From Connecting to Learning: The Power of Social Media in Community building and development in HE
By Hala Mansour. 12.01.2023
Social media has had a significant impact on community building, both positively and negatively.
On the positive side, social media has made it easier for people to connect with others who share similar interests and values. This has led to the formation of virtual communities, where people can come together to share ideas, information, and care. Social media platforms also provide a space for underrepresented communities to connect and find support, which may be difficult to find in physical communities.
Social media also allows people to easily organise and coordinate movements and to advocate change, which can have a powerful impact on community building. On the negative side, social media can also have negative effects on community building. One issue is that social media can foster a sense of isolation and more dangerously share negative and hate energy. Additionally, social media can create an ‘ iron cage’ toward opinions that align with their own, which can lead to a lack of exposure to diverse perspectives and opinions, and a lack of understanding of different communities.
Social media can have a significant impact on community building in supporting learning to different stakeholders in the Higher Education Sector. It is important to consider the potential effects and use social media in a responsible way that supports and respects diverse communities.
Therefore, The Social Media for Learning in Higher Education Conference @SocMedHE #SocMedHE22 took place at Waterside Campus, The University of Northampton, on Tuesday, December 20th, 2022 on the theme of: ‘The role of social media in community building and development in higher education’.
This conference has a reputation for being an overarching, inclusive community and for welcoming submissions from students, academic and support services that showcase and exchange knowledge about community building and development in HE. It particularly welcomes collaborative staff and student presentations that demonstrate approaches which enhance building a community of practice to support moves forward in career enhancement. This year the conference also launched CARE@HE, a community of practice to support all those interested in career progression in higher education.
The keynote speech was given by Professor Anne Marie Kilday, @AM_Kilday, Vice Chancellor of the University of Northampton, @UniNorthants on “Why I am a Teacher”.
The conference received more than 30 contributions for presentations from UK and international delegates. Here are some of the highlights:
- Teresa MacKinnon, @warwicklanguage led a workshop titled ‘Connecting and evidencing your professional development using open badges: realising potential’.
- Mike Bass, @mbass42 gave a discussion about discord and its role in supporting first generation students.
- Simon Horrocks, @Horrocks_Simon shared his thoughts on a topic about ‘Public Sphere for Public Health: Twitter as a Space for Communal Learning and Teaching During the Pandemic’.
- Lisa Garwood Cross, @lgarwoodcross; Matthew Wynn, @MatthewWynn96; Dr Cristina Vasilica, @cristinavas; Neil Withnell, @neilwithnell; and Karolina Staniecka, @karolinaviolet co-presented as staff and students on the topic of ‘Developing students’ digital proficiencies to disseminate information on social media’.
- Sue Beckingham, @suebecks; Suzanne Faulkner, @SfaulknerPandO; Deb Baff, @debbaff; and Dawne Irving Bell, @belld17 contributed on a paper called ‘A Community Smash Up: How to co-create an interactive ‘Social Media for Learning’ resource’.
There were many more papers from national and international colleagues, which you can find the in full programme with the abstracts here: Final SocMedHE 22.pdf You can also find a selection of tweets from the day collated by Alex Spiers, @AlexGSpiers here Social Media in Higher Education 2022 – Wakelet
The University of Northampton also highlighted a story about the conference which can be seen via this link #SocMedHE22: National Higher Education conference lands at Waterside (northampton.ac.uk)
Feedback about the conference was very positive. For example, one participant wrote that:
‘It was wonderful attending an in-person conference again with opportunities to network throughout the day. I very much enjoyed the campus tour prior to the event. The programme was filled with a rich collection of presentations and workshops, and it was hard to choose which session to go to. Finally, it was wonderful to be present for the official launch of Care@HE’.
Thank you to the Social Media in Higher Education Conference steering group:
Deb Baff, Sue Beckingham, Rachel Challen, Suzanne Faulkner, Sarah Hallam, Sarah Honeychurch, Simon Horrocks, Dawne Irving Bell, Alex Spiers, Scott Turner, Neil Withnell, and David Wooff.
Thank you to all who supported the conference at the university of Northampton.
Nick Allen, Kathleen Mortimer , Sally Laurie , Louise Atkinson , Jean Egbegi , Gosia Plotka- Adeboye Dada, Haley Morris-Cafiero, Lorna Jowett, Deborah Babalola, Ian Hall, Gill Gourlay, Shaowei He, Tracy Brockton, Claudia Shuttleworth, Debbie Christopher, Lauren Griffin and Sally Parr.
Thank you to Karen Jones, Dean of The Faculty of Business and Law and to Chris Powis, Director of Library & Learning Services, The University of Northampton.
The organising team is now arranging for a special issue from the conference which will be published later this year in the Journal of Social Media for Learning. Presenters can find details of how and what to submit in this Google Doc Call for submissions for Special Issue of JSML for SocMedHE22