Monday, November 4, 2013

Social media helps trainers and lecturers


(image credit)
I attended a conference with the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, and the facilitator encouraged us to Tweet during the talks.  Howard Tullman was one of the speakers, and he ran down his stuff so briskly that it was difficult to track and Tweet at the same time.  But other than that, it was a blast to connect quietly among us attendees, share observations and reactions, and post photos as well.  

1871 is a CEC project and a business center, and in one conference we downloaded and used an app - GoSoapBox - to ask questions of panelists.  You can post them directly, or you can scan posted questions and simply check the ones you also want to ask.  The facilitator picked them up, and relayed them to the panelists via his tablet.  The app was really cool.  

If your business entails training or lecturing a large group of people - that is, in person - social media can definitely add impact to your event.
The survey of over 8,000 faculty found that 41% of college professors use social media as a teaching tool, up from around 34% in 2012.

Jon Marshall, an assistant professor at Northwestern University, says he started using Twitter in one of his lecture classes to connect better with students. 
"Nothing replaces the face-to-face communication, but when you have a class that large I found it was helpful to have yet another tool to get to know them," says Marshall, adding that it also gives shy students another way to participate. 
Students say using social media for academic purposes can be beneficial, as long as it doesn't get too personal. 
"The fact that I am able to communicate so easily with so many people all at once makes the learning experience that much more simple," says Cheri Bailey, a senior at the University of Florida. 
"I think it's very important to mix your professional and your personal life just a bit," she added.
Reference: More professors using social media to teach.

No comments:

Post a Comment