Twitter as Scholarship: How Not To Get Fired (Much)
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Transcript of Twitter as Scholarship: How Not To Get Fired (Much)
TWITTER AS SCHOLARSHIP How Not To Get Fired(much)
BONNIE STEWART @bonstewart University of Prince Edward Island, Canada LaTrobe University, October 2016
http://xkcd.com/802/
Prince Edward Island?
WINTER IS COMING
APRIL 2015. ew.
How did I get here?
Open networked scholarship
ACADEMIC TWITTER
scholarship what people had for lunch
TIMESTAMP:
2013
Rise of hashtag activism…
TIMESTAMP:
2014
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Michael_Brown#/media/File:Memorial_to_Michael_Brown.jpg
+ ‘Callout culture’
+ backlash & rise of alt/right
https://mobile.twitter.com/cartoon_neuron/status/618385493227642880
+ increasing institutionalization of social media
= increased perception of professional RISK
There are a lot of shuttered academic Twitter accounts.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/duncan/3753886017/
This lens of risk isn’t wrong… but it’s not the whole picture.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/the4mahers/6802850117/
So… HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING & LOVE THE TWITTERZ
Understanding the intersections between networked & academic premises is the
KEY to value & safe(ish) use
https://www.flickr.com/photos/28537647@N06/2887726958/
The work of two 20th century thinkers helped me understand Twitter as 21st century scholarship …and think about how to use it.
1. Boyer: Networked practices as SCHOLARSHIP
¤ Scholarship of discovery
¤ Scholarship of integration
¤ Scholarship of application
¤ Scholarship of teaching
!
(Boyer, 1990)
Academia & social media are both reputational economies
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8113246@N02/7932198032
We are trained & acculturated to SIGNALS of scholarly excellence
https://www.flickr.com/photos/126451798@N05/15076855933/
Those within the academy become very skilled at judging the stuff of
reputations. Where has the person’s work been published, what claims
of priority in discovery have they established, how often have they been cited, how and where reviewed, what prizes won, what institutional ties
earned, what organizations led?
(Willinsky, 2010)
Enter…knowledge abundance
https://www.flickr.com/photos/piper/19904408
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jaredzimmerman/15728149611/
The gates are open
https://www.flickr.com/photos/vince2012/14557320666/
Structure of abundance = networks
https://plus.google.com/+DaveGray/posts/CQRVeKEsUvFpid=5751686447270321954&oid=117373186752666867801
Networked publics: many-to-many signals
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/it/thumb/d/d8/Do_Not_Adjust_Your_Set.jpg/280px-Do_Not_Adjust_Your_Set.jpg
…Like a party line with multiple private/public options
https://www.flickr.com/photos/94342662@N00/3869483214/
capacity to contribute to
“The Conversation”
scale of visibility
common interests & disciplines
shared ties
Network signals do similar work…more openly
Factors contributing
to perceived
influence & value in
academic Twitter –
Stewart, 2015
MY STORY: My local cohort, Ph.D year 2
Me, studying networks & education V, 6hrs away,
studying music ed
Z, working 1hr away, studying leadership in ed
Twitter = a cohort without borders
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bswise/4457290211/
Many-to-many signals = global communities of practice
& mentorship
Benefits as thinker: just-in-time choral conversation
Benefits as learner: support & care
Benefits as writer: crowdsourcing
Benefits as teacher: opportunities to connect students to real audiences
Benefits as scholar: connection to leaders
+ expansion of audience
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tattoodjay/4129779298/
+ opportunity. Thanks to many-to-many communications on Twitter.
Academic Twitter = a scholarship of abundance
https://www.flickr.com/photos/92998734@N03/8466586880/
(sometimes change is good.)
Great. But what about when open, networked signals don’t feel good?
And don’t feel like scholarship?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/edenpictures/14399024753
2. Ong: The CULTURE of an environment is shaped by its communications medium
Oral Tradition
¤ Participatory
¤ Situational
¤ Social
¤ Formulaic
¤ Agonistic
¤ Rhetorical
…sound kinda like Twitter?
Literate Tradition
¤ Interiorized
¤ Abstracted
¤ Innovative
¤ Precise
¤ Analytic
¤ Indexical
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letterpress_printing#/media/File:The_Caxton_Celebration_-_William_Caxton_showing_specimens_of_his_printing_to_King_Edward_IV_and_his_Queen.jpg
Academia is the instantiation of what Ong calls ‘high literacy.’
…sound kinda like academia?
Ong’s secondary orality + secondary literacy
“The network message from one person to another / others is very rapid and can in effect be in the present…
textualized verbal exchange registers psychologically as having the temporal immediacy of oral exchange.”
(Ong, 1996)
Speech-based expectations
Call-out Culture = Collapsed Publics
Print-based interpretations
The ORALITY of Twitter – which demands ongoing participation,
performativity beyond rank, casual sociality, & a different type
of conflict – creates challenges.
Challenge: context collapse (Wesch, 2009; boyd, 2011)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dress_code
Challenge: virality
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21031300@N02/4076687726/
Challenge: permanence
Challenge: the ‘comments section’
Challenge: differential identity reception & targeting
Challenge: predatory labour masked as “exposure”
(Okay, *that* one’s a lot like academia)
How can we navigate Twitter in a way that contributes to our scholarship & humanity, rather than risking either?
*assuming Twitter continues to exist*
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tmesis/21126825/
Remember, the internet is people. Who read signals.
To start signaling, build an identity
You need to work on your identity before it will work for you.
Figure out who you want to signal to.
¤ #phdchat
¤ #edchat
¤ #ECRchat
¤ #ScholarSunday
¤ #GetYourManuscriptOut
¤ #acwri
¤ #SaturdaySchool
¤ #highered
¤ #digped
¤ #WithaPhD
¤ #science
Connect: #s help you find people with shared interests
#
Share. Your work AND that of others. Cite & credit people.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanr/142455033/
Be patient. Be friendly. Be part of the conversation.
Believe in the value of your contribution.
Twitter can help your scholarship become many-to-many
scholarship
https://www.flickr.com/photos/122135325@N06/15117809516/in/dateposted/
But to succeed AND not get fired, it helps to remember:
BE HONEST
Always do a ‘shoulder check.’
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ooocha/2632434274/sizes/z/in/photostream/
Institutions are made of people too
Don’t expect a soapbox
Don’t confuse your free speech with your privilege
Don’t aim to be HUGE
Don’t push to tie open networked scholarship TO academic
reward systems
https://www.flickr.com/photos/51764518@N02/9763729373/
You can inhabit both worlds – the academic & the networked
– at the same time, to the benefit of both.