates with his students very effectively. As it has been running for a while now, he also has past students on there who can give advice to current students and who keep in touch. He has had no major issues, but he admits that it needs constant policing to ensure appropriate activity.
What are the pros and cons of using social media in my own specialist area?
There are mostly pros to using social media and there are lots of possibilities that I have not yet tapped into. It would be an idea to create a YouTube channel for the courses. Currently I show learners on the course how to create their own (if they have not already got one) so that they can put their clips on there to show their progress and to easily embed into their assignment blogs. I could also create a course twitter and instagram. I am deliberating about a creating a course Facebook, particularly after talking to my colleague who recommends this quite highly. Social media can increase learner engagement and help to promote and build communication skills and also help with their organisation by posting deadline dates and any upcoming events. The cons really are the actual administration of all these social media outlets.
What are the potential issues of using social media in education?
The issues are based around learners not using social media appropriately by making inappropriate comments and links and the possibility of problems with cyber bullying. Some tutors also worry about social media being a distraction and the fact that learners are fostering online communication, but not learning real life social skills.
How can these issues be addressed?
Not using social media appropriately – the social media needs to be administrated effectively by the tutors and they should intervene quickly when there are minor issues, before they become more serious, in the same way as you would with classroom management. Cyber bullying – This should be tackled in a similar way as above, but it needs to be made very clear that this is a very serious issue and disciplinary procedures would be undertaken. Being a distraction – If learners are using Social Media in a social capacity that is not related to the course in class, it should be dealt with in the same way that on going social chatting would be dealt with when learners are not focused. Not learning real life social skills – face to face communication should also be encouraged during lessons. Peer critiques, presentations, group work etc., so this would not be an issue.
A good example of the use of social media in education
As mentioned previously, I think a good example of using social media in education is my colleague’s use of Facebook. It is used in a positive way to communicate effectively with his course group. It fosters a community bonding within the group, good communication skills and they learn about portraying themselves professionally in order to build a positive online identity.