Are academics against social media?
Well, they could be. Look at this extract from a THES piece today (14/10/2010) on social media (via @joss winn – thanks) and the academy:
However, statistics from the US Faculty Survey of Student Engagement, undertaken by Indiana University Bloomington in spring 2009, suggest that take-up [of social media by academics] is extremely low. Of the academics who responded, 79 per cent claimed never to have used collaborative editing software such as wikis or Google Docs, while 84 per cent said they had never viewed a blog, let alone written one.
Wikid
I’d say that was charitably put. Many academics are hostile to the internet per se, and the students pick this up. They are puzzled when they’re told to ignore Wikipedia, to despise Twitter, and to see the blogosphere as a digital parade ground for the green ink brigade.
I’d say that was charitably put. Many academics are hostile to the internet per se, and the students pick this up. They are puzzled when they’re told to ignore Wikipedia, to despise Twitter, and to see the blogosphere as a digital parade ground for the green ink brigade.
Is this the whole picture? No. I’m guessing that what goes on at Indiana matches most UK institutions, so: aside from the Luddite tendency, there are the dedicated surfers out there riding the waves ; there are academics dipping their toes in the water getting ready to dive in; and there are others who are watching from the beach thinking the water looks fine…but, you know, deep. And cold.
Mind the gap
So we need a strategy, and one with some push behind it. The huge gap between the surfers and the paddlers has to close. And it would make no sense to close it by slowing down the surfers. Which means the rest of us have to catch up.
So we need a strategy, and one with some push behind it. The huge gap between the surfers and the paddlers has to close. And it would make no sense to close it by slowing down the surfers. Which means the rest of us have to catch up.
And the Luddites?
Wrong then. Wrong now.