GOOD COP, BAD COP? TWITTER FOR COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE [email protected][email protected]17 th June 2010 Hertfordshire Blended Learning Conference 2010 Dr Bex Lewis, University of Winchester Blended Learning Fellow Lecturer History/Media Studies Dr David Rush, University of Winchester Honorary Research Fellow
A presentation/conversation to be provided by Dr Bex Lewis and Dr David Rush at the Hertfordshire Blended Learning Conference, 17th June 2010. You'll have to come along to see what we actually say alongside it!
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Transcript
GOOD COP, BAD COP? TWITTER FOR COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE
“Technology stewards are people with enough experience of the workings of a community to understand its technology needs, and enough experience with or interest in technology to take leadership in addressing those needs. Stewarding typically includes selecting and configuring technology, as well as supporting its use in the practice of the community.”
Wenger, E., White, N., Smith, J.D., Digital Habitats: Stewarding Technology for Communities, 2009, p.25
Start following people you are interested in Start following their followers – piggybacking Some will follow you in return Search for those using #hashtags of interest
to you Russell Stannard, http://bit.ly/9ijjX0, 09/09
Do followers follow each other? All the gurus are ‘friends’ (follow and followed by)
digitalfprint Last 4 rows show core of followers – a network
Account Following Followers DigitalfprintGuru 1 170 148 Guru 2 93 86 Guru 3 32 38 Guru 4 19 30 Guru 5 13 28 Guru 6 10 26 Guru 7 6 19
Image from : http://www.sxc.hu/
Is a network a CoP?
According to Wenger there needs to be some reification – production of objects to record experience
Twitter doesn’t do this Reification in two ways
Use of Twitter support tools: Hootsuite, Tweepdiff, Twellow, Tweetbook, etc
Links to other places on web e.g. blogs
Image purchased from http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=7755704
Conclusions so far
Twitter may help us build up a network Relationships Reputation
In itself it is rather limited To build a CoP it might act as a starting
point Then would need to find shared
electronic spaces
An Institutional Community of Practice?
Image from : http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/?id=9458297&refnum=3720884&source=sxchu04&source=sxchu04
Understanding Community
“The first and foremost activity of tech stewards is to understand their community and its evolution well enough to be able to respond to its expressed and unexpressed needs with respect to technology. This understanding of how the community functions includes its key activities, member characteristics, subgroups, boundaries, aspirations, potential, limitations, as well as its context. Achieving such understanding will require a combination of direct involvement, observations, and conversations with community members.”
Wenger, E. et al, Ibid, pp.26-7
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KQGRNV5
Why DON’T you use Twitter? The majority were “too busy on
Facebook” or thought Facebookwas better
Don’t know anyone else using it Had an account, didn’t understand, de-installed Too celebrity-focused “really is an excuse for people to tell you what
cereal they had for breakfast or complain about every little detail that makes their lives so mundane in the first place”
Staff Survey
What they think Twitter is
Online form of SMS Platform for quick dissemination of brief information to
large group of interested parties. Fast, superficial but far reaching discussion
Sending text-message length messages to an internet site. Often used, it seems to me, to share so-called news of no relevance whatsoever.
It is a social network where your comments are restricted to only 140. I tried it but found it so irritating. I do not want to know when someone is having a cup of tea.
It's a self-glorification tool for those who are unable to accept that they are less interesting than they think they are.