I have taught social media since 2006 when our Clonmel cohort represented 30 of the first 150 Irish on Twitter. Every semester I try to amp up our results and this year our focus should result in a playbook others might enjoy using.
I started the programme by reviewing dozens of eureka moments, beginner's mistakes and shortcuts shared by 45 strength and conditioning students who shared their observations on a co-authored slide deck. Another of their co-authored presentations appears below.
Co-authoring is a social skill. We co-author online Powerpoint assets in the five third level modules I teach. First up this year: Social Media Profiles. Its slides will offer names, taglines, images and hyperlinks.
In the current social media module at LIT.ie, students must hit targets on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Trip Advisor and LinkedIn. They quickly learn how to optimize their workflow through the clever use of smartphone apps. I can point to six-in-one apps that work with Windows Phone and that indicates similar apps are available for both iOS and Android.
The only people left wanting in this scenario are feature phone owners. One in 20 students are financially limited to feature phones. However, the social media module started with desktop usage and the syllabus timelines reflect that input option.
As I embark on this new dawn of third level social media training I have three upper objectives.
1. Ensure students can think in terms of memes and community ethnographic language appropriate to specific communities of practice.
2. Encourage students to dissect complex ideas into contextual tags, short phrases, two minute treatments and 1200 word coverage.
3. Streamline my own assessment routine so I truly achieve fortnightly marking of assigned tasks.
Stay tuned if you want to follow my journey as a third level social media lecturer.
[Bernie Goldbach is the senior pilot and elder blogger in the twilight years of teaching at the Limerick School of Art and Design. He sent this blog item from his Windows Phone.]
