Thursday, March 29, 2012

Social Media- "History in Real Time" for Students, Teachers, and You


At the 2012 EDUCAUSE Midwest Regional Conference in Chicago, an Experience IT Session was held to delve into the topic social media and how it can make learning more relevant for faculty and students. In this session, a series of presumptions were tested through a year long research study to see if social media can:


motivate and engage “the Base”
accelerate the speed of dissemination
disseminate fact or fiction
affect attribution of the author
reinforce, influence, or change opinion

In addition, the study looked into strategies and methods to make learning more relevant and engaging. By using social media tools such as Tweetdeck, YouTube, and CNN iReports, attendees learned how to bring real world political events into the classroom for discussion, evaluation, and research. Attendees across the Midwest were given the chance to see real life political events in Wisconsin to better understand the power, advantages, and dangers of social media. In addition. participants learned how to extend the use of social media into other academic disciplines.

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