This week I ran a workshop at UWE on the use of social media in the context of research. This follows on from a similar workshop that I ran in February 2012 for researchers and a workshop at the Vitae Conference in September 2012 for researcher skills developers from across the country.
The background to this is that researchers are changing the way they use digital tools in the context of their research. There is lots of work going on as part of the wider JISC Developing Digital Literacies programme including work being carried out by Vitae to better understand the development needs of researchers.
I’m interested in the digital literacy of folks like me for a couple of reasons:
1) It surely makes sense to better understand how researchers using digital tools in the context of research so that we are better able to support them
2) I believe that the very same digital tools can help staff supporting researchers to engage in their own professional development (something that we all want more of!)
The slides I used to support this workshop are below.
Prezi was used to make the presentation which you can edit remotely & collaboratively.
Hopes
Basic overview of what is out there
Getting research out there
To become more aware of others with similar interest & activities to my own
Catch up with colleagues who use twitter/blogs naturally
Which button do I press?
How to quantify opinion (or research data) gathered via social media tools
Fears
Maintaining privacy
Managing a digital reputation
How do I edit the digital me?
Will this become another distraction?
Digital Identity
We spent some time discussing online identity, how to balance the “personal me” vs the “professional me”, how different tools lend themselves to different purposes and how actively managing information about yourself is a good thing to do.
“We don’t have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it”. – Erik Qualman
We asked the participants to use twitter to interact with their networks using the hashtag #druwe
Good morning, it's the digital researcher course today at UWE #druwe—
Paul Spencer (@paulspencer42) March 05, 2013
if researchers worry about seeming professional show them this lighthearted prezi go.bath.ac.uk/wr3b via @GhislaineDell #druwe—
Paul Spencer (@paulspencer42) March 05, 2013
Any followers out there who can pass on nuggets of wisdom to out digital researchers here at UWE #druwe—
Paul Spencer (@paulspencer42) March 05, 2013
@paulspencer42 don't just be a listener! I've made great contacts and built networks of expertise on twitter through 'talking' #druwe—
Ghislaine Dell (@GhislaineDell) March 05, 2013
Power of networks
We discussed a little bit of network theory, illustrated by this video for a TEDx talk by Zella King
Managing information overload
We had a look at portals and aggregators to help manage information streams.
Using social media tools in research
We discussed how research is social & iterative, the benefits of engaging with folks far and wide about your research outputs and how to use tools to make the finding out about knowledge a little easier. We had a play around with some social citation tools, e.g. CiteULike, Zotero & Mendeley
@paulspencer42 Really useful course but could also be good to explore using digital/social media as a research tool #druwe—
Louca-Mai Brady (@louca_mai) March 05, 2013
Blogs
We discussed why folks blog – a variety of reasons including:- organising thoughts, mind dump, getting feedback at an early stage etc.
This blog is a just one such example!
Netiquette
Summed up with “Common sense!”
Other sources of information
Here’s a list of things that I have come across recently on the topic of social media in research (clearly not exhaustive!):-
A blog about blogging in an academic research context from Imperial College - some really interesting advice and guidance here.
The Networked Researcher blog site which promotes the use of social media tools for researchers – “Digital Professionalism – what not to share”
The British Library – Help for Researchers – “Web 2.0 as a social science research tool”
The Guardian Higher Education site – discussing benefits of blogging as a researcher – “How blogging helped me find my research voice”
The Research Information Network site – “Social Media: A Guide for Researchers”
The Vitae/Open University “Social Media Handbook for researchers and supervisors”
Thanks to the researcher who attended both physically and virtually!
Tagged: #druwe, Digital Identity, Digital literacy, Prezi, social media
