Emerging participatory culture: Making sense of social media use for learning in, across and with Higher Education and the cultural heritage sector Dr Narelle Lemon, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia 12 noon – 2pm, Tuesday 6 June 2017 Paterson’s Land Room 1.21, Holyrood campus, University of Edinburgh. All are welcome – sign up here. Please bring your lunch. Social media promotes a participatory culture whereby there is support in the construction and development of a networked environment through which what becomes visible is “a shift from matters of fact, to matters of concern or matters of interest as the various agendas and opinions are brought together through networks” (Latour, 2005, p.5). The use of social media collapses boundaries between educators, institutions and students, and changes patterns of communication. In this presentation, Narelle will share experiences from multiple research projects where social media was central to learning, including community development Twitter and blogging projects with museum eductors, teachers, and pre-service teachers (#MuseumEdOz, #visarts12 and #visart13, #ConnectedLearning and Community Professional Experience); and research projects exploring the experiences of museum educators and academics (#AcademicsWhoTweet; Cultivating social media use with GLAM educators). Key findings from these projects concerned the formation of a digital identity, mutual respect, sharing and curating of practices, peer-to-peer learning, visibility of learning, and reciprocity. Narelle will frame the notion of digital interaction through Tim Ingold’s lines, intersections and meshworks (2015), show how social media enables meaning making to be socially distributed (Rowe, 2002), and discuss how emergent participatory culture offers advantages for ongoing learning with like-minded individuals, new partnerships, collaborative problem solving, and the development of a more empowered sense of citizenship (Trembach & Deng, 2015). http://dchrn.de.ed.ac.uk/2017/04/27/seminar-6-june-with-dr-narelle-lemon-emerging-participatory-culture-making-sense-of-social-media-use-for-learning-in-across-and-with-higher-education-and-the-cultural-heritage-sector/

1. Associate Professor Narelle Lemon
Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne,
Australia
@rellypops
nlemon@swin.edu.au

5. Research Narrative
Arts education
Visual methods –
photography, visual
narrative
Visual methods and
digital technology in
education (schools)
Visual methods and
digital technology in
gallery and
community settings
Social media – for
learning, visual,
technology, visual
narrative, networks
(personal growth, HE,
GLAM)
Cultural participation
in/across informal &
formal settings
(HE, GLAM, social
medial, visual narrative,
voice, networking,
collaboration)
Evolution of research field

6. Tim Ingold’s (2010; 2011)
notion of meshwork
• constantly moving and growing
• it consists of complex, layered spatial weavings (think, spiders web)
• they are layered and entangled
• a “tangle of threads and pathways” (Ingold, 2011 p. 92)
• multiple meeting points
• not about A to B
• sometimes points meet, other times lines run along side, over, around each other
• gleans knowledge (and experiences) in different ways

10. Lines and intersections
of my research

11. My discovery of Twitter

13. My discovery of Twitter
#visarts12
#visart13

15. • Pondering about … my use and benefits. So, why aren’t we doing this with
future teachers? with higher education students?
• #visarts12 = x 4 classes, one campus, N=165, Year 2 of 4 year UG
• #visarts13 = x 5 classes, two campuses, N = 250, Year 2 of 4 year UG
• Gallery of work
• Pedagogical development
• Integrated into assessment (IT IS VALUED)
• PLN (HE students hadn’t thought about this!)
• Biggest insights = do with the students (model, trouble shoot, demonstrate
value, connect to you and your professional development)

16. My discovery of Twitter #AcademicsWhoTweet
#visarts12
#visart13

18. • Snowball sampling
• N = 34
• International
• In-depth interviews
• Practice as “academics” with Twitter

19. Australia
47%
UK
23%
USA
18%
Equador
3%
New Zealand
3%
Unkown
6%

20. 2.94%
2.94%
2.94%
5.88%
20.58%
8.82%
2.94%
52.90%
Research
Fellow
University
administration
Research news
Academic &
PhD Student
Scholar
Researcher
Academic
development
Academic

21. Transforming
academia
New identities
Networks
Changes in
enacting
scholarly work
Communication
Ways of use
Branding
Engagement
and reflective/
reflexive
practice
Academic
identity
Inquiry
Strategic and
non strategic

22. My discovery of Twitter
#AcademicsWhoTweet
#visarts12
#visart13
#CL15

23. Accredited Teacher Education core subject within Masters of
Teaching (primary) in partnership with Melbourne Museum,
Immigration Museum and National Gallery of Victoria

24. Problems for Cultural Organisations

26. HE problem

28. Learning Activity: Schedule: Digital Scope: Industry Connection
Module 1: How do
museums and
galleries connect
learning?
Week 1 – 3
Invitation to take up
Twitter, Pinterest, Blog with
Online Modules for delivery
of learning activities
· Informed readings selected
· Industry presence on social media
Module 2: Critical
Consumption
Week 4 - 5
Use of social media in
learning activities with
Online Modules for delivery
of learning activities
· Informed readings selected
· Industry presence on social mediaModule 3: Arts and
Humanities –
becoming orientated
with disciplines
Week 6 - 7
Module 4: Inquiry
and Questioning
Week 8
2 days on site at
Cultural
Organisations
Use of social media in
learning activities with Face-
to-Face for delivery of
learning activities
· Face-to-face delivery
· Q&A
· Build relationship for subject & beyond
· Tweet Chat hosting
· Modelled social media use
· Informed unit work development
Module 5:
Evaluating site visits
and making
connections
Week 9 - 10
Use of social media in
learning activities with
Online Modules for delivery
of learning activities
· Informed readings selected
· Industry presence on social media
· Gifted student work back to industry
(resource)
· Available for Q&AModule 6:
Developing
Week 11 - 12

29. 7 principles of good practice in good online
learning environments:
1. Encourages contact between students and teachers
2. Develops reciprocity and cooperation amongst
students
3. Encourages active learning
4. Gives prompt feedback
5. Emphasis time on task
6. Communicates high expectations
7. Respects diverse talents and ways of learning
Chickering and Gamson’s (1987)

30. Teacher Presence (Anderson et al., 2001; Berge,1995; Garrison & Arbaugh, 2007;
Paulsen, 1995; Mason,1991; Shackelford & Maxwell, 2012 )
1) Technical support role;
2) Organisational or managerial/or instructional design and
organisation;
3) Social or facilitating discourse; and
4) Intellectual.
Social Presence
1) Getting to know students and needs;
2) Students get to know peers;
3) Supportive online environment so students can see/know
other people are doing similar things to oneself; and
4) Can seek social support.
Cognitive Presence
1) Sharing and building on learning materials that integrates
learning outcomes over time; and
2) Responding to other peoples’ posts so one can enrich their
learning experiences as well as work socially.
Must be
scaffolded to
reflect the
development of
shared goals,
trust and mutual
support (Shea, Li,
& Pickett, 2006).

31. Social media in HE
• Flexible, easy to use and powerful tool for learning and teaching (Poore, 2012)
• Enhance opinion sharing (McNeill, 2009) and active participation (Trembacj & Deng, 2015)
• Support collaborating, brainstorming, problem solving and creating within the content of moment-to
moment experiences (Dunlop & Lowenthal, 2009; Lemon, 2012; 2013)
• Demonstrate professional interactions and to understand the broader impact of technology (Bradshow, 2008)
• Support classroom discussions and interactions that were once more private (Barczyk & Duncan, 2013; Gettman
& Cortijo, 2015; Rodriguez, 2011)
• Create a sense of classroom community (Anson & Miller-Cochran, 2009; Briggs, 2008; Parker & Chao, 2007; Bruns &
Humphreys, 2007)
• Support reflective practice (Crook et al., 2008; Hramiak, 2010; Lemon, 2014a; Wright, 2010)
• Produce a gallery of work (Lemon, 2014b)
• Foster co-creators of content and social dimensions of trust and cooperation (Conole & Alevizou, 2010)
• Engage participants with more interaction and discussions amongst the students and to take away from
more teacher-centered pedagogical approaches (Bull et al., 2008; Ramsden, 2009)
• Promotes reciprocity - social media enables meaning making to be socially distributed (Downes, 2010; Lemon,
in press; Rowe, 2002; Wodzicki, Schwämmlein, & Moskaliuk, 2012)

33. Pinterest

34. Wordpress Blog

36. Twitter - #CL15

40. I am completely new to Twitter and it is good to know others are
too. I guess tweeting or sharing my thoughts and ideas does not
come naturally to me. I am still wondering what to write in my first
tweet. I am sure we will all get the hang of it but right now I must
say I do feel a bit lost. Having said that I am glad we are
challenged to come out of our comfort zone and try something
new, particularly because I am sure we will have to do that again
and again in the future to keep up with the times, our students
and other teachers. I am sure it will be an exciting journey of
sharing resources and ideas so I am looking forward to using
Twitter.
- Pre-service teacher week one reflection in response to the question: What are your initial
thoughts about using Twitter professionally?

42. My discovery of Twitter
#AcademicsWhoTweet
#visarts12
#visart13
#CL15
#MuseumEdOz

45. Creating a
professional
digital presence
& Ongoing
development of
skills
New identities
Networks Reciprocity
Communication
- Voice
creation
Ways of use
Value of social
media for
museum
education
conversations
Moving
towards a
professional
Twitter profile
Curation of
digital content
relevant to
museum
education
Inquiry
First time
tweet chat
participation

46. My discovery of Twitter
#AcademicsWhoTweet
#visarts12
#visart13
#CL15
#MuseumEdOz
Professional
Experience

47. My discovery of Twitter
#AcademicsWhoTweet
#visarts12
#visart13
#CL15
#Connected16
#MuseumEdOz
Professional
Experience
Tweet chats with
BirminghamCity Uni

48. Blog
Tweet
Pin

49. Exploration of co-construction of
knowledge
• Be risk takers
• Shifting from personal use to professional use
• Explore digital platform professionally
• Try something new
• Consider their online professional identity and voice
• Engage peer-to-peer, with their teacher, and with other educators globally to
explore co-construction of knowledge
• Be open to shifts in authority
• Develop confidence to tweet, pin, blog…reflect!
• To connect in the online space to extend their personal learning networks
• Critically think about how they would like to position themselves as professionals

50. Pedagogy reinforcement
• Teacher presence A MUST (teacher(s) has to invest as much as
the students)
• If not online with students:
• they will not participate
• they question value
• They will try then drop off and spend energy elsewhere, thus there is impact on
content engagement/growth
• they get “lost”
• they find other places to engage with each other
• they have a “bad” experience which impacts future opportunities

51. My discovery of Twitter
#AcademicsWhoTweet
#visarts12
#visart13
#CL15
#Connected16
#MuseumEdOz
Professional
Experience
Tweet chats with
Birmingham City Uni

52. My discovery of Twitter
#AcademicsWhoTweet
#visarts12
#visart13
#CL15
#Connected16
#MuseumEdOz
Interviews with
GLAM educator using social mediaProfessional
Experience
Tweet chats with
BirminghamCity Uni

56. Entanglement, knots, loops, lines,
meshworks
• The space is fluid.
• There is an entanglement of lines of:
• Hook up
• Digital becoming
• Visibility
• Reciprocity
• Co-curation of knowledge

57. Lines of hook up
• Connecting
• Networks
• Communicating
• Engagement and reflective/reflexive thinking
• Hierarchy broken down
• Boundaries blurred - not physically bounded
• Online to face-to-face hook ups (Idea of Fangirl)
• Face-to-face relationships already established have been extended –
cognitive and emotional support lines emerge

58. Lines by digital becoming
• In thinking about digital becoming in this context – the re-examining and being open to
understanding and exploring new ways of doing things through the digital.
• Requires a commitment to exploring identity, to engagement with audience, and to access
and curate content
• Learning how: Who are you online? How will you engage in the space? How do you represent
yourself? Professional v Personal
• How do you become “skilled at constructing their [your] ecologies of learning in pursuit of
identity formation and knowledge building” (Shaw & Krug 2013: 246).
• How to be ethical and respectful
• Voice
• Profile – image, bio, the curation of topics, engagement with hashtags
• Risk taking
• Invitation to explore – openness to develop over time

59. Lines of visibility
• The public notion of social media makes visible the conversation(s)
• Allows for a chance to connect to collections, others (individuals and
institutions)
• Knowledge production
• Breakdown of hierarchy
• You can see, others can see you
• Visibility of topics (political, socially, institutionally important)
• Profile building publically
• “Brand”
• Gallery of work

60. Lines of reciprocity
• Sharing – build capacity to share, extend networks, content,
knowledge, engagement over time
• The more you put into it, the more you get out of it
• Openness
• Mindfulness/generosity/non judgmental
• Exchange contributes to the development of community cohesion
• Appreciation

61. Lines of co-curation of knowledge
• Real time publishing
• Sharing
• Connections and links
• Gathering information
• Topic focus change change, there can be multiple focuses
• Ask questions
• Share resources
• Visibility and gallery of work
• ALL UNDERPINNED by what it is you want to share (new, repurposed, annotated, analysed,
appreciated, questioned, organised, collected, archived, integrated, reflected upon, etc.)

62. A/Professor Narelle Lemon
Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
@rellypops
nlemon@swin.edu.au