Learning on the Move
Using Social Media for Research & Finding Your Voice
Social Media & Research
Encourage students to use social media to conduct research using Twitter, Skype, and Google Hangouts. Students can post research questions and ask users to contribute resources, engage in a discussion, or answer search questions. Students can brainstorm research questions, and consider which experts to reach out to via social media.
Students can brainstorm appropriate hashtags and search for experts in the field to direct research questions to to assist in the inquiry process.
Skype
Use Skype or Skype in Education to reach out to experts in field that students are researching. Students can connect with professors, experts, museums or news organizations to interview and locate resources.
Google Hangout
Use Google Hangout to reach out to experts in field that students are researching. Students can connect with professors, experts, museums or news organizations to interview and locate resources.
Social Media & Curation
When researching, one task that is often overlooked is how students will curate, or save, resources. There are a variety of social media tools that allow students to not only save their resources, bu also share with their collaborative partners.
Students can create individual Pinterest boards to save research resources or add them to the class boards.
Pearltree
Pearltree will allow you to organize, share, and explore interests and research topics. Pearltree allows you to organization topics conceptually to align with a student researcher's thinking. Students can add pictures, website links, and videos.
Diigo
Diigo is a social bookmarking site that will allow your students to share resources for research. Students can attach sticky notes to begin to synthesize your thinking.
Social Media & Voice
Social Media cannot only only students to interact with others to hear their point of view, but they can always develop their own. Facebook, Twitter, and Edmodo can allow students interact with others regarding a topic and as their learning grows they can develop their own voice.
Post research questions to class Facebook account to teach point of view and allow students to engage in discussion to develop their voice.
Edmodo
Post research questions to class Edmodo to teach point of view and allow students to engage in discussion to develop their voice. Edmodo is a closed network where students can discuss with class or connect with other classes within Edmodo.
Engage in a Twitter chat regarding a research topic. Develop a hashtag, invite students, teachers, parents and experts to participate in the chat regarding research topic.