I posted this on our internal comms site last week at the request of my line manager so I thought I would replicate it here seeing as I have been neglecting my blog for an absolute age !
I had the pleasure of attending the International Social Media in Higher Education Conference on the 19th December 2024 ‘ Have we found our social identity?’ at Sheffield Hallam University this week. This is a community led conference that I have been helping to organise for the last few years and this year was its 10th Anniversary.
Programme | Social Media for Learning in Higher Education Conference
We had a great keynote presentation from Dr Amanda Taylor-Beswick, Professor of Digital and Social Science at the University of Cumbria. You can see Amanda’s slides here and a copy of the live sketchnote that I did for her here.
As well as being on the conference committee, I also I ran a workshop with Sue Beckingham Sheffield Hallam and Teresa MacKinnon (Independent) in relation to the Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Twitter Chat. The title of our session was “Celebrating 10 years of the #LTHEchat : Building a Community of Learning and Leadership”. We are in an interesting time with #LTHEchat , I have been involved with the organising team since it started and am now their Open Badge Lead and have recently developed and implemented new open digital badges to recognise community involvement so I outlined what we have done so far and what is on the roadmap for next year ….Badges Deb ? I hear you cry .. what a surprise😉 ? Slide Deck
We are also moving across from twitter to Bluesky in January for our weekly tweetchats ( or flutter chats as I am now calling them) so it will be a case of trying to build the network again so it was lovely to be able to celebrate our achievements over the last 10 years. Later in the day I had the opportunity to do a presentation in relation to my PhD Research where I gave an overview of my research design and approach and highlighted some preliminary findings. Slide Deck
I attended loads of really inspiring sessions but here are a couple of highlights :
‘The impact of Social Media and Podcasting on Pre-Registration Nursing Associate Education’ by Nicole Blythe,Jon Berhane and Emma Hadfield . This was a really interesting session where they have moved from open-book exams to the use of group podcasts. Excellent presentation with a great slide deck and great example of how working together with students can foster innovation. Slide Deck
‘Heavy Metal Is Good For You’ by Angela Glaves. This was a really unusual session which outlined the creation of a heavy metal music community to improve health and wellbeing through online peer support groups. Fascinating stuff. Slide Deck
The slide decks from all sessions are available from the website
All in all it was a really lovely event yet again, a bit of a trek as I didn’t get back home till late last night but it was well worth the effort to engage with the community, including at least one of our Jisc Community Champions. If you are interested in going next year it will be at Lancaster University.
Social Media for Learning in Higher Education Conference
Abstracts
Celebrating 10 Years of #LTHEchat: Building a Community of Learning and Leadership Sue Beckingham, Debbie Baff & Teresa Mackinnon
This session highlights the evolution of #LTHEchat, a thriving Learning and Teaching in Higher Education tweet chat that has hosted over 300 discussions. We’ll explore how participants benefit from professional development, shared resources, and global connections. Additionally, we’ll showcase the developmental opportunities for the organising team, including leadership, communication, and event planning skills. Join us to celebrate this milestone and discover what’s next for the #LTHEchat community. Join us as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of #LTHEchat, a Twitter chat (now known as X) that has fostered a vibrant community of higher education professionals. Over the past decade, more than 300 chats have taken place, creating a space for educators to exchange ideas, share resources, and engage in meaningful discussions about the future of teaching and learning. In this session, we’ll take a look at the journey of #LTHEchat highlighting key milestones, collaborations with other organisations, and the evolution of the weekly chats. Participants will gain insights into how the chat provides informal professional development, connecting educators globally and offering access to valuable resources. Additionally, we’ll explore the developmental opportunities for those behind the scenes, from volunteering on the organising team to mentoring new members. We’ll also highlight the open badge system that recognises the contributions of organisers, mentors, and guests. Finally, we’ll reflect on the impact of #LTHEchat and share our vision for the next decade of fostering innovation, collaboration, and leadership in higher education. Key Takeaways: – Learn how #LTHEchat benefits participants by providing a platform for professional growth, resource-sharing, and networking. – Discover the leadership, recognition and development opportunities available to members of the organising team. – Celebrate the achievements of the #LTHEchat community and gain insight into future directions for the chat
Virtual hugs and connection: Educators experiences of social support and wellbeing in private online social networks Debbie Baff
This session provides an overview of my PhD Research which uses heuristic inquiry as a qualitative research methodology to explore educators’ experiences of social support in private social network sites and the impact that this may have on their wellbeing. The COVID19 pandemic has rekindled the conversation around the challenges educators face in their jobs (Reimers and Schleicher, 2020; Savill-Smith and Scanlan, 2020). Educators have faced increased psychological and emotional pressure as a result of the shift to online, resulting in added stress and anxiety which may have an influence on well-being beyond emergency provision. According to Cairns et al 2020 COVID19 has ‘fundamentally re-contextualized the relationships between people, technology and loneliness’ (Cairns et al., 2020, p. 281) and it is now widely acknowledged that the wellbeing of both staff and students should be a key priority for institutions . It has been shown that social support received through online channels contributes to well-being (Chiang and Huang, 2015). However, the concept of ‘social support’ itself is complicated and is ‘difficult to conceptualise, define and measure’ (Wagg, 2020, p. 24). This has resulted in a variety of research approaches and a call for a better understanding of social support and more research into the relationship between social network sites and social support (Meng et al., 2017). There have been many studies that have investigated social support within the public arena (Meng et al., 2017) but little is known about social support in social network sites when used privately. My research aims to address this gap and offer practical guidance for educators who would like to find support in private online spaces. I will outline my research design and approach and offer some preliminary findings.
References
Cairns, M.R. et al. (2020) COVID-19 and Human Connection: Collaborative Research on Loneliness and Online Worlds from a Socially-Distanced Academy. Human Organization, 79(4), 281–29 Chiang, I.-P. & Huang, Y.-D. (2016) How to Create Social Support on Facebook. Mercieca, B. & Kelly, N. (2018) Early career teacher peer support through private groups in social media. Meng, J. et al. (2017) Research on Social Networking Sites and Social Support from 2004 to 2015: A Narrative Review and Directions for Future Research. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 20(1), 44–51. Moustakas, C. (1990) Heuristic Research: Design, Methodology, and Applications Reimers, F.M. & Schleicher, A. (2020) A framework to guide an education response to the COVID19 Pandemic of 2020. Savill-Smith, C. & Scanlan, D. (2020) Teacher WellBeing Index 2020. Education Support Sultan, N. (2019) Heuristic Inquiry: Researching Human Experience Holistically. SAGE Publications.
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