Check out new article on Ethics & Social Media

I am excited to share a new article (Akgun & Greenhow) published in AI Ethics which resulted from Selin Akgun’s @SelinAkgun9 work in CEP 956 course: Mind, Media and Learning  @MSU_EPET @MSUCollegeofEd. Check out the open access article and abstract to rethink ethical and societal implications of AI in education!

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a field of study that combines the applications of machine learning, algorithm productions, and natural language processing. Applications of AI transform the tools of education. AI has a variety of educational applications, such as personalized learning platforms to promote students’ learning, automated assessment systems to aid teachers, and facial recognition systems to generate insights about learners’ behaviors. Despite the potential benefits of AI to support students’ learning experiences and teachers’ practices, the ethical and societal drawbacks of these systems are rarely fully considered in K-12 educational contexts. The ethical challenges of AI in education must be identified and introduced to teachers and students. To address these issues, this paper (1) briefly defines AI through the concepts of machine learning and algorithms; (2) introduces applications of AI in educational settings and benefits of AI systems to support students’ learning processes; (3) describes ethical challenges and dilemmas of using AI in education; and (4) addresses the teaching and understanding of AI by providing recommended instructional resources from two providers—i.e., the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Media Lab and Code.org. The article aims to help practitioners reap the benefits and navigate ethical challenges of integrating AI in K-12 classrooms, while also introducing instructional resources that teachers can use to advance K-12 students’ understanding of AI and ethics.

Cite this article

Akgun, S., Greenhow, C. Artificial intelligence in education: Addressing ethical challenges in K-12 settings. AI Ethics (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-021-00096-7

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New Research! Inquiring Tweets Want to Know: #Edchat supports for #RemoteTeaching during COVID‐19

Social media use has spiked around the world during the COVID-19 global pandemic as people reach out for news, information, social connections, and support in their daily lives. Past work on professional learning networks (PLNs) has shown that teachers also use social media to find supports for their teaching and ongoing professional development. This paper offers quantitative analysis of over a half million Twitter #Edchat tweets as well as qualitative content analysis of teachers’ question tweets (n = 1054) and teacher interviews (n = 4). These data and analyses provide evidence of the kinds of supports that teachers in the United States and Canada sought on social media during the rapid transition to emergency remote teaching in Spring 2020 and how these supports informed teaching practices. These results provide insights into PLN theory and teachers’ social media use during times of disruption and crisis. Open access article here: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13097

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New research! Inquiring tweets want to know: #Edchat supports for #RemoteTeaching during COVID‐19 https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjet.13097#.YVnI5xnr3gk.twitter

Citation:
Greenhow, C., Staudt Willet, K.B. & Galvin, S. (2021). Inquiring tweets want to know: #Edchat supports for #remoteteaching during COVID-19. British Journal of Educational Technology, 52(4). https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13097

 

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New! Synthesis of 10+ years of Research on K-12 Teaching and Teacher Learning with Social Media

Social media platforms can play an important role for teaching students. Check out the first comprehensive review (open access) of over 13 years of research on teaching and teacher learning with social media in K-12 education. This review from Michigan State University (@MSUCollegeofEd) researchers and published in Teachers College Record (@tcrecord) can help teachers and instructors think through and execute research-informed practices with social media to enhance traditional in-person or online learning.

This research synthesis found that using social media, students engaged in active learning, self-directed learning, and critical thinking; created deeper interactions between teachers and students (which is so important when classes move online); and expanded learning communities beyond school walls. It’s not surprising since students use social media in almost every other aspect of their lives.

“Due to lack of research synthesis in this field, educators and teachers have had very little guidance on research-informed practices,” Greenhow said. “This has been a problem since a quarter of U.S. teachers surveyed turned to social media to interact with students when the pandemic began and were rapidly required to teach online. This synthesis of will help educational professionals understand how their social media use can help students and support their own rapid learning ­— during the pandemic and beyond.”

The research also showed that through social media, teachers can enhance interactions between students, between students and teachers, and with people and resources outside the classroom. All are important for a student’s sense of belonging in an educational community.

And by using social media themselves, teachers can receive professional benefits through just-in-time teaching-related resources and social or emotional support outside their own school or district, she said.

Greenhow said the research provides an understanding of the impact social media has on teaching and learning, which will help teachers prepare for a combination of in-classroom and online learning likely expected this fall.

“Faced with uncertainty about what form their fall teaching will take, these insights on the advantages of using social media will help teachers address common teaching challenges,” Greenhow said. “The constant challenges of promoting students’ active learning and sense of connection are issues that educators often struggle with, but especially so when they have to turn on a dime to recreate in-person classes online.”

Greenhow’s co-authors are Sarah Galvin and Emilia Askari with MSU and Diana Brandon of Florida State University.

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New Research on How People Learn in Conference Twitter Backchannels!

As new technologies shape and are shaped by human practices, educators and researchers must consider the impact that participating in social media—to access, reflect upon, question, evaluate and disseminate scholarship—is having on their professional development and practices. This paper investigates how members of the educational research community use social media to advance professional learning and scholarship dissemination in online–offline networks. Specifically, we examine whether and how participating in the microblogging service, Twitter, as a conference backchannel, facilitated professional learning and participation in the annual meetings of American educational researchers in 2012 and 2016, respectively, and the nature of that participation. Insights from this paper will benefit educators of varying disciplines and experience levels interested in the changing nature of social media in education, scholarship, and professional learning ecologies.

Citation: Greenhow, C., Li, J. & Mai, M. (2019). Social scholars: Learning through tweeting in the academic conference backchannel. British Journal of Educational Technology. DOI: 10.1111/bjet.12817

(Direct link here: https://rdcu.be/bCT5J)

Sample Tweet: From tweeting to meeting: Expansive professional learning and the academic conference backchannel by @chrisgreenhow @jiahang_li @minhtuyen – British Journal of Educational Technology – Wiley Online Library https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjet.12817#.XOAnotAys9k.twitter

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Chris (@chrisgreenhow)
Jiahang (@jiahang_li)
Minh (@minhtuyen)

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New Open Access Pub! Citizen-Scholars: Social Media and the Changing Nature of Scholarship #MSUepet

Research is rarely created for private use; researchers publish their work so that others can read and use it, to advance the collective understanding of a field and impact people’s lives. Yet traditional approaches to scholarship, which emphasize publication in subscription-based rather than open access journals, inhibit not only the dissemination of research but also its usefulness, particularly outside of academia. Across all fields, scholars, educators, and members of the public benefit from scholarship which is easily accessible. Open science and public, social scholarship can break down these barriers to accessibility and utility. In this age which calls for a more informed citizenry, the use of social media to share and promote discussion of research could change not only the nature of scholarly communication but also the nature of scholarship and scholars’ roles. In this conceptual article, we argue that practicing public, social scholarship and increasing the use of social media to promote scholarship are the civic responsibility of citizen-scholars, so that research becomes more widely accessible, shareable, and usable in the public sphere. View Full-Text

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).

Citizen-Scholars: Social Media and the Changing Nature of Scholarship http://www.mdpi.com/405184 @MDPIOpenAccess #mdpipublications

Citation: Chapman, A.L.; Greenhow, C. Citizen-Scholars: Social Media and the Changing Nature of Scholarship. Publications 20197, 11.

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New Publication! Professors share their journey from PhD to Job

For PhD students and new faculty everywhere!

In Dignity of the Calling: Educators Share the Beginnings of Their Journeys (2018), edited by Dr. Andrew Kemp, faculty share their stories from PhD to entry into higher education. These stories focus on the deeply personal nature of the new academic. Framed around the idea that life experience guides what we do, this collection of memoirs, recollections, and personal narratives allows the reader to share these lived experiences.

  • CONTENTS
    • Foreword—Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? William Ayers.
    • Introduction—Imposter: A Postmodern Reflection on Life, Higher Education, and Authenticity, Andrew T. Kemp.
  • SECTION I: TRANSFORMATIONAL SCHOLARS.
    • Teaching and the Neverending Story: Some Reflections on My Reflections, Peter McLaren.
    • Toward Becoming a University Professor Who Teaches Education: Some Note for Possible Deliberation, O.L. Davis, Jr.
    • My Life in an Evolving University, Marcella L. Kysilka.
    • Reflections on Reward and the Hidden Curriculum of Academe, William H. Schubert.
  • VIGNETTES I: JOURNEYS OF TIMES AND SPACEChristine Greenhow (Check out my story on telecommuting as an academic), Alison G. Dover, Lisa Brown Buchanan, Comfort Ateh, Scott Farver, Angela W. Webb, Richelle Marynowski, and Seungho Moon. 
  • VIGNETTES II: JOURNEYS OF PERSPECTIVEJosé Rios, Byung-In Seo, Cassandra Trousas, Jennifer Hall, Mahauganee D. Shaw Bonds, Nancy Arrington, Meg White, Natasha Veale, and Jessica A. Heybach.
  • SECTION II: CONTEMPORARY SCHOLARS.
    • Strange Roads Are the Easiest Roads: Academic Journeys of the 21st Century, David Callejo Perez.
    • First Year Lessons: Striving for Imperfection, David Flinders.
    • Telephone Books, Teddy Bears, and the Tenure Track, Brian D. Schultz.
  • VIGNETTES III: DISCOVERING A PLACE: A JOURNEYAllyson L. Watson, Misty M. Kirby, Veena Paliwal, Joe Norris, Patricia Sánchez, John A. Cassell, Ritesh Shah, Mandy Stewart, Kenneth J. Fasching-Varner, Lucila T. Rudge, and Sabrina Ross.
  • VIGNETTES IV: JOURNEYS OF THE SELFRoxanne Greitz Miller, Lisa L. Beymer, Chad Everett Allan, Wendy Bollag, Marc Pietrzykowski, Lauren Madden, Edward Podsiadlik and John Bond, Cathy Smeltzer Erb,Regina Murphy, Kristan Venegas and Araceli Espinoza, and Nosisi N. Feza.
  • SECTION III: EMERGING SCHOLARS.
    • From Oz to Reality: A Personal Journey in a Wonderful Land, William L. White.
    • What’s Love Got to Do With It? Explorations on Emotion as a Tool for Professional Growth and Transformation, Samara Dawn Akpovo and Cynthia B. Dillard.
    • Out to Save the World, Dana L. Haraway.
    • The Road to Somewhere: The Passing and Evolution of an Academic, C. Steven Page.
    • A Doctorate, a Baby, and a Professorship—Oh My! It’s All About Perspective, Erin Evans.
    • Humanizing the Tenure Process: Toward a Pedagogy of Heart, Lilia D. Monzó.
    • Origins and Payment Forward: Reflections on My Path to Social Justice Education and Advice to New Faculty, Joseph Flynn.
  • VIGNETTES V: TRAVELING COMPANIONSNatasha S. Reid and Patricia J. Spafford, Travis York and Tiffanie Lewis, Kate Newburgh
    and Paul Michalec, Farveh Ghafouri, Monica McGlynn Stewart, and Shelley Murphy, Chris Carger, Michelle Gimenez Hinkle, David A. Fuentes, Ellen Pozzi, and Manina Urgolo-Huckvale, Paige M. Bray and Regina Miller, Shelley B. Harris, Rebecca West Burns, Jeffrey S. Kaplan and Elsie L. Olan.
  • VIGNETTES VI: AN ACADEMIC TRAVEL GUIDEEve R. Bernstein, Randall Deppensmith, Marcus Roberts and Ryan Silva, Laquore J. Meadows, Betina Hsieh, Jason Paul Siko, Erika C.Bullock and Christopher C. Jett, Ellis Hurd, Ismael Flores Martí,and Nancy P. Gallavan.
    The Curriculum I Am/We Are, Andrew T. Kemp (I am) and C. Steven Page (We are). The Travelers.


WHERE TO BUY:
It is available to order on the publisher’s website https://www.infoagepub.com/products/DignityoftheCalling and on Amazon and on all major online retailer sites throughout the world. The book will be/is available as an eBook on Google, Apple, as well as over 25 other online outlets.

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You’re Invited: #Cloud2Class Social Media in Education Conference Online (Oct 29-30, 2018)

Are you interested in learning, teaching and policy issues related to social media in education? If so, we invite you to participate via a streaming zoom session in #Cloud2Class: Exploring the Disruption and Reorganization of Educational Resources in the Age of Social Media Conference, which will be held at Michigan State University on October 29-30, 2018. Our goal for this event is to bring together a group of regional, national and international thought leaders to brainstorm the future direction of education in the age of social media and facilitate collaboration and an exchange of ideas among a diverse group of leaders.  We hope can attend some or all of this exciting event remotely! All you need to do is RSVP here.   Tweet with the hashtag: #cloud2class

Conference overview. Today, one-third of the world’s population use social media to find other people and resources for real-time information and connection across geographical, cultural and economic borders. In this growing social media space educational researchers, policymakers, administrators, teachers and others must better understand how to leverage online communities, communication, and collaboration. Those engaged in the work of education must bridge cloud to class, developing “network literacy” across physical schoolhouse boundaries, advancing professional knowledge, and distributing quality instructional resources within changing organizational contexts. This conference convenes an international, interdisciplinary group of influential researchers, policymakers and practitioners to create a research agenda in five key areas toward advancing understanding of the educational activities happening within and around social media, their connection to classroom and school practices, and their impact on teaching, learning, and school improvement efforts and policies.

We anticipate many positive outcomes from this event, including two special issues in premier journals: American Journal of Education and Teachers College Record.  This will consist of a collection of published articles and critical commentaries from various participants/stakeholders that are disseminated through traditional and new channels, including a social media campaign, #Cloud2Class.

Additionally, we hope that the conference will provide participants with the opportunity to form new partnerships and collaborate on a variety of projects.

The #Cloud2Class Conference schedule and information for remote participation is available on the conference website (www.2018miniconference.wordpress.com).

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2018 Teacher-Scholar Award from Michigan State University

During the February 2018 All-University Awards, Associate Professor Christine Greenhow was recognized with a Teacher-Scholar Award by Michigan State University.

Greenhow is one of six faculty selected through a university-wide competition. The annual honor celebrates faculty early in their careers who have demonstrated excellence in scholarship and teaching, with effective tNew award from Michigan State Universityeaching approaches closely linked to and informed by their research. Greenhow is the 26th person in the College of Education and the 10th faculty member in her department to win this award in its 33-year history. The award is supported by the Office of University Development.

Read more here. 

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Education and Social Media Book – Available on Amazon & MIT Press!

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Summary

Leading scholars from a variety of disciplines explore the future of education, including social media usage, new norms of knowledge, privacy, copyright, and MOOCs.

How are widely popular social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram transforming how teachers teach, how kids learn, and the very foundations of education? What controversies surround the integration of social media in students’ lives? The past decade has brought increased access to new media, and with this new opportunities and challenges for education. In this book, leading scholars from education, law, communications, sociology, and cultural studies explore the digital transformation now taking place in a variety of educational contexts. The contributors examine such topics as social media usage in schools, online youth communities, and distance learning in developing countries; the disruption of existing educational models of how knowledge is created and shared; privacy; accreditation; and the tension between the new ease of sharing and copyright laws. Case studies examine teaching media in K–12 schools and at universities; tuition-free, open education powered by social media, as practiced by the University of the People; new financial models for higher education; the benefits and challenges of MOOCS (Massive Open Online Courses); social media and teacher education; and the civic and individual advantages of teens’ participatory play.

Contributors Colin Agur, Jack M. Balkin, Valerie Belair-Gagnon, danah boyd, Nicholas Bramble, David Buckingham, Chris Dede, Benjamin Gleason, Christine Greenhow, Daniel J. H. Greenwood, Jiahang Li, Yite John Lu, Minhtuyen Mai, John Palfrey, Ri Pierce-Grove, Adam Poppe, Shai Reshef, Julia Sonnevend, Mark Warschauer

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2017 Award for Technology Innovation

How do online technologies shape how we learn, work, play, socialize, and use information?  We sought to explore this question by integrating innovative robot technologies and social media to enhance inclusion and participation in a doctoral seminar. In 2017, our team won Honorable Mention in Michigan State University’s AT&T Awards for Excellence in Technology-enhanced Teaching. Drawing on an interdisciplinary, emerging base of research and students’ experiences, CEP 956: Mind, Media & Learning takes a critical and informed approach to evaluating contemporary online and social media practices for teaching and learning. The course explores the psychology and sociology of new media; media effects and learning with media; issues of identity, literacy, and culture in technologically mediated environments and the reciprocal relationship between educational psychology and educational technology. Most importantly, the course is designed to help students debate current issues and develop their research interests to situate their work in the field.

Aspects of the course that are technology-enhanced: students used robots to mediate discussion; a course website served as a hub to other technologies used (e.g., online discussion forum, D2L gradebook, Twitter); students engaged each other and their instructor via Twitter as a backchannel for the course.

Greenhow sought out robot technology because she had used it to reduce transactional distance in a previous course (i.e., CEP 901 Proseminar), especially among those individuals physically present and those who are online. In partnership with a colleague in the College of Education’s Design Studio (William Cain) and the Accessibility Specialist in the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities (Ginger Martz) along with two ASL interpreters, she sought to investigate students’ experiences of social presence and embodiment in robot- mediated compared to videoconferencing communication in order to understand better how to improve the overall quality of the synchronous class discussion.

Robot technology is being tested as a solution when students are not able to be physically present due to health issues; schools and hospitals are working together so that hospitalized children may be “present” in school classrooms in robotic form (Kristofferson, et al., 2013). In our case, we sought to understand if this technology offered some affordances for hybrid students with auditory disabilities and their interpreters. According to evaluations of the Beam robots from the ASL interpreters taken at the end of the course, the robot technology gives students with auditory disabilities the same options and access as students without these disabilities. Students have the option to choose face-to-face or take advantage of the technology and access the class remotely. Most important, the technology gives interpreters the ability to do their job more effectively because the interpreters have access to seeing and hearing all the other students to accurately interpret for the Deaf student. Learn more about our scholarship of teaching with robot technologies in this short video.   Read our full project summary here.

 

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