Posts Tagged by social networks
Social Media and Education
| June 5, 2012 | Posted by M. P. under Education, Technology |
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If you are interested in the impact of social media upon student learning, check out the paper How Blogs, Social Media, and Video Games Improve Education by Darrell M. West (Vice President and Director of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institute) that discusses the positive impacts of new media, Web 2.0 and even interactive gaming on individual learning and the collective classroom experience.
The rise of digital media (and all the nifty tools it has brought us) have lead to increased communication and ease of information dissemination among groups, resulting in a lesser role of the traditional subject expert. The expert is no longer the gatekeeper to a topic area as enormous amounts of data from legitimate sources are just a few quick keystrokes away for nearly any of us with an internet connection. Granted, nowadays s/he could just start a blog and be right back in the running as “expert”. Web 2.0 laid the groundwork for the challenge to traditional hierarchical communication in organizations, with some of the more innovative companies creating in-house social media platforms to enhance and encourage collaborative communication among staff. Is the classroom next?
Will the current generation growing up using peer-to-peer learning and crowd sourcing (albeit informally) on a daily basis truly learn in a traditional classroom? How can social media and networking platforms be used to enhance learning at all ages?
Social Media as a Component of Recovery
| May 25, 2012 | Posted by M. P. under Behavorial Health, Drug and Alcohol, Program Model, Technology, Youth Development |
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Last year, the report from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, the National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XVI: Teens and Parents, suggested a link between regular use of social media and drug and alcohol use among teenagers. Researchers found that teens who used social media as part of their daily routine were more apt to use tobacco (10 percent compared to two percent), alcohol (26 percent compared to nine percent) and marijuana (13 percent compared seven percent). This data could be used to classify social media itself a risk factor for youth substance use, although a more nuanced view of the correlation may view it as another avenue of media messaging and peer interaction, rife with the potential for positive or negative outcomes.
A paper recently presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association focused on this duality in reporting preliminary findings on the potential of social media to influence drug and alcohol use in adolescents and teenagers. Survey data from the small sample of youth in substance abuse treatment showed the majority (66 percent) reporting that social media content regarding drugs stimulated their desire to use them. However, less than ¼ of the sample had accessed or posted content on Facebook or related social networking sites related to recovery or sobriety – a telling gap in the use of social media to promote and facilitate recovery.
Youth drug treatment programs must move to harness the power of social networking and digital media as a part of the recovery process and culture – innovative use of technology in the behavioral health and social service sectors should not be limited to donor cultivation and marketing.
Most Tweets Judged Unreadable. Do You Care?
| February 10, 2012 | Posted by M. P. under Management, News, Research, Technology |
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If you are attune to the social media blogs I am sure you have read the findings from the Carnegie Mellon study that state only about 36 percent of tweets are worthy of being read. According to data gathered via their website, researchers from the aforementioned Pittsburgh university as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Georgia Institute of Technology, suggest that use of this social media outlet for blanket statements, personal details or to reply to another user diminishes the tweet’s (and the tweeter’s?) worth in the eyes of other users. In fact, data show that one quarter of all tweets are outright unreadable.
I don’t mean to sound snarkish but in the end, all of those supposedly unreadable tweets were read, right?
The plainly meant-to-drain-the-blood-from-the-faces-of-communications-professionals-everywhere bottom line of the study is that most tweets are lacking, somehow. Well, I can only speak for my simple Twitter-using self but thank goodness for that! If the majority of tweets were highly rated my stream might read, “refinance Youtube hotel consolidation fares Facebook student loans kittens porn” because apparently that is what a good chunk of internet users are interested in of late (or perhaps for always, SEO is not my forte).
The authors of the report recommend that Tweeters improve their worth by never revisiting old information, keeping “pedestrian details” to themselves, adding facts to tweets and ending the whines while engaging in lots of teasing. I am hardly a social media guru but I find myself sighing heavily when reading this advice. Luckily, there has already been some decent push-back on the study from people who are social media experts, Kelvin (KC) Claveria and Miranda Miller, who state their cases (here and here) rather eloquently. Personally, I am interested in hearing from nonprofit communication and marketing folk — what are your thoughts on this study?
Will you take these suggested improvements to heart? Do you have specific criteria for what makes a tweet worthy or unworthy? What, in your view, makes a (legitimate, not spambot) tweet unreadable?
Nonprofits and Social Media – No End in Sight
| January 18, 2012 | Posted by M. P. under Management, Philanthropy, Technology |
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Backlash and second-guessing aside, social media use among nonprofits shows no signs of trailing off. In fact, some organizations are taking it to the next level by building their own online communities.
In early 2011, over 11,000 nonprofits participated in a social network usage survey sponsored by NTEN, Common Knowledge and Blackbaud. The respondents were asked about their use of social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Foursquare, etc, as well as their own “house” social networks.
Results of the 2011 Nonprofit Social Networking Benchmark Survey indicate that social media use by nonprofits continues to grow, with 92 percent using at least one public social network (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube). Nearly 90 percent of nonprofits reported having a presence on Facebook, with 57 percent of agencies on Twitter and 47 percent on YouTube. Over half (58 percent) of the nonprofits using social media are measuring their reach and engagement levels, while 9 percent calculate the financial impact.
Nonprofits without a presence on any social network claim a lack of strategy (60 percent), lack of budget (57 percent) and lack of expertise (36 percent) as the top three reasons why they have not yet adopted this marketing/fundraising approach.
The study has loads of interesting data, especially on the use of private social networks – communities hosted on a nonprofit’s own website – with 13 percent of respondents running these “house” networks. Are they the next step in nonprofit online engagement? Copies of the report are available for download at the survey website.
Access to Technology Builds More than Computer Skills
| January 9, 2012 | Posted by M. P. under Program Model, Research, Technology, Youth Development |
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Research on the racial digital divide, or the difference in access to computers and/or Internet connectivity between White and non-White young people, gave rise to the creation of Community Technology Centers (CTC), places where youth without access to technology could learn and practice such skills. Data from a 2009 Pew research study suggested that the expansion of handheld wireless devices for communication and connectivity did much to shrink the disparity, though others point out that such devices only have a limited impact. However, researchers studying the linkages between CTCs and the relationship that CTC participants had with technology found that CTCs had a greater impact on youth development than merely boosting technological knowledge.
The report, The Role of Community Technology Centers in Promoting Youth Development, in the December 2010 edition of Youth and Society suggests that CTCs not only serve as a key access point to technology for youth in disadvantaged areas but also encourage (and result in) positive outcomes outside the realm of technological skill-building, including:
- building social capital – relationship-building and strengthening or creating networks with peers as well as adults in the larger community;
- giving youth a voice – telling their own story through written and visual digital methods; and
- encouraging and facilitating engagement both inside the community and with the outside world.
These findings serve to remind me that access to technology for youth (and really, everyone) is not merely about games, cool apps and other bells and whistles, but about the sharing of information, bridging gaps, and widening networks. It is easy to opine that technology merely strengthens relationships that were initiated “the old fashioned way” – through face-to-face meetings – but if you locked up your wireless devices and desktop(s) for a month, while continuing the rest of your daily routine, what would be your experience around social capital, story-telling and/or level of engagement? Would losing your access to computers or the Internet result in an overall loss, gain, or no change?
Article citation:
London,Rebecca A., Manuel Pastor, Jr., Lisa J. Servon, Rachel Rosner and Antwuan Wallace. The Role of Community Technology Centers in Promoting Youth Development, in Youth and Society. Youth Society December 2010 vol. 42 no. 2 199-228.
Originally published online 23 November 2009. The online version of this article can be found at:DOI: 10.1177/0044118X09351278
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