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Social Media in Higher Education
This wikipage has been created for the course EDER 679.31 Research Seminar of Educational Technology delivered by the University of Calgary Werklund School of Education Graduate Programs in Education and was created by Rob, Sandy, and Shaily

What is this Educational Technology trend?

A quick search of the term Social Media brought numerous definitions

About Tech defines social media in the following way:

The best way to define social media is to break it down. Media is an instrument on communication, like a newspaper or a radio, so social media would be a social instrument of communication. 

Social Media defines social media in the following way:

Social Media is the future of communication, a countless array of Internet based tools and platforms that increases and enhance the sharing of information. 

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines social media in the following way:

Forms of electronic communication (as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communications to share information, ideas, personal messages and other content such as videos. 

Who is Involved with Social Media?
According the 2014 Horizon Report social media is changing the way people interact, present, and share information and almost 40% of the worlds’ population is engaging in social media (Johnson et. al, 2014). There are many different social media sites on the web. The big players include Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, Flickr, Tumblr, and Instragram to name a few.

In terms of higher education, most colleges and universities subscribe to a social media site like the ones mentioned above. As well social media is starting to find it way into the classroom. According to Moran et al. (2011), over 90% of post-secondary faculty is engaged in social media either in or outside of their classroom environments. However, as Moran et al reports it is one thing to know of social media but it is quite different to make use of these actually sites.

How Does Social Media Work?
When initially researching this topic, we found a website Edutopia and a contributor by the name of Vicki Davis had 12 examples how social media is being used in classrooms. Although the references are primarily at the elementary and secondary level, the premise is same for high education. Examples include teachers posting tweets and status updates about classroom assignments, test, and announcements for the parents to read. Students creating a blog in STEM education that gives their parents an idea of what they are learning and interested in. Connecting with other classrooms at the local, regional, and global level. Using Facebook for peer feedback on science fair projects. Students creating and uploading videos to YouTube. Creating Twitter accounts for special interest content. Searching the web for weather and climatic conditions around the world. Collaborator with other educators. Sharing your learning around the world. And having your students participate in cause that they find worthy.

From Vicki Davis website it is evident that their are a lot of creative educators that use social media in variety of ways and the link to her post just gives a snapshot of what is out there and what could be done.