How Do You Web? Undergraduate Focus Groups for Informing Pedagogy

HOW DO YOU WEB?Undergraduate Focus Groups

for Informing PedagogyDerek Bruff (@derekbruff) & Rhett McDaniel

Center for Teaching (@vandycft)

Vanderbilt University

What can we learn about how our

students use social media (etc.) that

might inform faculty interested in

integrating technology into teaching

and learning?

ECAR Study of

Undergraduate

Students and

Information

Technology

2013

Data!

Someone else’s

Todd Hughes

Frank Wcislo

The CFT’s 25th Anniversary Symposium on the Future of Teaching

Data!

Vanderbilt

6 FOCUS GROUPS

35 STUDENTS

a lotOF DATA

Thanks to…

Dan Morrison

Stacey Kizer

Katie Taylor

Jessica Riviere

Courtney Campbell

Adam Wilsman

Nayana Bose

Some Questions…Where is the first place

you go when you boot

up your laptop, tablet, or

other computer?

When you want to learn about

something (in politics, sports,

health, entertainment, etc.),

where online do you go? What do

you do there?Do you engage in any

kind of discussions

online? If so, where

and how do these

discussions occur?

What technologies do you find

useful for your academic work at

Vanderbilt?

Some Answers…

What do students do online outside of What do students do online outside of What do students do online outside of What do students do online outside of

their academic work?their academic work?their academic work?their academic work?

“I just check to see what’s going on. I use

the Facebook chat a lot to talk to people;

friends from school and friends from other

schools.”

“In terms of Facebook, it’s just keeping up

to date with family and friends from home

and that’s what I say for Twitter, too.”



“Also, I feel like I get a lot of news from

Twitter just because I check, like, what’s

trending, like, I found out about when

Whitney Houston died on Twitter…”

“I have an order of things I always check in

every day. [Facebook,] email, news, ESPN,

and then whatever I decide. I go to a bunch

of video sites and check out some funny

videos and then that’s all, really.”



“On my phone I have Google Reader, and I

have an aggregate of RSS feeds for certain

tech blogs and other sites I love. That’s kind

of one of the main things.



“Most frequently I’m on Deviant Art, like,

hands-down. I just love that website…

Literature, poetry, stuff like that. Things

based on books and stuff. And, like, I talk to

a lot of people in there… I know people

from Australia, Germany, the Netherlands,

different parts of America.”

SIDEBAR: MEMESSIDEBAR: MEMESSIDEBAR: MEMESSIDEBAR: MEMES

Student 1: I may have to explain it, but I make

Memes, occasionally.

Student 2: Oh, God, Memes?

Facilitator: Yeah, explain.

Student 1: It’s --

Student 2: So complicated.

Student 1: It’s, like, yeah. It’s like a -- it’s

kind of like an inside joke. An inside joke

from, like --

Student 3: Of the internet.

Student 1: Basically. And everyone on the

internet can vibe to it.

Student 4: This is so different than Memes that,

like, the definition of Memes in social science;

right?

What do students say about our What do students say about our What do students say about our What do students say about our

course management system?course management system?course management system?course management system?

“It’s just a lot easier when you have access to the

syllabi and your grades and everything in one

place.

“I think every teacher should have to put their

syllabus online because I like have a few teachers

this semester who don’t do it and it’s really

annoying.”

“It’s like the electronic solution for like papers and

stuff, so…you don’t have to print out or worry

about losing it. It’s always on the computer.”



“People are so much more likely to talk

about something in person, on Facebook,

or in email because they’re more

accessible. Like, like those things are

designed to use for communication,

whereas OAK isn’t necessarily designed for

that. And so people are less likely to

communicate through it.”



“I’ve also been in a couple classes that

make small groups within the class,

especially if it’s a big, lecture class. And

they’ll kind of assign you a small group and

they’ll make a group on OAK within the

course and you’ll do assignments together

and you can also share your notes on OAK,

so that’s kind of cool.”

What do students say about other What do students say about other What do students say about other What do students say about other

academic uses of technology?academic uses of technology?academic uses of technology?academic uses of technology?

“I really like using the citations on

Wikipedia because, ya know, if you’re

struggling to find stuff through other

databases, you can go to Wikipedia. You get

a kinda overview of the topic, so you, like,

have a general understanding, and then if

there’s something more specific that you

know you’re gonna write about the topic,

it’ll list a set of sources.”

What do students say about other What do students say about other What do students say about other What do students say about other

academic uses of technology?academic uses of technology?academic uses of technology?academic uses of technology?

“I really like when the professors use

PowerPoint in class. I don’t think it’s

necessary for them to put all the notes in

the PowerPoint because then it kind of

defeats the purpose of paying attention.

You’re just going to write it all down. But if

there’s really no visual aid and it’s just

them talking I know a lot of people tend to

zone out.”

How do students talk about social How do students talk about social How do students talk about social How do students talk about social

media ∩ academic work?media ∩ academic work?media ∩ academic work?media ∩ academic work?

Social Academic

???



“Yeah, I feel like Facebook’s more -- especially

since the advent of Timeline -- it’s, like, this is my

entire life and it’s out there and we’re just going

to merge it with the classroom? So it’s just, kind

of like, wait, wait. Back up a little bit..”

“Yeah, I’d worry it would be a little too invasive. I

know a lot of my friends have their Twitters

protected, too. So, creating a separate account

would be pretty easy.”



“Like, we’re not friends, they just give me a

grade.”

Social Academic

So how might faculty use social media So how might faculty use social media So how might faculty use social media So how might faculty use social media

(etc.) to support learning?(etc.) to support learning?(etc.) to support learning?(etc.) to support learning?

“If you had a site that was specifically, like, ‘here’s

help with homework’ and it’s formatted so that it’s

really easy to use… like Twitter feeds where it can

just pop up and, ya know, hey, someone just

posted about this question in class. And you could

tag, like, what [question] number you’re working

on... I think that could be really helpful, but I

would think that it would almost have to be

something that isn’t in use now..”

So how So how So how So how might faculty use social media might faculty use social media might faculty use social media might faculty use social media


“I don’t know if I tweet a lot, but I look at other

Tweets, and I think that could be kind of

interesting for a class that maybe has some kind

of project if they used Twitter for it. And I do know

classes that do that. If they have a final project

and they’re promoting it, and they’re trying to get

advertising for it they’ll use Twitter. But I think that

would be cool in other classes to kind of expand

that.”

So how So how So how So how might faculty use social media might faculty use social media might faculty use social media might faculty use social media


“Now, if you altered OAK to be more blog-

like… If it were just, like, a blog that you

went through, that might be a little bit more

accessible, you know. Because the nice

thing about OAK is that all of your classes

are in one place. So if you could access all

of, like, theoretical class blogs in one place,

that would be really nice, but -- I don’t

know.”

THINKTHINKTHINKTHINK----PAIRPAIRPAIRPAIR----SHARESHARESHARESHARE

Given the perspectives shared by these

students, what advice would you give to a

faculty member interested in integrating

technology in their teaching?

Derek Bruff: [email protected]

Rhett McDaniel: [email protected]

Vanderbilt Center for Teaching: cft.vanderbilt.edu

Meme featuring Mike Caulfield, courtesy Amy Collier

How Do You Web? Undergraduate Focus Groups for Informing Pedagogy

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