Eve Stirling

Social media and education … now the dust has settled

In 2009 we commissioned a special issue of Learning, Media & Technology to explore the issues surrounding education and social media ( … or ‘social software’ as it fleetingly was being referred to at the time). The original call for papers challenged authors to provide empirical perspectives on the emerging ‘messy realities’ of social media, learning and education. The resulting issue of the journal (34, 2) contained some the first detailed accounts of the social, cultural and political dimensions of this ‘new wave’ of digital media use in education.

‘I’m always on Facebook!’: exploring Facebook as a mainstream research tool and ethnographic site

This chapter discusses a research project which explored the everyday use of the social network site (SNS) Facebook by first-year undergraduate students in their transition to university. It not only explores the opportunities and challenges of using Facebook as a research site and how this digital approach may differ from a ‘mainstream’ ethnography, but also argues for this approach to be viewed as ‘mainstream’ due to the mediated nature of contemporary social life.

Exploring the Efficacy of Facebook Groups for Collective Occupant Learning About Using Their Homes

Using Facebook Groups to connect otherwise anonymous people that live in a single urban development is a relatively new phenomenon. Within residential developments, there are a number of common comfort, management, and performance issues experienced by many isolated inhabitants that are identified through building performance evaluation studies. Facebook is a ubiquitous social network tool and powerful communication platform, particularly popular among young adults. This article explores the use of closed Facebook Groups in relation to collective learning about home use in two residential communities in the United Kingdom. Data were collected through longitudinal digital and physical visits to case study residential developments and to the Facebook Group sites. Group development, dynamics, and the quality of knowledge sharing is evaluated. Findings are presented in relation to home use learning, as it proved to be a vital theme of each Group’s activity. We propose that weak-tie urban communities can develop collective efficacy through communicating on a Facebook Group that enables quality learning based on reciprocal sharing of experiences and knowledge by its members. This helps tackle comfort issues experienced, lower the cost of living, and share bespoke, context-specific home use best practice. Strong engagement and leadership of group administrators limited to early stages of the Groups’ formation followed by high rate of activity by the majority of members was key. There was a clear overlap observed between social media narrative and the physical experiences of daily life, which helps support residents. The analysis suggests the positive effect of the learning environment created bottom-up would not be easily transferable to professional applications.

Exploring the Relationship Between a 'Facebook Group' and Face-to-Face Interactions in 'Weak-Tie' Residential Communities

Using Facebook Groups to connect otherwise anonymous people that live in a single urban development is a relatively new phenomenon. Within residential developments there are a number of common management and performance issues experienced by many isolated inhabitants that are identified through building performance evaluation studies. Facebook is a ubiquitous social network tool and powerful communication platform, particularly popular among young adults. This paper explores the use of Facebook in relation to management and performance issues in two cases of Facebook Group usage within residential communities in the UK. Data was collected through longitudinal digital and physical visits to the residential communities and to the Facebook Group sites. Findings are presented in relation to home learning, site/neighbourhood and self-organising initiatives. We propose that weak-tie residential communities can develop collective efficacy and work together for the overall good of the residential development through communicating on a Facebook Group. This helps to improve the physical environment, facilitating further collective action. There is a clear overlap between social media narrative and the physical experience of daily life, which can help to empower residents.

Book Review: The Sage Handbook of Visual Research Methods

Eric Margolis and Luc Pauwels (eds), The Sage Handbook of Visual Research Methods, Sage: London, 2011; 754 pp.; ISBN 978 1 84787 556 3 This handbook is a large volume at 754 pages and a traditional approach to a book review would have been difficult. For this reason, we have chosen to draw out a few key themes that arose from our group discussion of the book. These themes relate to what we felt to be forward thinking in the handbook, but also to points that need problematising further. As a group of early career academics new to social sciences, we found many of the issues raised in the handbook were interesting to reflect on. As we are also trained art historians, designers and architects now working in education, the book summarises much of what we have found in our transition from visual-based disciplines to the social sciences. This also relates to what it is to be from a generation that has grown up with images playing a large part of the way in which we make meaning, going into a group of established social science academics used to working with words. We feel that this handbook is a great resource for thinking about many of these issues.

Using Facebook as a research site and research tool

This project explored the everyday use of the social network site Facebook by first-year undergraduate students in their transition to university. I did this by using a longitudinal study over one academic year. A connective ethnographic approach was used, which involved being with and observing the student participants on Facebook and face-to-face, within the university environment. Participant observation, field notes, screenshots of Facebook, questionnaires, interviews and focus groups were the main methods of data collection. Data were analysed using content analysis and based upon themes from literature and emerging themes from the data. The findings were presented as a set of six ethnographic stories, which were written based on data from the six main ethnographic participants. The project explored Facebook as a research field site and as a research tool.