Social+Media+(You+Tube,+Flikr,+Delicious)

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Social Media
Benjamin J Hutchison

Description and Uses of Technologymedia type="custom" key="11174270" align="right"
The move from traditional media broadcasting such as newspapers and television, to what we experience today on sites like Flickr and Delicious, shows a dramatic shift in communication patterns within media. The traditional patterns of one to one and one too many communications has been overcome by a new collaborative communication platform that entails sharing content and thus enriching user experience (Van De Dam,2010, p. 62). Social media is a term used to describe web-based media that is user driven. Wikipedia (2011) describes Social Media as “the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue" (Social Media, 2011). Websites such as Twitter, You Tube, Flickr, Delicious, and even Facebook to some extent, are all considered social media “outlets”. Social media websites allow users to create, compile, and share media that they find important and relevant. Other users can view, share, and comment directly with social media “authors” creating a collaborative dialogue that seemed impossible before the creation of such web 2.0 tools. While traditional media outlets and advertisers both have come to use social media as part of their distribution network, the user centered nature of social media strips them of the powers they once held over media. Whether it is a video someone shares on their blog, a picture someone comments on Flickr, or a Delicious stack about cats, social media is an enriching evolution within the world of media.

Because the purpose of social media is to share information, it has become a valuable resource within the classroom and across all disciplines within education. You Tube, for instance, has become an important repository for videos on any subject imaginable and has earned its status as a reputable source for information as universities like UC Berkley have uploaded their entire library of video courses to the website (Owens, 2009). Everhart (2009) suggests that instructors can create a video curriculum using both professional and amateur resources, create their own videos, or take their students on virtual field trips as a way to add "interest, depth, and student ownership" to their learning (p.35).

Flickr, a photo sharing website, is also a place for instructors to create or compile visual resources, but its strongest feature is the ability for users to engage in dialogue through tagging and commenting. Any user can define the images on Flickr by tagging them thus creating a searchable database in their own terms. Allowing comments also opens up a platform for discussion among fellow students as well as the rest of the world. Instructors can have their classes compile images on a subject, create a photo stream detailing a process, or have a virtual class discussion dissecting the visuals they see on screen.

Delicious, a social bookmarking website, also relies on tags for users to create and compile links to websites they find interesting or informative on the web. Through users’ Delicious accounts, individuals are able to share bookmarks that they would normally save to their home computer. By “stacking” similar bookmarks together, students are able to share lists of web resources and present them in a visually interesting way. This also can serve instructors as a way to share web information with their students or between students within a learning community.

Important Findings on Student Outcomes
Social media has many benefits to learners within the digital age. The web 2.0 tools available to them allow students to produce and consume their own learning. By giving learners personal involvement in what and how they are receiving teachings, it makes them enthusiastic about the learning process. In a study following students using their mobile devices to contribute to a Flickr mobile account, Moura and Carvalho (2008) found that “…the majority (70%) liked to be able to send a picture from their mobile phone to the Web through the Mobile Flickr service and felt this motivated them to study the curriculum contents (60%)” (p.218). One student was also quoted as saying “it makes learning more meaningful and unforgettable” (p.220).

Another important feature of social media in learning is that it becomes a tool for communication between students. By allowing other classmates to see what you are writing, researching, and even feeling about assignments, it not only broadens the learners' knowledge base but enhances the quality of the work they produce. Zhang and Wang (2010) conducted a satisfaction survey of their web 2.0 blended course and found that “96% respondents were glad to read others' paper and be read their own papers by others and they believed google group-based homework sharing lead to mutual promotion in understanding and expressing academic English opinions” (p.697). By letting students communicate with each other through sites like Delicious, Flickr, or You Tube, instructors are creating a whole new assessment environment for students that makes the normally dull and dreary assessment period something fun and engaging. Silver (2011) writes, “In all my years of using a cardboard box, I can’t recall a student giving a shout-out to another while turning in a paper” (para. 21).

Emerging Trends and Open Issues
As people become more familiar with social media and web 2.0 tools in general, we are now seeing instructors use them more frequently in their classrooms. It is not unlikely that you might come across a class using Delicious, Twitter, and Flickr within their curriculum. Libraries are coming aboard as well as they can use sites like Flickr or Delicious to upload information and collections. This creates a communal reference that can be tagged by the libraries and its users. As Rethlefsen (2007) points out, "Now social bookmarking and tagging tools help librarians bridge the gap between the library's need to offer authoritative, well-organized information and their patrons' Web experience" (p26). Some instructors are even finding that these tools can simplify how they communicate with their students. As Silver (2011) states:

Twitter simplifies course management by replacing at least three classroom technologies. Twitter replaces the class listserv (or course blog, Blackboard, or discussion group) for our outside-the-classroom discussions and resource sharing. Twitter replaces e-mail announcements for new readings, location changes, and relevant happenings around the city. And Twitter replaces the cardboard box I used to bring to class to collect papers and other assignments. Now my students post tweets with links to their work. (para.11)

There will always be a concern with students communicating on a public forum such as social media, but its public nature can also serve to create better outcomes for the students. Silver (2010) states, “As I learned years ago when my students posted their work on their home pages, the larger the potential readership is, the better they make their work” (para.9). And who doesn’t want better work?