Higher Education, Social Media, SocioTech

Sociotechnical Stewardship: Guiding Social Media Policy and Practice in Higher Ed

In a previous blog post, I shared how I am visualizing scholarship via the Research Shorts YouTube Channel (Please SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/researchshorts). If you have not viewed any of these papers, here’s a list of journal articles, that are now videos on this channel, compiled by George. As an open, digital scholar, I thought that producing videos of my own work might be a solid idea to share scholarship. So here I go…

Remember that “really big paper” known as a dissertation? It was on the topic of social media guidance and such? If not — check out the website on the topic here: https://socialmediaguidance.wordpress.com/ Well, I learned one is never really Ph-inishe-D with this research until the research is published in a peer-reviewed journal [More on this #AcWri process and experience in a future blog post… I promise!].

I am proud to say this research has been officially published! This blog post shares a quick video overview of the paperlink to the journal article/pre-print paper, and the database of over 250 social media policies from 10 countries analyzed within this study. Thanks to all who contributed to this research and to others who will continue to use this open data set and research to further work in this area. This sociotechnical stewardship framework is organized from the key themes found from text-mining the 24, 243 policy passages reviewed within this corpus. Here are a few things we need to consider when organizing and guiding sociotechnical systems in our organizations:I am continuing to understand how we best guide and support sociotechnical systems for higher education professionals as I interview participants for a current research project[Hint, hint: CONTRIBUTE to our current study that is “in progress” now: https://bit.ly/networkedself

I hope other scholars and practitioners further this research and apply these practices to effectively support campus stakeholders. Want to learn more about this study, here is a quick video summary (4:59 minutes):

Social media technologies transform how we share, communicate, and interact with one another. On our college and university campuses, new media applications and platforms are transforming how students, staff, faculty, and alumni engage with one another. As these social, emerging technologies impact teaching, learning, research, and work functions on campus, we need to understand how social media use and behaviors are being supported. To help higher education administrators and organizational leaders effectively guide social, emerging technologies, we prove a summary of 250 institutional policy documents and we offer a sociotechnical framework to help support strategic, long-term technology planning for organizations and their stakeholders.

Download this research paper:

The article is published in the Journal of Computing in Higher Education here or find the pre-print version of the original paper on my ResearchGate profile.

Download a csv file of the higher education social media policy database:

Pasquini, L. A. (2016). Social media policy document database. Figshare. doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.4003401. Retrieved from https://figshare.com/articles/Social_media_policy_document_database/4003401

Reference:

Pasquini, L. A., & Evangelopoulos, N. (2017). Sociotechnical stewardship in higher education: A field study of social media policy documents. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 29(2), 218-239. doi: 10.1007/s12528-016-9130-0 Published Online November 21, 2016.

 

Conference, Higher Education, StudentAffairs

Technological Advancements & Considerations for Student Affairs at #ACPA15

This week I will be in Tampa, FL for the 2015 ACPA Convention (Follow #ACPA15 chat on Twitter). Besides getting a chance to warm up from the chilly winter weather, I am looking forward to connecting with a number of student affairs (SA) professionals and faculty who will be attending. This year’s convention holds a number of informative and interactive sessions in the program to support professional development and scholarly research for SA educators. I have a few meetings (#ACPAdigital and #ACPA16, I’m looking at you!); however I am really looking forward to catching up with a number of colleagues who will be in attendance. I suspect a number of hugs and high fives will happen soon.

ACPA Tampa 2015Part of my time in the next couple of days will be spent with the fine folks I have been fortunate to work with on the ACPA Digital Task Force (#ACPAdigital).

digital_report

The association established #ACPAdigital to make recommendations on how student affair educators can best advance the application of digital technology in higher education, specifically through informed scholarship and practice. Being charged with reviewing how ACPA will be a leader in the field, this task force was divided into four working subgroups:

  • Proven Practices
  • Knowledge and Skills
  • Research and Scholarship
  • Informed and Responsible Engagement with Social Technology

While serving on the #ACPAdigital task force this year, I can personally say, the efforts made to evaluate and assess  and how current educators shape student development for digital learning has been impressive. As I review the 49-page report we are sharing with the ACPA leadership this week, I am looking forward to the conversations we will have about our findings, recommendations, questions and proposed research agenda. It is critical that student affairs and learner support entities in post-secondary education consider how technological advancements will impact the work we do with students in face-to-face, blended, and online learning environments. This groups needs to be at the table for discussions on distance education and workforce preparation considerations. I am excited to be part of the discussion and push to move in this direction with student affairs. To learn more about this report and #ACPAdigital’s work, be sure to review the task force website:  http://digitaltaskforce.myacpa.org/

As a member of the Informed and Responsible Engagement with Social Technology (IREST) group, I was part of the collaborative author team who contributed to updating Erik Qualman’s What Happens in Vegas Goes on YouTube. The last few months of swapping ideas, sharing resources, discussing issues, and making edits with Paul, Jason, Courtney, and Erik has been great – and we’re so pleased that we are able to share our efforts this week at #ACPA15:

campus book launch ad.003

The ACPA co-branded book, What Happens on Campus Stays on YouTube, is designed to have your students reflect on their digital identity, with regards to their college experience and future personal/professional development. For #ACPA15, early release copies of book will be available for sale ($11.99) and the official launch on Amazon/public sale will be in April 2015. If you want to get a sneak peek of the book before everyone else, get your copy at the ACPA Booth in the Expo Hall or join our #SAreads event happening on Saturday (3/7) from 12:30-1:30 pm at the #ACPATrendingNow round tables in the Marketplace with Courtney and myself. If you are interested in bulk orders for your curriculum or campus, please be sure to reach out to Courtney O’Connell so she can discuss options best for your institutional needs.

Will you be found at the harbor front this week for #ACPA15? Let me know – I would love to have a chat and catch up. See you soon!