When deciding
whether to incorporate any social media tools into course instruction, there
are many questions to ponder. The first one to consider involves student
learning outcomes, i.e., what should students be able to do after completing
the course? Also what are the common characteristics of students taking this
course, e.g., are a majority social media savvy? How will you have students use
a particular tool and for what purpose? What kinds of tools are available,
free, and user-friendly? Which of these will work best for all of the above?
Thinking about these
questions along with those that I raised in my last post,
I find that I am open to incorporating some of the social media tools we have
learned about in this class into a future online library research skills course.
But I am also inclined to limit the number of these outside social media
platforms for use in building an online student community. I just don’t want to
overwhelm students by requiring them to learn too many new technologies,
especially those students who already struggle with simply navigating through the
course management system (in this case, Moodle).
I like the idea that
Moodle offers a variety of its own social media type tools, including blogs and
wikis, to help build community within one online space. But I also find in some
instances that I actually prefer the interfaces of outside social media
platforms and I think students may too. In the case of blogging for example,
the options for designing a personalized blog using Blogger seem limitless compared to the features
available using Moodle’s blogging software.
One activity I might
incorporate into a course involves students reflecting and blogging weekly
about conducting academic research and using a variety of resources, e.g., the
library catalog or library databases. While the goal of a blogging activity in
this case may have little to do with the actual design of the blog, students
might respond better to the idea of blogging in general. They might actually enjoy
writing their entries more when they can also personalize their blogging space using
a tool that offers many design options (this definitely works for me!).
Another activity that
I might into a library research skills course involves asking students to share
one or more websites that they have found helpful in the past or have even
recently discovered. Students would share the URL link and a website evaluation
in either a class wiki or shared document. For this activity I like the idea of
using another social media tool outside of Moodle, such as Wikispaces or Google Drive, because
either of these allows students to access the information long after the course
is over.
I sometimes find the
limitless possibilities for using social media tools in education a bit overwhelming.
Therefore when considering a tool for future course instruction, I must remember
to first ask and answer several important questions to make sure I will also be
using this tool responsibly and in the best interest of my students.