and now about Twitter and Facebook

Not much to say for this week but it seems things in my virtual classroom are getting smoother: deadlines clear, discussion questions clearly defined (last week's two questions, one on Twitter and one on Facebook were excellent and very thought provoking), assignments... well not so much...

My students were very hesitant to add me as their Facebook friend. Or at least I felt they were more hesitant to add me as their FB friend than to follow me on Twitter. I wonder if there is some sense of privacy they feel it will be lost when friending their teacher on Facebook. It is amazing to observe how they work through different social media tools and how they react to each of them (though the week and in their blogs). After a strenuous week of figuring out how to navigate their wikis, this past week was a break for them. Some of them tweeted for the whole week as I asked in their initial assignment, some just registered their account and started following me. None of them, which is a good thing, "over-tweeted." One, max of two tweets a day.

What I loved about their tweets is that students seemed more comfortable to comment on each other's tweets and be themselves. I was a passive reader of how they interacted and was mesmerized of how real they are in comparison with when they are in class. I mentioned this in my previous blog but tweets go a step above blogs.

Well, with Facebook was a little different. I was surprised about the hesitation to add me as their friends on Facebook (they do not have to worry, they can delete me after the end of the course:) ). I wonder how they differentiate the meaning of the two social media: do they perceive their tweets more as directed to others, for the broader public, while Facebook is more about their immediate circle of friends (immediate circle of 300 friends? :) )? Eventually, after I encouraged them to add me as their FB friend, about half of the active students added me and one of them even created a facebook group with the name of the course.

The bottom line is: I am more excited about my experience with Twitter than with Facebook. I wonder, if that is a sign that maybe Facebook soon will be the new myspace... and go downhill? If it wasn't for Facebook, I would not know that two of my students had birthday last week...

Reading, commenting, and following blogs

I truly enjoy reading my students blogs. Not enjoy in a "hahahaha" way, but in an enriching, learning, discovering way. Every blog is so different: different backgrounds, different fonts, different gadgets, different layout and most of all, individual style of blogging. Even though, I can see the same emerging problems with the websites (following in the case of Blogger and creating new pages and adding info to them in the case of Wikispaces), everyone has a different style of expressing. I realize that with the blogs, I learn much more about my students than I would have a chance to learn in the classroom.
Students in the classroom are just students to me and that is how I look at them for the 55 or 85 minutes of the class. What happens with them, what they do, how they feel about the class and the rest of their life... I can't know by just being in the same room with them for this short period of time. It is different w: students are not only students to me anymore.
The more I read their blogs, the more I realize that blogging is the new form of academic writing: informed and well-though but without the rigor of academic papers. I think I am going to switch to blogging instead of mid-term papers... Final papers still will be on wikis from now on.

11 days after the beginning of the course

July 5th: 16 students

July 6th: 15 students

July 7th: 14 students

July 8th: 13 students

July 15th: 13 registered students

Active: about half of them. 

I wonder if that is confidential information or sharing the obvious: 10 followers of my blog, 9 of them wrote at least one blog. 

First obstacle: following another students blogs. Blogger does not do very good job allowing people to just click on another's persons profile and start following them. I personally had different issues with starting to follow your blogs: from not knowing you posted a blog (until I asked for a link) to not seeing your blog on my reading list on my dashboard. At the end of this blog I will upload a few image with my blog settings so you all can compare them with your settings and... maybe this will help all of us to start following all the people in the class who created a blog site. 

On a positive note: I was really excited to read your blogs and the comments others posted and that the language is not strictly formal. Can't wait to read more blogs this weekend!

I know it has been a bumpy first week of this online class: students still trying to figure out where and what to do but... the world of social media requires active participation at multiple places... that is why they invented smart phones: so people do not feel they are missing something from their social media world. Well... not all of us have smart phone... but I can bet all of us have internet at home and check their emails at least once a day (or Facebook pages). I know that wikis is a more special place (because of the interaction on the site) but blogs... blogs are one of the major tools in this social media world. When before people could make their opinions publicly available for free? With blogs we can experience the real meaning of freedom of speech. Sadly, some of the students in the class chose not to do it :(

It seems the blackboard discussions thing was the least clear for everybody and I take the responsibility for it. A few emails later and, it seems it is a little more clear. Just a little... The bottom line is... participation in discussions on blackboard (outside the weekly discussion question on the articles) will have positive impact on final grade.  Why? Because opposite to class meetings, online courses are more engaging and when the class is about social media... the emphasis is on SOCIAL... meaning "socialization" through online media. Otherwise, the point of the social media tools is lost... 

Finally... I know most of students work full-time summer job. And I know that students need those jobs to offset some of the expenses for textbooks and tuition. I do not expect that the class to be priority #1 for the students... but I am with tied hands about proper grading, when students do not even complete their weekly assignments. 

I am optimistic things will change and the class will get more active next week when we talk about Twitter and Facebook...

Some pictures of my blog settings: 

Image of my "Basic" settings:

 Image of my formatting settings: 

Image of my permissions" settings: 

I hope this will resolve the "following" problem we all experienced

Rationale behind developing your daily assignments

It is not a secret that most of you signed up for my class because they either know me or know someone who knows me. And you know that I am not a hard grader and that generally my classes are not very hard. Well, the first part is still valid: I am not a hard grader but this class will be a little more challenging than any class you took with me before. Why? Because it will be easier for me to keen an eye on how much work you accomplish... or don't accomplish... and you will be graded based on it. Online course is more transparent about individual participation. You can't use excuses about your laptop not working or not being able to print your paper because the printer in the lab did not work. Your assignment is either there or not:) 

Before I explain the rationale for deciding on each assignment, I want to say something that I should have done in the first blog. I want to thank Tyler Moody for not letting me give up on developing this course. When I first asked students in the Media Lit class this spring if they will be interested in taking Social Media class, Tyler was the first to say that he will sign up for it. Then... a few weeks later I kind of started thinking... ok... I had never done online course... other professors keep saying it is very time consuming and even more work than a regular class preparation... maybe I should focus on my research and do this class sometimes later... and then Tyler asked me again if I am still doing the class because he wanted to take it as his SGA. It was his excitement that made my mind... And here it is... 

Well, lets get to the point of this blog: why will you have to do what you will be doing for the next few weeks? 

First, you will have to read one or two articles a week. I decided to add articles to this class because they will give you more insight on the broader application of different social media tools. In addition, when answering the discussion questions on blackboard, you will use your critical thinking skills. And believe me, no matter what degree you have, critical thinking skills actually teach you very practical skill: how to evaluate a real life situation from multiple angles. Also, those articles and the following discussions will show how many different points of view there are on the same topic, i.e. you will learn to be more accepting to different points of view by rationally responding to them.


Blogging is the other "big" assignment that will happen every week. Blogs are this middle ground between professional writing (as in academic papers) and more informal, diary-like, writing that allows for a different form of expression. In blogs, your topics will be more or less academic - you will have to blog about your experiences with different social media tools - but you can approach this experience in a more personal, emotional way and this will be perfectly fine:) Blogs will also help you learn to form your thoughts and express better because you will have enough time to reflect in what you learnt during the week. Being able to form clear thoughts and explain things well will make it easier in any professional communication situation, especially for those of you who will be working with people on their job. 


And then, the Wiki Organization's analysis kill two birds with one stone: by working on it you will learn how to use wikis well and you will also fulfill the "social-global" component that SGA courses are expected to have. You will learn about a real organization's way to utilize different social media tools and you will reflect on how effectively they did it (or not). Eventually, wikis are the most helpful tool that you can use in your classes if you work on group projects and I am sure other teachers will be impressed in your knowledge of this social media tool. 

Even though you might not see the relevance of all assignments to your major, this course will teach you how to communicate better through the virtual space. One example, if you graduate in business or pharmacy, blogging about different developments on the market (real estate, financial, sports management market or drug development or community events organized by local pharmacies) you will create a more personal connection with your clients and establish the level of trust that will not be possible without blogs . Eventually, on a long run this trust will be beneficial for both you and your clients. 

Of course, you do not need to stop with the tools you will learn here. The importance of this class is that by taking it you will venture into online places that you might have not considered before and once you become more comfortable with the most popular tools, you can keep expanding to learn more about different sharing tools (delicious.com, stumbleupon.com, reddit.com, etc.) or utilizing podcasts to start your own online radio program and promote events in your community. 

Preparing to Teach Online Course on Web 2.0

This is the first blog I've ever written and it is not about the writing... but about the thought that my students will be reading it as well. The thought of what I should write and what I should not write in a blog about teaching an online class weighs heavy on my mind.

Still, I am excited to reach out to my students in a different way, one that is about equal communication rather than strict student-teacher positions. That is the good thing in the virtual space, people's social positions mean less than in reality. Not that they do not exist online, but people (including me) dare to share their points of view with those who would be considered experts in a specific field.

For the next seven weeks I will share my experiences of working with fourteen students and teaching them (and learning with them and from them) how to utilize blog spaces, wikis, RSS, podcasts and youtube... and of course facebook.

It took me about three busy weeks to put together all the power point slides for the class. It was not the slide organization, they all have the same organization, but making sure that I can describe clearly every step my students have to take in order to complete the assignment was the most time consuming part of the class preparation. And of course, some power points were easier, the one about Facebook and Twitter... but then, the harder part was to decide how to encourage them to think critically about a social medium that they probably know more about it than I do.

And there were other, much harder power point slides because the social media tool required deeper knowledge of different websites and software. I will be blogging about my and my students' experiences with each of these media tools and the level of clarity of the power points. In some way, I will be re-evaluating my teaching approach through their experiences

Well... too much writing for first blog.

Welcome to Social Applications of Web 2.0 blog