Barriers to Emerging Technology and Social Media Integration in Higher Education

With technological innovation and social media infiltrating every field of activity, it was only a matter of time until universities and faculty would need to embrace the technological challenge. This chapter offers three case studies of social media training delivery in universities and researcher centres in the UK, USA, and Bahrain. These case studies cover the use of emerging technologies in higher education research, teaching and policy, and associated first- and second-order barriers to their implementation. Results and impact of the training sessions, including questions asked and feedback provided by participants are also discussed. The chapter emphasizes the increasing interest in training in emerging technologies for educators and affiliated university staff, but also highlights the challenges faced when promoting tools and platforms not supported by either the IT infrastructure of the universities or the policies in place.

Risky Media

This chapter seeks to critically examine and question common assumptions underpinning educators’ use and incorporation of technology in the classroom. Drawing upon transformative learning theory, the authors argue that incorporating technology in education cannot and should not be done without first questioning assumptions regarding power, teaching, and assessment. Technology is transforming education in expected ways, but can also transform education in unexpected, unexplored ways. Educators need to move beyond the quick fix of bulleted lists to explore the implications of technology in the classroom more fully.

The Potential of Document Sharing for Scaffolding Writing Instruction

As the current focus of education is often on test scores rather than student learning, many public school teachers do not emphasize the development of cross-curricular writing skills in their curriculum. With the inherent pressures of standardized tests and growing class sizes, the burden of assessing writing projects often makes them prohibitive. However, recent research has shown that developing strong cross-curricular writing programs can not only support content knowledge but also raise standardized test scores. Web 2.0 document sharing technology can reduce teacher workload while providing more scaffolding and instruction than traditional writing assignments. Using these programs, instructors can implement collaborative writing projects that will allow students to learn as they write. This chapter uses pedagogical frameworks such as Balanced Literacy, Gradual Release of Responsibility, and Lev Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development to support the implementation of cloud software in public schools. It also outlines action research from a middle school classroom using cloud technology and makes practical suggestions for use of free software in secondary curriculum.

Using Social Media as a Concept and Tool for Teaching Marketing Information Systems

Teachers use social media in order to have instant, comfortable and effective way to communicate and transact with students. Online classrooms also are becoming more and more social. So why not use these methods that are already in wide use as a teaching tool? Social media began as an entertainment tool, then became a marketing phenomenon, and now is seen as a new pedagogical tool. The Marketing Information System course aims in offering students (the tomorrow marketers) an in-depth view and understanding of information systems that support an effective way the marketing activities. MIS is the process of connecting people, processes, and technology. The use of ICT has changed the way marketing decisions are made. On the one hand, using information technologies supports achievement of a current marketing strategy while on the other hand these technologies set new marketing rules, and social media is the technology that represents a unique way of transmitting information in all directions. So with one concept (social media), we can achieve multiple benefits. This chapter (1) provides a literature review (overview) of the current use and benefits of Web 2.0 or so-called social media tools in the support of teaching or pedagogical process, (2) offers a systematic way of understanding and conceptualizing online social media as a teaching tool, and (3) suggests the framework in which social media tools can be applied and used in the Marketing Information System (MkIS) course both as part in the course structure and as a mean to teach MkIS.

Media and Communication Research Facing Social Media

It is already a fact that social media are engaged in research activities. Social media may make the object of research studies or an important data source. This chapter addresses issues related to social media research in media and communication studies. The pursued objective is to capture how researchers consider and analyze social media through scientific methods, in their work with academic purposes, in order to present the discussed theories. The ideas addressed by this chapter are case studies arising from the articles in the academic publications, topics related to social media and media and communication fields, outputs of researches, and appropriate methods for studying social media. The conclusions of this chapter show that social media research in media and communication studies, theories, and methods must be transformed or must be used more appropriate to social media. New and social media are faced with other practices and types of communication related to users’ participation and social actions and are based on network studies.

Cyberbullying

Twenty years ago, who would have thought that children as young as twelve would own a cell phone, or people would check their e-mails and Facebook several times in a given day? Things have changed a lot over the last several years. The information and communication technologies made access to information easier and allowed people to communicate with long-distant family and friends instantly. Despite these positive changes, the advances in information and communication technologies also introduced problems that are unique to information age. In this paper, the authors review one of these problems, namely cyberbullying, which affects school age children. Many studies reported significant number of children late elementary through high school experiencing cyberbullying—the use of electronic means to harass others—through cell phones and the Internet. The authors discuss the nature of cyberbullying and why it became a problem among youth. They conclude this chapter with suggestions for parents and future research.

The Role of the Web Technologies in Connection to the Communication’s Streamlining and Diversification between the Actors of a Learning System

In this chapter, the authors systematically relate to the question: “What are the main ideas that should be considered when elaborating software Systems for the communication’s streamlining and diversification (CSD) between the actors of a learning system?” The broader perspective within which these ideas are debated is represented by the context that is created through the inception of what, in the specialized literature, is called social media (as a problematic universe) and Web 2.0 (as a fundamental technological universe). Naturally, the authors will not miss some considerations that highlight the impact of the phenomenon “social media” on the information systems of the near future.

Personal Knowledge Management and Social Media

Today’s students are tomorrow’s knowledge workers. They will be paid to find innovative solutions to organizations’ most pressing problems. In times of decreasing training budgets and a dynamic job market, employees have to take over responsibility for their own personal development. Social Media and Social Software both on the WWW and organizations intranets offer a myriad of possibilities to employees and managers to be successful knowledge workers in increasingly virtual organizations and to ensure continuous learning. However, social media also puts new challenges on employees. Particularly young people, who – as the Generation Y’ers – are expected to possess extensive social media skills, need to know how they can use social media in a business context to ensure their personal development and be successful in their jobs. In this chapter, the Personal Knowledge Management model is used to discuss influential factors of successful knowledge work and personal development and to outline what students need to learn to be prepared for Enterprise 2.0.

Personalization of Learning Environments in a Post-Industrial Class

The chapter deals with trends of educational processes and learning environments in post-industrial society. A historicist approach is used for this purpose. This approach is based on two theoretical recourses: analysis of historical forms of acquiring knowledge and analysis of historical forms of educational processes. The authors show that the contemporary educational process is greatly affected by two innovative phenomena: social media and personal identity online (PIO). They consider socialization and personalization as two unique entities having opposite characteristics of the post-industrial educational process. Based on such a dialectic approach to the educational process, they define the concept “Personal Ubiquitous Educational Environment”. The authors report the preliminary results of research on a teachers’ training course conducted on the basis of such an environment. The research focuses on clarifying both innovative components of contemporary educational processes: social media and PIO.

The Use of New Web-Based Technologies in Strategies of Teaching Gender Studies

One of the defining traits of our existence as users of the Internet is convergence. This feature is a widespread common good within each level of online participation. Nowadays, we are obliged to perform communicative acts in a more transparent manner than in the Web 1.0. age, and the content itself allows for a higher degree of self-awareness. This is also the case of the learning media. We are offered more intuitive devices which reshape our mindset and forward us towards different mainframes of our innate intelligence, reshaping us into highly educated citizens. Nonetheless, technology is not the only construct with a pervasive character. Gender mainstreaming also claims a front place, either as an explaining factor for policy failures, economic deficits or social fractures. As such, it is our purpose within this chapter to outline the use of new web-based technologies in the new Web 2.0 pedagogical environment, with an emphasis on Web 2.0 teaching strategies in the case of gender studies.