1 The use of SOCIAL MEDIA in the Educational EnvironmentBy Chris Johl CIO, University of Fort Hare Greetings and notice of intent to give away prizes. The use of SOCIAL MEDIA in the Educational Environment

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3 Contents Messaging Systems System Dependencies MobilityHow to make better use of both …. This presentation covers the use of Social Media in Education and to get to understand Social media and its value in the context of higher education I believe it will be helpful to hear a little about the (1) types of messaging systems that exist so I will talk a little about (2) these systems, their dependencies, then I will touch on (3) mobility and what these systems and mobility offer to people like us to exploit for the (4) improvement of education.

4 Contents Messaging Systems System Dependencies MobilityHow to make better use of both …. In higher education The South African Department of Higher Education as per its Strategic Plan (DHET, 2010) has as its goal for the period 2010 to 2015 to improve throughput, access and quality. This translates into the improvement of efficiency. Lets take a look at some UNESCO sample figures on efficiencies in the education environment worldwide. (1)

5 I want to share 4 graphs that show some education statistics of South Africa compared to 4 other countries. These figures are supplied by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO. The percentage of Gross Domestic Product spent on education, that is at all levels of education, ranges from 5.7 % at the spend ranking of 39th out of 132 for the USA and down to 4.6 % at the spend ranking of 69th which is Germany. Of course there is more than one measure provided by UNESCO against which to compare efficiencies, so lets look at the next one which is Percentage of Government Spend on Education. (1)

6 This graph shows that the percentage of government spend on education ranges between 18.5 % for South Africa ranked 27th in the spend ranking and only 9.5% for Germany who is 88th in the spend ranking. For South Africa the actual amount spent on Public Higher Education in 2010 amounted to R 29 billion. (1)

7 Now from money on to participation ratesNow from money on to participation rates. South Africa has the lowest participation rate of the sample selected at only 15.7% and is ranked 80th in the enrolment rankings. This statistic is really concerning as South Africa spends the greatest proportion of government spending of the sample countries on education and only achieves this relatively low participation rate of 15.7%. (1)

8 Bearing all these previous figures in mind we can see this graph, very broadly, as the achievement of the objectives of a country towards education where the number of institutions in the top 500 is shown. It must surely be the ideal of every country to have its institutions recognized in this global world of today. Efficiency, as I stated earlier, is an objective of the RSA DHET today, and for the next five years, and even onto 2030 and this next graph gives us a glimpse of how South Africa compares to the sample of other countries that I selected for this presentation. (1)

9 This graph shows the top 500 ranking against the government % spend on education. Here we see Germany, only spending 9.5 % of government funds on education and yet achieving the ranking of having the second most institutions in the world in the top 500. If we see these measures as a measure of efficiency, this graph makes the point that South Africa has a long way to go to improve efficiency and only through good governance are better efficiencies going to be realised. This is not only financial and HR governance, but also IT governance. A good IT governance framework such as the COBIT (Control Objectives in Information and Associated Technologies version 5) gives direction as to how to align business and IT to be able to leverage more value from IT. Of course I’m leading to the point where I say that one of these areas of technology that is relatively untapped, is the area of social media in education. Now to get the discussion on Social Media, it is necessary to discover some information on messaging and messaging types and to then hopefully understand why social media has perhaps been avoided in this environment rather than been embraced. (*)

10 Network Messaging TypesStore and Forward ( ) Instant Messaging (IM) OK, so now for some technical discussion around the types of messaging. Messaging can broadly be defined in two categories, the (1) store and forward type of messaging, such as and the (2) instant messaging type such as SMS, micro-blogging and other social media services. (1)

11 Store and Forward (Email)Firstly lets look a closer at an example of the store and forward type of messaging, . requires an entire network of mail servers at many sites around the globe. In fact every domain registered with Internet authorities has probably got its own mail server. [True or False for a prize – Blackberry 4300] These servers do not necessarily have to be big powerful devices that can handle many concurrent conversations and the software that runs them is generally free and open source. Of course there is also commercial software that runs mail systems as well. The mail initiator (1) will compose an on an client and press send (2) to get the mail on its way. This electronic message then routes via the network to the mail server (3) that accepts it for later delivery. Once the message has been received by the mail server it will attempt to connect to the (4) destination mail server through the Internet (5) and will as a default in most systems continue to try to connect for the transfer for at least 5 days. The sender will be notified if there is any type of delay envisaged in the transmission of the message. The receiving mail server (6) will take delivery of the message (7) and notify the (8) recipient of an being received (9). This mail message takes at least two mail servers connected to the Internet to function. Modern smartphones can now also receive and send s.

12 Instant Messaging (IM)The second type of messaging system, instant messaging, is focussed on (1) mobile devices but can also work equally well on fixed computers. In contrast to the mail type of messaging only a (2) single intermediate server(farm) or system is in place and all (3) messages are directed through this system. The capacity of the system is proportional to the volume of messages that are transmitted and received. It is also the case that cellular network based IM systems require Internet connection to function. The SMS that we have become acquainted with on our cell phones, is in fact also connected to the Internet, because a cell phone is also a device that needs to login and connect to a network, to be able to be used.

13 Twitter Twitter is an online social networking service and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based messages of up to 140 characters, known as "tweets". Now, to the first application that makes use of instant messaging, Twitter. Twitter can be used on fixed and mobile devices and is based on a maximum message length of 140 characters. This is similar to the message length used on short messaging services or SMS. A blog (a portmanteau of the term web log)) is a discussion or informational site published on the World Wide Web and consisting of discrete entries ("posts") typically displayed in reverse chronological order (the most recent post appears first). The term microblogging kind of ties it to the 140 characters.

14 Twitter History Created in March 2006 by Jack DorseyOver 500 million registered users as of 2012 Over 340 million tweets daily Over 1.6 billion search queries per day One of the ten most visited websites on the Internet Unregistered users can read tweets Registered users can post tweets through the website interface, SMS, or a range of apps for mobile devices Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey (1) and by July, the social networking site was launched. The service rapidly gained worldwide popularity, with over 500 million registered users as of 2012 (2) , generating over 340 million tweets daily (3) and handling over 1.6 billion search queries per day (4). Since its launch, Twitter has become one of the ten most visited websites on the Internet (5), and has been described as "the SMS of the Internet." Unregistered users can read tweets (6), while registered users can post tweets (7) through the website interface, SMS, or a range of apps for mobile devices

15 Twitter History Twitter Inc. is based in San Francisco, with additional servers and offices in New York City, Boston, and San Antonio Revenue is based on advertising In 2009 a trending and search bar is added Tweets are stored in a MySQL database Twitter has its core infrastructure in (1) San Francisco with additional equipment in New York City, Boston and San Antonio. In 2010, Twitter announced plans to offer paid advertising (2) for companies that would be able to purchase "promoted tweets" to appear in selective search results on the Twitter website, similar to Google Adwords' advertising model. Twitter signed up a number of companies wishing to advertise including Sony Pictures, Red Bull, Best Buy, and Starbucks. In 2009 a (3) trending and search bar was added to the site allowing for general topics of conversation to be identified. Twitter makes extensive use of open source software (4) and tweets are stored in a MySQL database.

16 Twitter History Twitter messages are public but private messages are also possible Twitter collects personally identifiable information about its users and shares it with third parties The service reserves the right to sell this information as an asset if the company changes hands Twitter displays no advertising, advertisers can target users based on their history of tweets and may quote tweets in ads June 2011 – integrated photo sharing Twitters messages are normally (1) posted publicly but private messages only to followers are also possible. Twitter does present a high level of risk as every public tweet carries with it the liability of making public statements. Many celebrities have landed themselves in trouble with irresponsible and highly emotional public statements that have in many cases resulted in litigation. Users’ personal information (2) is shared with third parties for gain and the company goes so far as to classify this information as an asset (3) that will be sold along with the company, should this ever occur. The ability to embed web links into tweets (4) makes the service incredibly powerful for any purpose including advertising. In June 2011 integrated photo sharing (5) was added to the portfolio of services offered by twitter making it a more powerful microblogging service than ever before. Think of the use of this within the education environment.

17 Twitter USE IN EDUCATIONSet up an account for a class group called UFHHIST13 Invite the class to follow Tweet anything you want them to view or know Lecturer can follow each students account Keep it private and not public A lecturer can set up a twitter account per class or subject (1) and invite the class to follow. Each student will require their own Twitter account and students can follow (2) the lecturers invite and thus their tweets. In the same manner the lecturer can (3) follow each student (4). As long as the tweets are p(w)rivate there is (5) little risk of unintended sharing of information. Of course due care will need to be taken when referring to any copyrighted material.

18 Twitter Social Networking Nielson Twitter TV Rating EducationTo sum up on Twitter and some of it uses: (1) The obvious one for which it was created – Social Networking. The Nielson Media company also plans to use twitter to (2) rate TV shows with live tweets during shows and finally for twitter, the possibility for rich (3) interaction with students to share (4) what you have or can find with them, to enrich their learning experience beyond books, and into the realm of their own social interaction space [Another use for twitter anywhere? – 3G card].

19 Twitter = Twouble?

20 Facebook Facebook is a social networking service launched in February 2004, owned and operated by Facebook, Inc. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow Harvard University students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. Now for a look at the second, primarily instant messaging social networking service, Facebook. Facebook launched before twitter in 2004 and is (1) owned and operated by Facebook incorporated. Facebook was founded by a group of Harvard University Students, (2) Mark Zukerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. There must be something in this relatively new area of study called information technology that inspires this kind of creativity in students, or is it perhaps the fact that they studied at one of the institutions that is rated in the top ten in the world today?

21 Here are the ratings for the top ten institutions in the world for the period You will notice that Harvard University is ranked 4th. These rankings are made up of a number of factors and include research output. There are 7 institutions in the top ten that are in the USA and 3 in the UK, with the second ranked institution being in the UK. Horror of horrors when I discovered which (South) African institutions were within the top 500. [Would anyone like to guess which the highest ranked institution is in South Africa? – Nokia GPS]

22 Well yes, there are only 4 in Africa, all of which are in South Africa and the highest ranked is UCT at 113, followed by WITS, Stellenbosch and UKZN.

23 Facebook Initially limited to Harvard studentsThen colleges in the Boston area Then Ivy League and Stanford University Over 1 Billion users More than half use a mobile device Back to Facebook and its rise to fame. Membership was initially restricted to (1) students of Harvard College, and within the first month, more than half the undergraduate population at Harvard was registered on the service. In March 2004, Facebook expanded (2) to Stanford, Columbia, and Yale. It soon opened to the other Ivy League schools (3), Boston University, New York University, MIT, and gradually most universities in Canada and the United States. According to Social Media Today, in April 2010 an estimated 41.6% (129.5 million) of the U.S. population had a Facebook account. On October 4, 2012 it (4) had 1,000,000,000 active users (5) more than half of which use a mobile device. [Is Harvard University on the East or West side of the US? – 3G card]

24 Facebook Must register before using the siteCreate a personal profile, Add other users as friends, Exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they update their profile. Users may join common-interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics, and categorize their friends into lists such as "People From Work" or "Close Friends". Here are the rules for Facebook: Users (1) must register to use the site and can create profiles (2) with photos, lists of personal interests, contact information, and other (3) personal information. Users can communicate with friends and other users through private or (4) public messages and a chat feature. They can also create and join interest (5) groups and "like pages", some of which are maintained by organizations as a means of advertising.

25 Facebook in higher education?Better than Twitter : message sizes Communication is two way, twitter is one way Set up a profile and invite people to join Enjoy an interactive experience using implicit social conventions Does Facebook have application in Education? Facebook appears to have a broader application base in higher education than twitter. Facebook (1) does not have a limit on text of 140 characters. The Facebook platform mimics face-to-face (2) interaction with a mix of apparent spontaneity (3) locked in layers of carefully (4) constructed implicit social conventions. It has huge potential in the entire education environment. [Anyone here who does not have a Facebook Account? Tell me why – Samsung Phone]

26 Flickr An image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community Created by Ludicorp in 2004 Acquired by Yahoo in 2005 the service is widely used by bloggers to host images that they embed in blogs and social media OK, now to the third of four Social Networking systems, Flickr is an (1) image and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was (2) created by Ludicorp in and (3) acquired by Yahoo! in In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to host images (4) that they embed in blogs and social media. Photos and videos can be accessed from Flickr without the need to register an account but an account must be made in order to upload content onto the website. Registering an account also allows users to create a profile page containing photos and videos that the user has uploaded and also grants the ability to add another Flickr user as a contact.

27 Flicker usage statistics are shown on this graphFlicker usage statistics are shown on this graph. Flicker seems to have peaked in the second quarter of 2011 with 55 million photos per month being uploaded.

28 Flickr Upload Statistics in 2012518 million (517,863,947) 43 million per month on average 1.42 million per day on average 7.5 % decrease from 2011 A total of 518 million (1) photos were uploaded in 2012 to the Flickr site. This was around 43 million (2) per month on average or 1.42 million per day (3) on average (4). Think of the size storage that you need for this quantity of data. If each photo is 2.5 MB this equates to around trillion megabytes. If you consider that the first ZX spectrum PC had 16 Kbytes of memory, and now we talk of PC’s being fitted with 16 Gbytes of memory, that is of course if they are 64 bit machines. Have you ever paused to think of the multipliers after Terrabytes?

29 Multipliers after MegabytesMegabytes (power 6) bytes Gigabytes (power 9) bytes Terrabytes (power 12) bytes Petabytes (power 15) bytes

30 Multipliers after MegabytesExabytes (power 18) bytes Zetabytes (power 21) bytes Yottabytes (power 24) bytes Xenottabytes (power 27) bytes

31 Multipliers after MegabytesShilentnobyte (power 30) bytes Domegemegrottebyte (power 33) bytes [Someone who can say these two powers terms – Nokia GPS Device]

32 Official app for iOS (Apple) Android operating system devices Flickr Apps Official app for iOS (Apple) Android operating system devices Windows Phone 7 Now, after all those powers that be, back to Flickr for mobile users, Flickr has an (1) official app for iOS,[5] Android, and Windows Phone 7 operating systems.

33 Set up groups, manage and follow groups Photos into sets Flickr Features Tag images (metadata) Set up groups, manage and follow groups Photos into sets Web Services API Access Control Organizr (Web app for organizing photos) Picknik (on-line photo editing app) Both public and private storage These are features that make Flickr ideal for use in the educational environment. You can tag (1) images making them searchable. You can set up, manage (2) and follow groups and store (3) photos in sets. Flickr has a Web Services (4) API which is a method of communication between two electronic devices over the World Wide Web. A Web service is a software function provided at a network address over the web or the cloud. Adding to the functionality of Flickr is its (5) access control function. There are also some (6) apps associated with Flickr for editing and (7) organizing photos. Lastly Flickr provides both public and private storage options. This free service can make an extremely functional off site photo storage facility for any tertiary institution.

34 YouTube Founded in February 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, Jawed Karim October 2006 acquired by Google for $ 1,65 Billion 3rd most viewed site after Google& Facebook 60 Hours of video uploaded every minute 4,000,000,000 videos watched every day 800 million visitors per month Ok onto the final social media wonder of the world, You tube. YouTube was (1) founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, who were all early employees of PayPal. YouTube began as a venture-funded technology startup, primarily from a $11.5 million investment between November 2005 and April YouTube's early headquarters were situated above a pizzeria and Japanese restaurant in San Mateo, California. The domain name was activated on February 14, 2005, and the website was developed over the subsequent months. In November 2006, (2) YouTube, LLC was bought by Google for US$1.65 billion, and now operates as a subsidiary of Google. You Tube is the third (3) most viewed site after Google and Facebook. In 2012 You Tube (4) announced that 60 hours of video were being uploaded every minute and that (5) four billion videos were streamed every day to (6) around 800 million users per month. You tube offers full length movie rentals to users in the US, Canada and UK. [What is the worlds population today? 7 billion, meaning that every second person in the world watches a video on YouTube every day – Tablet PC]

35 YouTube In 2011 more than 1 trillion views: about 140 per person on earth Then the most popular video: Justin Bieber – Baby ft. Ludacris Now the most popular is the GangNam at +1,3 billion views 600 Million mobile views every day 500 years of YouTube videos watched on Facebook every day IN 2011 You Tube had more (1) than 1 trillion views (power 12) which if divided by the earths’ population would have meant each person viewed 140 videos in a year. Then the most popular (2) video was Justin Biebers – Bay ft. Ludacris with over views but this has been taken (3) over by the Gangnam style video with more than 1,3 billion views (power 9). There are in excess (4) of 600 million mobile views per day. There is the equivalent (5) of 500 years of YouTube videos watched on Facebook every day. Here is the first video ever posted on YouTube. It is entitled “At the Zoo”: featuring one of its co-founders Jawed Karim. Can you imagine while you watch this short clip that this person moved from a student to a billionaire in one year! There must be hope for me!

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37 Ok onto the final three slides which covers the academic aspects of social networking from this book which is free on Google Books. I strongly recommend it and that is not because its free but it has some great ideas in it for the use of Social Media in Education.

38 Theoretical Perspectives of Social Media205 Social Networking sites (Wikipedia 2011) The nature of knowledge and what must be learned in higher education is changing Factual knowledge is now abundantly available and so the importance of memorization is declining Self learning is more possible now than ever before and with ever increasing changes in the workplace more necessary At the same time education places a higher priority on creative problem solving, whether individual or group There is a proliferation of (1) Social Media Networking sites on the Internet. These sites are the playground of learners in this century. If you want to connect (2) with them you have to do so on their terms and on their turf. With so must (3) credible and factual knowledge being easily and readily available on the Internet it stands to reason that the nature of knowledge and what must be learned in higher education is changing. It is easy to (4) decide for yourself when and what you would like to enrich your mind with, or share with your classmates, lecturers, family or friends and for whatever reason. Clearly the focus in (5) higher education has changed to place a higher priority on creative problem solving or group work than ever before. [Do you agree with these statements, why? – Nokia GPS]

39 Theoretical Perspectives of Social MediaUniversities still offer: Authorities and resources Social experiences Samplings of different disciplines Job skills Certification Inclusion as a member of an intellectual group Intellectual discussions Professional community alliances Guidance through experience and thought process Social Media can provide the learning space or at least a part of it. These cloud based services are mostly free and more secure and reliable than many of our own services provided on campus. Already many institutions have outsourced at no cost, their services to Google (in the cloud) or Microsoft (in the cloud). There is probably one Exabyte of storage out there that Microsoft is willing to give us for storage at no cost. It is secure so why would we not take up the offer and make use of it?

40 Theoretical Perspectives of Social MediaUniversities still offer: Authorities and resources Social experiences Samplings of different disciplines Job skills Certification Inclusion as a member of an intellectual group Intellectual discussions Professional community alliances Guidance through experience and thought process At this point in time Universities still offer these things or the ability to acquire them, but ponder as we go through them for how much longer will Universities be able to hold on to these things? Authorities and resources, yes because this is funded by taxpayers money, …

41 Theoretical Perspectives of Social MediaUniversities still offer: Authorities and resources Social experiences Samplings of different disciplines Job skills Certification Inclusion as a member of an intellectual group Intellectual discussions Professional community alliances Guidance through experience and thought process ….. and perhaps certification because this needs authority to award, but the rest of these offerings can be acquired through social media connected to all the professional structures that exist, as we already know it. [Any divergent views? Tell us why? Xerox Printer from Aloe Office Solutions.]

42 Theoretical Perspectives of Social MediaSocial media offers: Self expression and peer review for public Shared enthusiasms Access to experts Worldwide arena for gaining personal reputation New technologies that can aid human limitations Information available for self learning In addition to those attributes in the previous slide that can be taken over through the social media channel, social media specifically also offers services such as peer review, shared enthusiasm, access to experts, and these experts are still going to be practicing industry experts or academics at institutions, and a worldwide arena to gain a reputation. New technologies or paradigms such as mobility become central in the change of focus from teaching to learning, from being told what you should know to being able to decide what you would like to know, and learning from when you pick your tablet up….. To when you next pick it up wherever you may be …. [Would some like to elaborate on the second last item, - Tablet PC]

43 Theoretical Perspectives of Social MediaUniversities no longer the gatekeepers of knowledge but of certification and experience The modern educators’ challenge is threefold: Teach students how to learn in an information economy Teach students how to contribute to communities in ways that will enhance their reputation and improve those communities and To relate to students as co-creators and guides rather than as traditional figures of distant authority. My final slide …..(1) Universities are no longer the gatekeepers of knowledge but rather of certification and experience. This is a very profound statement and takes a lot for us to realise that the environment in which we work has only one guarantee and that is: It will change. The (2) modern educator challenge is three-fold. (3) Number One-Teach students how to learn in an information economy. (4) Number Two-Teach students how to contribute to communities in ways that will enhance their reputation and improve those communities and (5) Number Three-To relate to students as co-creators and guides rather than as traditional figures of distant authority. In this new world of social media powered learning based education, the requirement for the foundation to be properly structured and provide the correct platform is going to be more important than ever before. If we leave out this critical ingredient in the education formula called social media, we stand the risk of being left behind by the students and the education system as a whole.!! [Now for the final question to win the laptop: Do you think Social Media has this potential and if so why?]

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