Users experience of e-learning panel ie not student strangely

Pat Parslw, Terry wassell, Lindsey Martin were co-opted

Lindsey: (Edge Hill Uni, Solstice Research Co-ordinator and Learning Services Co-ordinator. Manage ACES LTA type team, and a teacher Info Management) Also a learner MA e-learning (blended model). Challenge is knowing what ed developers take for granted compared with what staff are just clueless about. Talks about primary data on YouTube.
Pat: (he has Bryan Alexander's beard) (Reading) Interested in digital identity and the idea of self and collaboration. Interested in how identities can be extracted from Web 2.0 interactions. RedGloo is a Soc Net site they've built based on Elgg. Using it instead of the inst. Bb provision in geeky engineering software. He says that 30% of self-organising students prefer Facebook as a VLE.
Terry: (Leeds Uni) Teaching fellow Sociology. Boddington champion at Leeds. Staff dev role. He feels there has been a significant shift for him with Web 2.0: extended and dispersed learning system. Learning with and from the edublogosphere. Creating a paper on Twitter with colleaague in Florida who he hasn't met yet. Democratising. He notices changing in the way he writes. Leeds have an Elgg called Leeds Blogs - a soc net (for staff and studs?). Uses Facebook and Twitter continuously. Fe has never befriended a student in Fb and wouldn't but he has subsequently met them in the corridor - they wouldn't email him but are more relaxed by establishing contact in Fb because the hierarchy is different (power base?). "A more neutral territory." "Another channel of comms" They spend a lot of time there so perhaps it's realistic to be available there?
----Questions for panel---
Q1 Do you see a difference between yourself and younger/older people? Can co-exist but don't have to engage with them in soc nets. There is a separation of user contexts that's more important than age (I've heard several people make this point). Fb is a place for general stuff - but occasionally a dilema when academic networks appear (eg what photo/username do you use to represent yourself across all your contexts?); Pat has multiple Fb identities; need to be clear about what 'integration' means - eg "I can use Google Docs, but I don't need technical integration." Integration through what you do rather than expect the institution to provide.
Q2 Should inst. say all staff should have a Fb presence because you have said there are benefits to inst? (strange q) Terry: No. My use was emergent. I did it to find out about alumni and it's grown. Pat: Some studs need/love it, some don't so you could never see it as a key provision or requirement; Lindsey: a lot of academics are anti Fb.
Q3 why did you build RedGloo Pat? Some students just weren't interacting. It's been running about 3 years. It has led to RL socialisation for a small number of people. It doesn't cost anything. If it keeps just 2 people a year from dropping out it's got to be worth it.
Q4: Has Fb improved your teaching? Pat: yes, because students communicate. Using email 'disturbs the target person. (perception for some)' Fb etc provides a lighter, more equal, communication tool.
Q5: How do you handle criticism of staff in soc nets? Terry: Every customer complaint is an opportunity to sell them something (or learn something at least); academic staff can come across as a bit more human (and vice versa!) - it's democratising.
Q6: Email used to be perceived as informal and familiar. Do the new soc nets take that familiarity a stage even further and is that useful? Email is for older people (perception) and used when you need to recognise the authority/hierarchy; also more private. Lindsey: it's important for us to understand the formality of the various genres of comms technologies - it's a DF issue. Terry: and it's important to know eg Reply to All syndrome.
Q7: Should insts provide versions of Web 2.0 tools? Terry: wiki and blogging tools in VLEs aren't very good and don't compare well with outside world. They need to migrate stuff and skills beyond the inst VLE. Pat: I'd like to see tools better integrated into inst services, but it's not going to happen; Lindsey: all these pockets of tools out there offer a very inconsistent student experience (I disagree: isn't that the Real World and Web 2.0? Consistency is a romantic notion of the past!!!)
"Email is where information goes to die"