Debriefing the conference

I've just spent the last few days at the Social Media & Society Conference in Copenhagen. It's a great conference for social media scholars from all fields. The attendees came from many countries and represented a wide range of disciplines (education, communication, info studies, sociology, political science, health ... to name just a few).

The diversity of this conference is one of the reasons that I enjoy it so much, along with the shared interest in social media. I find that there's something to learn from each paper at the conference, no matter how different the researcher's work is from my own. Sometimes I glean new information about a research method or a tool. Other times I learn a new theory, or I encounter a new perspective on an issue. At the end of the conference, I find that I have a collection of personal notes, a number of tweets that I've saved, an album of photos I took (posters, slides), and several papers from the proceedings that I want to read. I also have accumulated some business cards and additional people in my Twitter network. I imagine that when I fly home on Sunday it will be a good time to try to download the experience into some organized notes and action items in my bullet journal.

Another thing that I like about this conference is the active use of Twitter. The conference hashtag (#SMSociety) is pretty active, and sometimes you can even get into a conversation with people in another session. The Twitter stream is a great way to connect with people and learn about things you might have missed. Here's a tweet from an attendee that shares the overall Twitter trends for the conference:

Time series analysis of tweets for #SMSociety via @visibrain's Quick Trends explorer. There were large peaks for workshops, the welcome & keynote, and for plenary & awards. pic.twitter.com/1lLqccleHp

— Dr. Wasim Ahmed (@was3210) July 20, 2018

Here's another tweet showing the overall network from the conference. If you enlarge the image a bit I bet you can find me in there.

Massive network of #SMSociety visualised using TAGS Explorer. (https://t.co/rjqXaMEG8k) pic.twitter.com/sSkHL4qc3v

— Dr. Wasim Ahmed (@was3210) July 20, 2018

It may not surprise you to learn that Dr. Wasim Ahmed won the award for most active tweeter at the conference (yes -- there was an award for that!).

Some of the thoughts I'm left exploring at the end of the conference include:

• What does it mean to be a social media user? How do we account for different types of use (active and passive ones)?
• To what degree does social media simply reflect natural human behaviors vs create new ones?
• Is it too invasive to ask to see people's social media accounts and activity logs directly? Or is that the best way to get accurate information about interactions?
• What is the best approach for social media education in a K-12 setting? 

I have a bunch of photos of the posters at the poster session and would be happy to share if anyone is interested in seeing them.

Tour de blog #2

Lots of goodness in the EME6414 blogosphere this week!

Things you might want to check out.

Thoughts and Interests:

• Do you remember Tory telling us about her interest in street art? Well now she shares it. On Pinterest!
• Leah did the Instagram challenge and reflected on it. Didn't participate? Live vicariously through her (and congratulate her on undertaking the challenge!)
• Do you listen to cloud-based music? See what David has to say about these apps.

Issues:

• The OER movement ties into social media in various ways (sharing, curating, using Creative Commons licenses). Pamela discusses OER and textbooks. It's certainly appealing from the perspective of a student's wallet! And Min is also thinking about OER, this time from the standpoint of how we find open resources (we'll get to that in Week 5! Promise!).
• Cat is taking on the issues of trolling and cyber-bullying and she wants to know what you think.
• Privacy? Intellectual Property? Ownership? Ty's been writing about that.
• What is the relationship between community and online group? Telma wants to discuss that issue with you.

Tool and Tech Stuff:

• Vaibhav introduces Padlet, a tool that you might be interested in.
• For those of you who still don't really get Reddit, Hajeen found a great resource.
• Did you get around to checking out Pearltrees? If not, Erick did and leaves a super extensive review.
• Sophina is digging Diigo and can relate it to Big Brother.
• Chris has some thoughts about hashtags and wants to know how you use them.
• Do you know about WeChat? It's a Chinese social media tool. Hannah tells you all about it.
• John discusses LessonPaths, 

Do you use the tools, or do the tools use you?

Did you read my post about disconnecting? It may or may not resonate with you, but how about tool fatigue?

Are you still game to be online, but feeling overwhelmed by the number of tools you've tried?

There will be a lot of recommended tools in Week 4 to give you choice. Will that scare you?


Well, I have a message for you:

Disconnecting: An open letter to the class.

Dear Class,

If you read my introduction on our discussion forum, you might have noticed that I mentioned at the end how every so often I just disconnect. I let my online presence fade away.

Why? Because I need a break. Because it's healthy. Because I am in control.

I drank from the firehose and lived to tell the tale.

I'm assuming you're all with me here on the "drinking from the firehose" analogy (used in the Week 1 Voicethread). Yup, that's what this social media stuff is like. The firehose has amazing water pressure, relentlessly spewing out what would otherwise being innocuous tiny droplets en masse at high pressure. Anyone who gets in its way is sure to be knocked over.

Tweet-tweet-tweet, chat-chat-chat

I'm seeing many of you on Twitter, which is great! The next question is: What else can you do on Twitter?

One option is the Twitter chat.

How do Twitter chats work?
In a nutshell, there's a designated time and hashtag. All interested parties log in at the time and tweet to the hashtag. They hit refresh a lot, see what else has been tweeted to the hashtag, and respond to it. It usually works best with a plan and some leadership: So, a moderator, a topic, and perhaps some questions floated out by the moderated at regular intervals to keep the conversation moving along.

Two twitter chats that are happening this coming week on Thursday are:

#hootchat -- third Thursdays (so coming up - July 19!) 3 pm eastern -- sponsored by Hootsuite

How This Week's #HootChat Guest, @kfreberg, Teaches Social Media in Her University Classroom https://t.co/sOBEzVdxF6 pic.twitter.com/xzfJlAv4lE

— Emily Karras (@emilykarras) July 13, 2018

 (Nifty article on hosting a hootchat here: http://www.mediative.com/behind-the-scenes-of-a-hootchat/ )

#lrnchat -- 8:30 pm eastern -- this one is a group of folks who meet on Twitter weekly to discuss learning-related topics

If you join either one, please let us know! Blog about the experience!

And if you know of others we should check out, please share in the comments.

Finally: If you would like for our class to do a twitter chat, either arrange a time amongst yourselves and do it, or let me know and I can set one up for Week 5.

In case you missed it: Advice from EME6414 alums!

I put a call out on Twitter recently:

Any #eme6414 alums out there? Do you have any sage advice about the class or social media in general for this year’s students?

— Vanessa Dennen (@vdennen) July 1, 2018

And several prior students answered the call:

Connect with experts or professionals in your field using the apps and tools you get to play with in class. This has lead to many good things for me even after the class ended #EME6414

— Rebecca Simms (@rksimms) July 1, 2018

Don't be afraid to have a personality online. Even with professional use, social media is a lot more interesting and valuable if it actually feels like there's a person on the other side. #eme6414

— Gregory Moore (@GMoore491) July 2, 2018

Love me some EME6414. Avoid generic goals and apply measurable outcomes. Cozy up to some proper analytics. Have fun!

— Miguel A Suarez Nin (@_migsy_) July 1, 2018

Blogging about your process and journey as an instructional designer is great for so many reasons! #eme6414

— Devlin Peck (@devpeck) July 1, 2018

Great advice, I think! And I see those connections forming, those personalities emerging, etc.

Hopefully if I tweet this same request next year some of you will reply!