Utilising Twitter as a Community of Learning within Nurse Education ( An Ongoing

1. Utilising Twitter as a Community of Learning within Nurse Education (An Ongoing MA in Academic Practice Research Project) James.M.Hewitt Senior Lecturer Faculty of Health, Psychology & Social Care Manchester Metropolitan University j.m.hewitt@mmu.ac.uk follow @jiMMUni (http://twitter.com/jiMMUni) #nurseteaching eLearning in Health Conference 2011 Aston Conference Centre

2. Utilising Twitter as a Community of Learning within Nurse Education James.M.Hewitt, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health, Psychology & Social Care, Manchester Metropolitan University j.m.hewitt@mmu.ac.uk / follow @jiMMUni (http://twitter.com/jiMMUni) / #nurseteaching eLearning in Health Conference 2011 Twitter - What’s Happening? • A relatively new Social Network Website (>200 million) • ‘Web 2.zero-era’ (a Read & Write medium) • Rapidly becoming more popular, a ‘Micro-blogging’ network, limited to 140 characters – a Tweet • Follow people of similar / mutual interests • Information can be (immediate) bidirectional • Allowing rapid widespread dissemination of information • Communication tool that can be updated frequently • Can leave thoughts from the ‘mundane’ to the more meaningful in relation to personal & professional interests • Tweets are in reverse chronological order • Accessible via internet enabled computers & ‘Smart Phones’ (>90% mobiles sold are smart phones) • Constantly in the news – some negative & positive aspects http://twitter.com/about http://www.guardian.co.uk (2009) statistics

3. Utilising Twitter as a Community of Learning within Nurse Education James.M.Hewitt, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health, Psychology & Social Care, Manchester Metropolitan University j.m.hewitt@mmu.ac.uk / follow @jiMMUni (http://twitter.com/jiMMUni) / #nurseteaching eLearning in Health Conference 2011 Communities of Learning / Practice (CoL / CoP) CoL & CoP are interchangeable terms within Nursing A platform for: Collaborative learning / Promoting engagement / Development in practice & personal learning / Dissemination of new knowledge (inc. EBP) / Common values & beliefs Problems include: inconsistency of members activity / mistrust The 2 pedagogical learning views of ‘CoP’: Constructivist (derives from Piaget’s Genetic Epistemology): The importance of the context of what is being learned in class & practice Anthropological: Learning from participation in a wider social network interaction Wenger (1999)

4. Utilising Twitter as a Community of Learning within Nurse Education James.M.Hewitt, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health, Psychology & Social Care, Manchester Metropolitan University j.m.hewitt@mmu.ac.uk / follow @jiMMUni (http://twitter.com/jiMMUni) / #nurseteaching eLearning in Health Conference 2011 Twitter as a Community of Learning • Students today are a digitally savvy population • (Thompson 2007) • It could foster informal cyber-teaching beyond the classroom with no time limit on participation, used as a ‘loud speaker’ • Easy / Affordable / ‘Free’ once device has been bought • Students have a Common Purpose / Shared Vision • Learning with active participation / engagement Enhances Blended Learning, it can be utilised to support students, these ‘Mashups’ include, for example: Twit Board – Student Notice Board Tweetorials– One to one support Summing Up / Spinning & Weaving (@learninglines) – Students summarise an article in 140 characters (challenging) Twit Links – Share a hyperlink (e.g. research ) Retweet(RT) - Share non-mutual followers thoughts, go viral! Tweming – A ‘meme’ (#tag – ‘blogosphere’) can be created, acts as a bidirectional discussion area of themes, lasts for length of interest in # Micro Meet – Discussions between all students (Group or Direct Messages) Micro Write – Collaborative writing (Problem Based Learning potential) Wheeler (2008)

5. Utilising Twitter as a Community of Learning within Nurse Education James.M.Hewitt, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health, Psychology & Social Care, Manchester Metropolitan University j.m.hewitt@mmu.ac.uk / follow @jiMMUni (http://twitter.com/jiMMUni) / #nurseteaching eLearning in Health Conference 2011 Ethical & Legal Issues • The Teacher • Who has the Intellectual Property Rights? • Who owns a Tweet? • - Free speech v’s. Academic discourse • What is public & private? ... • The tutor needs to be aware of what is posted, • whosees it & is offence • being caused? – liability • - Acting as gatekeeper, • moderating • the students contributions • The Student Nurse • ‘Cyber-disinhabition’(benign & toxic), sharing information, could breach confidentiality (patient or personal) • Student passivity / varied IT skills • Time consuming / addictive • Can students differentiate between personal & the professional? • Is ‘Creepy Tree • House Syndrome’ • a barrier? (Haigh 2010) Haigh & Jones (2005) Waskul (1996)

6. Utilising Twitter as a Community of Learning within Nurse Education James.M.Hewitt, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health, Psychology & Social Care, Manchester Metropolitan University j.m.hewitt@mmu.ac.uk / follow @jiMMUni (http://twitter.com/jiMMUni) / #nurseteaching eLearning in Health Conference 2011 What’s happening? Twitter - What is it? Ethical & Legal Issues • A relatively new Social Network Website (>175 million) • ‘Web 2.0 - Era’ (Read & Write medium) • Rapidly becoming more popular, a ‘Micro-blogging’ network, limited to 140 characters – a Tweet • Follow people of similar / mutual interests • Information can be bidirectional • Allowing rapid widespread dissemination of information • Communication tool that can be updated frequently • Can leave thoughts from the mundane to the more meaningful in relation to personal & professional interests • Tweets are in reverse chronological order • Accessible via internet enabled computers & ‘Smart Phones’ (>90% mobiles sold are smart phones) • The Teacher • Intellectual Property Rights / Law • Free speech vs. Academic discourse • What is public & private? The tutor needs to be aware of what is posted, who sees it & is offence being caused http://twitter.com/about (Haigh 2010) Waskul (1996) • The Student Nurse • Cyber-disinhabition’ (benign & toxic), sharing information, could breach confidentiality (patient or personal) • Student passivity / varied IT skills • Time consuming / addictive Haigh & Jones (2005) http://www.guardian.co.uk (2009) statistics Communities of Learning / Practice (CoL / CoP) Twitter as a Community of Learning Evaluation • Students today are a digitally savvy population (Thompson 2007) • Can foster informal cyber-teaching beyond the classroom with no time limit on participation • Easy / Affordable / ‘Free’ once device has been bought • Common Purpose / Shared Vision • Learning with active participation / engagement • Enhances Blended Learning, it can be utilised to support students, these ‘Mashups’ include for example: • Twit Board – Student Notice Board • Tweetorials– one to one support • Summing Up / Spinning & Weaving – Summarise an article • Twit Links – Share a hyperlink (e.g. research ) • Retweet(RT) - Share non-mutual followers thoughts, go viral! • Tweming – A ‘meme’ (#tag – ‘blogosphere’) can be created, acts as a bidirectional discussion area of themes • Micro Meet – Discussions between all students (can Direct M) • Micro Write – Collaborative writing (PBL potential) • Twitter is in it’s infancy. Micro-blogging is used to broaden participation, enhancing the student experience by creating a community of learners • Students are able to gain from the teacher, identify key learning materials enabling discursive debate & argue contentious issues • Collective enquiry can result into best nursing practice & professional interest into a CoP or a Professional Learning Community – nurse related • Participation can save student embarrassment, in and out of the classroom, every learner has a voice CoL & CoP are interchangeable terms within Nursing A platform for: Collaborative learning / Promoting engagement / Development in practice & personal learning / Dissemination of new knowledge / Common values & beliefs The 2 views of ‘CoP’: Constructivist: The importance of the context of what is being learned in class & practice Anthropological: Learning from participation in a wider social network Wenger (1999) Wheeler (2008) • It does require the teacher to encourage high quality Tweets • Teacher activity may be arduous & time consuming • Tweets require close supervision to ensure respect & confidentiality within the community of learners • Creepy Tree house syndrome Feedback your thoughts: #nurseteaching Indicative texts (Reference List on separate sheet): Wenger. E (1999) Communities of practice : learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. / Wheeler, S (2008) Learning with ‘e’s Available from:http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2009/01/teaching-with-twitter.html (accessed Nov 2010) Haigh, C (2010) Legality, the web and nurse educators. Nurse Education Today. 30, 6, p553–556.