The representation of engineering education as a social media topic on Twitter

Online social media systems have created new ways for individuals to communicate, share information and interact with a wide audience. For organisations, social media provide new avenues for communication and collaboration with their stakeholders. The potential value of social media tools to assist in the successful communication and marketing inside and outside of engineering organisations has been identified. In the context of engineering education, the potential of social media to open new modes of communication, interaction and experimentation between students and teachers has also been identified, and a limited number of examples can be found documented in the literature. One of the most widely-used social media tools is the ‘microblogging’ service Twitter. This research presents an analysis of nearly 19,000 tweets relating to ‘engineering education’ collected over a period of almost a year. Social network analysis is used to visualise the Twitter data. The Twitter social media communication is examined to identify who is active on this topic, who is influential, and what is the structure of the online conversations relating to engineering education. This work provides insights regarding how engineering education is currently represented in social media internationally, and offers a methodology to those interested in related future research.

Sustainable futures for learning in a climate of change: mobile apps, social media, and crisis informatics during emergencies and disasters

Emergencies and disasters are different types of crisis events which can affect students and staff in their on-campus roles and off-campus activities. In such events, mobile technologies, mobile software applications (apps), and mobile social networks are becoming increasingly relied upon to communicate, to swiftly send and received information and images, to deliver learning moments, and to check the safety of colleagues and friends. This paper investigates the intersection of mlearning, mobile social media, mobile apps, and crisis informatics in times of emergencies and disasters, using the recent Gipplsand earthquake in south-eastern Australia as an exemplar. It also discusses proactive preparation for educational resilience during emergencies and disasters.

Unauthorised disclosure of organisational information through social media : a policy perspective

The unauthorised disclosure of organisational information through social media has become an issue. This has resulted in the need for organisations to re-evaluate ways of minimising the risks of information loss and disclosure via social media. The implementation of social media use policies can inform employees’ social media behaviours and ultimately lead to the creation of an organisational culture of awareness. Although organisations may have a social media policy in place, the issue of unauthorised disclosure of organisational information has not been given due attention. Hence, a pilot study of content analysis was conducted to explore how organisations address the issues relating to the unauthorised disclosure of organisational information via their social media channels. The findings of this pilot study revealed some emergent themes that are important for addressing the issue of information disclosure by comparing five different sectors. These emergent themes could guide researchers and practitioners in understanding and informing the organisational use of social media technologies.

A snapshot of social media : camera phone practices

This paper provides a short summary on some of the key debates emerging around visual social media. In particular we discuss the role of camera phones in issues of intimacy and co-presence.

Social media bodies : revealing the entanglement of sexual well-being, mental health, and social media in education

While media and youth research reveal the intersectionality of young people’s sexual well-being, mental health, and social media practices, little attention has been paid to how this entanglement is addressed in education. Pedagogy that is not informed by a nuanced and interconnected understanding of young people’s everyday experiences of sexual well-being, mental health, and social media is likely to be ineffective and inadequate. I describe a workshop activity with young people experiencing mental ill health that uses bodies as a metaphor for social media, allowing participants to reveal and discuss their experiences, attitudes, and values through dressing up and illustrating “social media bodies.” I outline three themes that arose from the workshops: revealing and destabilising affordances, the spatial and temporal affordances of social media, and young people’s affective relationships through and with social media, and advocate for an intersectional approach to sexuality education, one that is necessarily complex and ambivalent.

Social media as an information system : improving the technological agility

There is an increased focus on research involving social media. This research however has failed to catch up with the pace of the technology development and may prove disadvantageous for both practice and theory. The longitudinal study presented in the paper was conducted over a 3-year period involving Australian banks and popular social media technologies. The paper empirically tests the Honeycomb model as a tool that enhances the technological agility of social media. The paper fills a key research gap and provides dynamism to social media strategy formation, continuous improvement of strategy development in support of greater business agility.

Conceptualising word-of-mouth: In an era of social media.

Word-of-mouth is a marketing tool in which the consumer has the power to influence others brand choice. This research examined what is word-of-mouth in a social media context, specifically Facebook, allowing the marketer to understand how and what consumers talk about in order to engage them in conversations about their brand and product choice.

Understanding organisational use of social media for crisis communication.

This research examines the use of social media by organisations for communication with stakeholders during a crisis and provides a theoretical framework for guiding organisations in this area.

Social media as sensor for healthcare: A machine learning approach.

This thesis advances the area of applied machine learning, sentiment and psycholinguistic analysis in social media for health analytics. In particular, the thesis views social media as a gigantic form of 'sensor' to inform about mental health community and related topics.

Investigation of educator adoption of knowledge media

Human development has occurred against a timeline that has seen the creation of and diffusion of one innovation after another. These innovations range from language to complex computing and information technologies. The latter are assisting with the distribution of information, and extend to the distribution of the human species beyond the planet Earth. From early times, information has been published and mostly for a fee to the publisher. The absorption and use of information has had a high priority in most societies from early times, and has become institutionalised in universities and institutes of technical learning. For most in Western societies, education is now a matter of ‘lifelong learning’. Today, we see higher education institutions, worldwide, adapting their organisational structures and operating procedures and forming strategic alliances with communications content providers and carriers as well as with information technology companies. Modern educational institutes seek productivity and efficiency. Many also seek to differentiate themselves from competitors. Technological convergence is often seen by management to be a saviour in many educational organisations. It is hoped that lower capital and recurrent costs can be achieved, and that competitors in an increasingly globalised industry can be held at bay by strategic use of knowledge media (Eisenstadt, 1995) commonly associated with distance education in the campus setting. Knowledge media set up costs, intellectual property costs and training costs for staff and students are often so high as to make their use not viable for Australian institutes of higher education. Against this backdrop, one might expect greater educator and student use of publisher produced textbooks and digital enhancements to the textbook, particularly those involved in distance education. A major issue is whether or not the timing of instructor adoption of converging information technology and communications technologies aligns with the wishes of both higher education management and government, and with those who seek commercial gain from the diffusion and adoption of such technologies. Also at issue is whether or not it is possible to explain variance in stated intentions to recommend adoption of new learning technologies in higher education and implementation. Will there occur educator recommendation for adoption of individual knowledge media such as World Wide Web access to study materials by students? And what will be the form of this tool and others used in higher education? This thesis reports on more recent changes in the technological environment and seeks to contribute to an understanding of the factors that lead to a willingness, or unwillingness, on the part of higher education instructors, as influencers and content providers, to utilise these technologies. As such, it is a diffusion study which seeks to fill a gap in the literature. Diffusion studies typically focus on predicting adoption based on characteristics of the potential adopter. Few studies examine the relationship between characteristics of the innovation and adoption. Nearly all diffusion studies involve what is termed discontinuous innovation (Robertson, 1971). That is, the innovation involves adoptees in a major departure from previous practice. This study seeks to examine the relationship between previous experience of related technologies and adoption or rejection of dynamically continuous innovation. Continuous and dynamically continuous innovations are the most numerous in the real world, yet they are numerically the least scrutinised by way of academic research. Moreover, the three-year longitudinal study of educators in Australian and New Zealand meets important criteria laid down by researchers Tornatzky and Klein (1982) and Rogers (1995), that are often not met by similar studies. In particular the study examines diffusion as it is unfolding, rather than selectively examining a single innovation and after the fact, thus avoiding a possible pro-innovation bias. The study examines the situation for both ‘all educators’ and ‘marketing / management educators’ alone in seeking to meet the following aim: Establish if intended adopters of specific knowledge media have had more experience of other computer-based technologies than have those not intending to adopt said knowledge media. The analytical phase entails use of factor analysis and discriminant analysis to conclude that it is possible to discriminate adopters of selected knowledge media based on previous use of related technologies. The study does not find any generalised factor that enables such discrimination among educators. Thus the study supports the literature in part, but fails to find generalised factors that enable unambiguous prediction of knowledge media adoption or otherwise among each grouping of educators examined. The implications are that even in the case of related products and services (continuous or dynamically continuous innovation), there is not statistical certainty that prior usage of related products or technologies is related to intentions to use knowledge media in the future. In this regard, the present study might be said to confirm the view that Rogers and Shoemaker's (1971) conceptualisation of perceived innovation characteristics may only apply to discontinuous innovations (Stratton, Lumpkin & Vitell, 1997). The implications for stakeholders such as higher education management is that when seeking to appoint new educators or existing staff to knowledge media project teams, there is some support for the notion that those who already use World Wide Web based technologies are likely to take these technologies into teaching situations. The same claim cannot be made for computer software use in general, nor Internet use in general.

Indigenous communities and new media : questions on the global digital age

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to look at some of the issues surrounding access to and the use of new media technologies, and questions why this is an area of study that receives a marginal focus in academic work.
Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on previous literature in the area of information and communications technology (ICT) adoption and social exclusion, this paper combines the methodological frameworks adopted by hegemony research and more general studies of new media.
Findings – The paper discusses the impacts of new media use by Indigenous communities, within the framework of discussions about a “global Digital Age”. The paper also briefly looks at the social
implications of new media adoption.
Originality/Value - It questions the assumption that adoption and use of new media is for the "good" or "benefit" of all. It will be of value to researchers of ICT adoption by Indigenous communities.

Knowledge-building : designing for learning using social and participatory media

This report presents the results of a classroom action research that looked at how one teacher redesigned her curriculum while integrating social media, Web 2.0 and face-toface teaching in an Australian public high school. It explores the qualities that social and participatory media bring to the classroom while focussing on students as active and valued participants in the learning process. Building knowledge using the uniqueness of social media enabled students to become active and valued resources for both the teacher and their peers. Designing for learning is a key challenge facing education today; this case offers ideas for learning designers and contributes to a research base that can support educators from all sectors.

The simple yet complex development of social and participatory media for classroom learning : building a hybrid learning environment through action research

This paper reports on part of a teacher/researcher’s PhD action research study. It explains the complexity of features that social media brings to the teaching and learning process while discussing the simplicity and power of its use. Through the action research cycle, learning programs were designed to take advantage of the unique communicative methods offered by social media and web 2.0 whilst maintaining the value of face-to-face learning. Students used social media spaces such as blogs, groups and discussion forums as well as developing their own profiles and avatars to communicate online by making friends, leaving comments and uploading content which included publishing, peer reviewing and self assessment. The author argues that, by designing learning that valued and combined the attributes of social media, Web 2.0 and face-to-face teaching she was able to produce a more student-centred approach; hence, developing a ‘Hybrid’ learning environment which supported many 21st Century skills.

One tweet does not a revolution make : technological determinism, media and social change

This paper discusses the problematic influence of technological determinism in popular news media coverage and analysis of the Arab Spring events of 2010-11.

The purpose is to develop insights into how and why elements of a ‘soft’ technological determinism inflect both journalistic practice and news discourse in relation to the Arab Spring. In particular it discusses how the ‘bias of convenience’ and a journalistic obsession with the ‘continuous present’ connect with this determinist inflection to create a potential distortion in the journalists’ ‘first rough draft’ of history in relation to significant and complex events such as social revolution.