Panel Discussion on Social Media in the Classroom

York College recently hosted a panel to discuss the potential of using social media in the classroom, including social games. The panel discussion was sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at York College. Panel members included Nicholas Grosskopf from Health and Physical Education, Wenying Huang-Stolte from Academic Computing / Educational Technology, Michael Smith from Performing and Fine Arts, and myself. The panel description follows:

“Beyond Blackboard: Using Social Media In and Out of the Classroom”

With the recent explosion of mobile-based technologies, today’s higher education faculty often struggle with ways to keep students engaged in course content.  Instead of competing with these technologies, there are ways in which they can be harnessed and used to enhanced instruction. The purpose of this CETL workshop is to introduce participants to a variety of social media tools (e.g., blogs, wikis, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) which can be implemented both in and out of the “classroom” to use students’ language and experiences as vehicles for learning. Workshop facilitators and participants will engage in dialogue about best practices when using social media in the teaching and earning process.  The workshop will also introduce participants to current research on using social media, specifically the benefits of openness (visibility) to students and faculty, risks, challenges, and how instructors can address these issues effectively.

Attached are the slides from the social gaming portion of the panel discussion:

PDF version (2.9 MB)

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