1. What Social Media Does Best:
Innovative Teaching and Learning Practices
Using Social Networks
Richard L. Edwards
Eric Esterline
New Media Program
Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis
iDMAa 7th Annual Conference – “The Digital Edge”
Friday November 6th, 2009

2. “…in order to cooperate with more people, I need to
know more about them, and that means they will
know more about me.”
– Howard Rheingold
“People are starting to understand that the holy grail
of the Internet is community.”
– Chris DeWolfe, Co-Founder of MySpace

3. Microblogging
Large Networks Build Your Own

4. The Social Media Classroom
"In an educational setting, the social media classroom is
designed to augment or—when physical co-presence is not
possible—to replace face-to-face interaction. The power
derived from using social media in group learning
processes comes not from a more efficient computerized
extension of older communication forms—the classroom
discussion, texts to be read, essays and theses to be
written. The power of social media in education and
elsewhere derives from their affordances for forms of
communication and social behavior that were previously
prohibitively difficult or expensive for more than a tiny
elite to benefit."
– Howard Rheingold from socialmediaclassroom.com

5. Potential Benefits of Social
Networking in Education
 Learning in and out of classroom
 Connection and collaboration with disciplinary cohort
 Support for career development
 Life-long learning
 Knowledge of trends in discipline

6. “Blog to reflect, tweet to connect”
– Barbara Ganley

7. Social Media in the Classroom
 Large lecture course (N100) within Media Arts
and Science program
 91 students in the Fall 2009 section and 75
participated in study
 Two-thirds of students are 21 and under; nearly
one-third of students are 22-34
 N100 is a hybrid course (live lecture and online
sections)

8.  Ning (ning.com) as social
network tool
 Ning allows you to create your
own social network
 Ning is ad-supported freeware
 Ning was co-founded by Marc
Andreessen (of Netscape fame)
and Gina Bianchini.

10. Our Research Focus
 Explore early adoption issues with using social media software
in the classroom
 Examine the power of online social relationships: friending, e.g.
 Evaluate effectiveness of social networks for communication
and collaboration
 Assess learning and teaching benefits for hybrid and/or
distributed courses

11. Social Media Usage:
Facebook Intensity in N100
 Average student has 150 or more friends
 Average students checks Facebook three or more times
a day
 No unusual social media usage discerned in surveys

12. N100 „Friending‟ in Ning
 77% expected Ning to be a
tool to meet people they did
not already know
 70% have used the friend
invite 5 times or less in Ning
and 10% used it 46 or more
times
 57% appreciated the
benefits of Ning for meeting
classmates

13. Ning Visits: „Always On‟ Education

14. Geo-tagged Ning Activity in N100

16. Student Attitudes towards Ning
 75% of students use Ning because it is a course requirement
 36% of students would prefer Ning activities assigned on
course management system (ONCOURSE)
 Half of the students expect to continue to use a social network
to keep in touch with N100 students
 75% of the students would prefer to expand this N100 Ning
group to a New Media social network

17. What Students Like about Ning
 Nearly two-thirds characterize their collaboration with other
students as successful
 70% characterize comments left by other students on a blog or
post as informative
 Two-thirds characterize the professor and TAs use of Ning to
communicate as strong or good
 95% found Ning to be somewhat useful to very useful to discuss
lecture material

18. Ning Activities (Beyond the CMS)
 Publishing video projects (Wikimovies)
 Casual forum and „meet-ups‟
 Group forum and collaboration
 Profile pages and social identity
 Customization of site (pictures, music, video)
 Active use of “friending”
 Twitter feeds and virtual worlds

19. Initial Study Findings
 Ning is a useful system of social recommendations for
students
 Ning assists in connection to college-centered social
activities(especially for commuting and online students)
 Students value Ning as communication method; seen as „step
up‟ from threaded forums and email.
 Ning has motivational learning potential as students stayed
engaged in course activities through „friending‟
 Ning can support student group work and collaboration
 Ning points towards a need for departmental or school
support for social networking

20. Thank you!
Questions?
Richard Edwards: redwards7@gmail.com
Eric Esterline: ericesterline@gmail.com