STAY CONNECTED:
SOCIAL SPACES & SOCIAL MEDIA
AUGUST 28, 2009
Luba Iskold
Terry Collings
Josh Suchow
PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Stay
Informed
Start
Planning
Collaborate
with Colleagues
STAY INFORMED

What’s new at the LLC?
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Hardware
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People
20 PCs
2MACs
Microsoft Lifecom VX-5000 Webcams
Digital Camera
Canon HighSpeed Document Scanner SR2050C
Software
Courseware
 Skype
 VLC Player
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START PLANNING
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Projects in progress:
Dish Network TV
 Kiosk
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Social media and online collaboration
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Student-led presentations:
Skype-October
 Facebook-November
 YouTube-December
 Podcasting & RSS Feeds- February
 Twitter- March
 Best Practices: Faculty and student show and tell-April
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GOING BEYOND THE CLASSROOM
What are all these technologies?
 Why do we need to know about them?
 How can the new technologies
be used for pedagogy?
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Connecting with students and colleagues in new
ways?
Making language learning and teaching more
enjoyable?
Expanding the study of languages and cultures
beyond the classroom?
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
CLARIFICATION OF TERMS
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Social Interactions
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Definition: Dynamic, changing sequences of social
actions between individuals or groups
Types of Social Interactions
Spontaneous - not planned
 Regular - very common
 Planned - scheduled
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WHERE DO SOCIAL INTERACTIONS
OCCUR?
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Social Spaces
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Definition: The purpose of campus social spaces is to
promote social interaction among students, staff,
faculty, etc.
Information Grounds
Definition: Social settings in which people share
everyday information while attending to a focal
activity
 Fisher et al., 2004 introduced the concept of
‘information grounds’
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The findings of their study suggest
 'Information grounds' play an intrinsic role in facilitating
communication among people
 Social spaces with information flow may enhance
learning and interaction
KIOSK
Definition:
Unattended multimedia kiosks dispense public information
via computer screens.
Either a keyboard, touch screen or both are
used for input.
ONLINE COLLABORATION:
BRIEF OVERVIEW
 Synchronous
tools
“Same time-different place” mode for communication
and collaboration
 Examples: Audio/Video/Web conferencing, Chat,
Instant messaging, Skype
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 Advantages:
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Engage people instantly, at the same point in time
 Drawbacks:
Require same-time participation
 Different time zones and conflicting schedules can
create communication challenges
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ONLINE COLLABORATION:
BRIEF OVERVIEW
 Asynchronous tools
 “Different time-different place" mode for communication
and collaboration
 Examples: E-mail, Discussion boards/BlackBoard,
Web logs (Blogs), Streaming audio/video, LinkedIn,
MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, Online calendars
 Advantages:
 Involve people from multiple time zones
 Capture the history of the interactions of a group
 Collective knowledge easily shared and distributed
 Drawbacks:
 Require discipline to use for ongoing communities of
practice
 e.g., people typically must take the initiative to "login" to
participate
ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKING
How can we integrate
Skype into our teaching?
 What is Skype?
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Introduced in July 2004
Within a year, more than
100 million people
downloaded the software
By late 2008, an average of
10 million users were
using Skype
simultaneously
ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKING
How can we integrate
Facebook into our teaching?
 What is Facebook?
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Free online social networking
directory that connects people
Launched in 2004 by
undergraduates at Harvard, led
by Mark Zuckerberg
Similar to books of faces
distributed to freshmen
Open to anyone with a valid
email address
Privacy settings prevent strangers
from accessing users’ personal
information
Enables photo, video, message
sharing
ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKING
 How
can we integrate
Twitter into our teaching?
 What is Twitter?
Free social messaging utility for
staying connected
 To chirrup
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To tremble with nervous
agitation or excitement
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To speak rapidly and in a
tremulous manner: twittering
over office gossip
To giggle nervously
The light chirping sound made by
certain birds
A similar sound, especially light,
tremulous speech or laughter
Agitation or excitement; flutter
COLLABORATE WITH COLLEAGUES
 Terry

Collings
Presentation of GroupWise Calendar
REFERENCES
Karen E. Fisher, Carol F. Landry and Charles Naumer.
Social spaces, casual interactions, meaningful exchanges:
'information ground' characteristics based on the college student
experience.
The Information School, University of Washington Box 352840,
Seattle, Washington, USA