Fin de la nuit

One of the blogs I am following talks about students' reactions to tutors using social software... Not all welcome it and some tutors talk of a 'creepy tree house' effect. The blog post has a number of responses (mostly from US tutors) about their positions and their students' reactions. As I only teach mature students on Master's courses, I wonder if the term applies...

I just posted a Bb message about Twitter hashtags to our ELSS tutors. Very kindly they have given their personal tags, although there is also a course tag. In my teaching, I'll probably ask students used a course tag, so that it's easy to locate the contributions. There's also the issue of separate private and professional identity. But then how many tags would I personally need? I can think of two already, just for courses. Best not have one for modules, or I'll be juggling even more virtual id's. And I haven't yet started to use Twitter in earnest...

Lots of interesting thoughts from a fellow teacher: http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/

Recording thoughts about the first steps of a socia media journey is a bit like conducting a virtual reflexive ethnography. An ethnographer is always connected to the object of their research, which is why reflexivity is important. But let's not get all 'postmodern'... I am just thinking about Hine's book on Virtual Ethnography . In the ELSS course, we're asked to reflect on learning, with some of the learning also achieved 'by doing' (using SM) as well as by the traditional reading and online discussions. The course isn't about research, but having to maintain a blog reminds me strongly of my MEd project where I did something similar (but without public access). The 'field site' is the distributed environment (to use R&M's phrase) offering a rich social media ecology (Blogger, Flickr, Blackboard, Twitter and probably other platforms in future). Instead of going to a specific field site (eg Bb), I also followed field connections, eg links...