Why SoMe?Social media in an academic research context.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Man_examining_fan_of_Langley_Research_Center_16_foot_transonic_wind_tunnel.jpg

Rob KnightInformation Systems Nottingham Trent University

What?

Social Media Use 2013 (UK)

• 33 mil Facebook accounts, just over 53% of the population and 62% of the online population (UK)

• 34 mil Twitter accounts, 81.1% have 50 or less followers and 74.1% follow 50 or less (UK). Small personal networks.

• <11 mil Linkedin accounts, professional target market. 79% over 35 (UK) only SoMe where male demographic largest

• Pinterest biggest growing SoMe tool for 2012, 200,000 UK users compared to 12 mil US. • Google + stats limited considering Google’s analytics…….. 135 million active accounts worldwide.

• Instagram has limited traffic in UK with only 1.46% of total UK SoMe traffic.

• >70 mil WordPress blogs world wide, 29% from the EU (July 2011)

* Source service providers & http://www.rosemcgrory.co.uk/2013/01/08/uk-social-media-statistics-for-2013/

What?

• Digital authorship• Social & Digital curation• Networking• PLN’s• Enhance research impact• Build stronger, wider professional networks• Extend the reach of your work• Do better more relevant research

Source: Social Media for research impact by Mark Reed. e:mark.reed@bcu.ac.uk

Research Impact & SoMe

• The demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to society and the economy (HEFCE)• For your research to have impact, people have to engage with it, and

act upon it.• People learn best from other people like them, who they trust.• Wider audience>Engage>Learn>Apply• Social Learning…..

*Source: Social Media for research impact by Mark Reed (Aberdeen CES)

Social LearningA Change in understanding

That goes beyond the individual to become situated in social groups

Via social interaction Reed, M. S., A. C. Evely, G. Cundill, I. Fazey, J. Glass, A. Laing, J. Newig, B. Parrish, C. Prell, C. Raymond, and L. C. Stringer. 2010. What is social learning? Ecology and Society 15(4): r1. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol15/iss4/resp1/

Personal Learning Networks

*Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rubun/2703828679/

Research Blogging

*Source: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0050109. Citation: Fausto S, Machado FA, Bento LFJ, Iamarino A, Nahas TR, et al. (2012) Research Blogging: Indexing and Registering the Change in Science 2.0. PLoS ONE 7(12): e50109. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0050109

Social Media Guidance

• Think before you post• Material published online may have the potential to be available publicly,

indefinitely• Don’t engage in any conduct online that would not be acceptable in the

workplace or that is unlawful• Be judicious and consider social media content carefully• Make it clear that the opinions expressed are solely those of the author

and do not represent the views of the University• Support academic use • Support collaborative use

*Source: NTU Social Media Policy - https://portal.ntu.ac.uk/relations_reward/policies_procedures/Pages/documents.aspx?RootFolder=%2Frelations%5Freward%2Fpolicies%5Fprocedures%2FDocuments%2FSocial%20Media&FolderCTID=0x012000011034941A0370408FF131ADAA7B58A6&View={71B67BFA-AE51-413E-8407-9962ED6BD76C}

Developing ‘Digital Literacies’we all need new literacies

• Social Networking• Privacy maintenance• Identity management• Creating content• Organising content• Reusing, re-purposing, remixing content• Broadcasting• Transliteracy

*Source: Social Media, Learning ... and the 'Always On' Generation by Steve Wheeler. e: swheeler@plymouth.ac.uk / t: @timbuckteeth

Social Media

in context

Digital Literacies & SoMe

*Source: http://www.teachthought.com/technology/4-principals-of-digital-literacy/*Source: http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2012/03/23/my-tedx-talk-on-the-essential-elements-of-digital-literacies-video/#.T3A9nmGoPiw

How?: SoMe use development

*Source: http://johnantonios.com/2010/02/06/the-social-media-hierarchy-of-needs/

SoMe!........ So why not?Without social media connections I simply wouldn’t have been able tobe in a research community like someone campus-based.Alun Salt (Archaeoastronomist)

I often get information about my job and research from online sources, blogs,twitter, comments, which might point me towards more traditional pieces thatI should read.Cameron Neylon (Senior Scientist, Biophysics)

I now have a network of individuals who I respect and am confident in theirwork. The network discovers and filters and discusses. I have connected myresearch to the real world in a way that would not have been so easy beforeand maybe not possible.Terry Wassall (Principal Teaching Fellow, Sociology)

I recently used a wiki with a couple of colleagues to put together a fundingproposal. Even though we met up face-to-face, it was useful for collaborativeediting of texts, sharing and discussing ideas generally.Andrew Coverdale, (PhD Student, Education)

I believe that social media have made me a better researcher because I think a goodresearcher needs to be able not only to do the research but needs to be able to communicate,and formulate ideas and arguments with other people from the same field or people theyknow. For example, a lot of my work uses clinical trial samples and if I hadn’t read about theimportance of blinding my results I would have analysed my data un-blinded as suggested byone of my supervisors, and this could have skewed my results.Alexander Davenport (Research Assistant, Hemato-oncology)

*Source: http://www.rin.ac.uk/our-work/communicating-and-disseminating-research/social-media-guide-researchers

Usage feedbackMy network is comprised of people I know, people I know from their blogs oronline presence who I haven’t met in person.Chris Jobling (Lecturer, Engineering)

Thank You

Rob.knight@ntu.ac.ukwww.rkphotographic.comhttps://twitter.com/Axeman3uk

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