Connecting life and leisure: Twitter is work

I’ve been overwhelmed with the reading load lately- an online subject about teaching online and a collaborative chapter on bread yeast, which is due all too soon. I love a reading challenge like the best of them, but I’m wafting from tab to tab, Zotero to Mendeley, blog to Canvas and not making much progress. There have been some things I have enjoyed though. The hefty tome which seems to be the original node: Scholarship Reconsidered (Boyer, E. L. (1990). brings out all the items I think make me like my job (most of the time) at ‘The University’. I’m not going to pretend I’ve read it, but most of these new papers spring from this item.

The tome of knowledge. Image source Wikipedia (creative commons license)

Within ‘The University’ there is a lot to take from the interpretations of this work. Boyer argues that there are four interrelated areas: Scholarship of Discipline, Integration, Teaching and Application which should take up the interest, time and breadth of activities for an academic (Boyer, 1990). My new foray into teaching is really looking at SOTL (scholarship of teaching); but with my thinking stimulated by reading of Greenhow & Gleason (2014), a reconsideration is in order.

Greenhow & Gleason (2014) have taken the base of Boyer’s work, and interpreted each of the domains in a ‘social network’ light- bringing together literature, studies, examples and making suggestions which scaffold social media and interactions to each of the domains of scholarship. How can social media be part of our scholarly activities?

Let’s take it one Boyer dimension at a time and begin with SOD- original research that expands or challenges current knowledge in a discipline. Here is were we put our classical and authenticated knowledge, compiled by experts in the field, through argumentation to produce findings and disciplines. I’m a little hazy on how this can be used to my own area of bench based microbiology; but certainly the gatekeepers of knowledge can be challenged by using Twitter to criticise an article in Science in the example given by Greenhow & Gleason(p. 5, 2014) to illustrate explicit review. Surely a way to challenge the hierarchy- and used to devastating effect.

Next up is SOI, where interdisciplinarity is valued and measured and where new intellectual questions can be asked (and maybe answered) by integration of disparate disciplines. Using a connectivist approach, ‘gettin’ on the socials’ could be a wonderful way to create or articulate a network of relationships across disciplines. There are some fine examples of research teams using collated data, analysing user patterns and the like for advancing knowledge. Indeed, I can think of a great sourdough bread project which harness the socials to collect data (here). Masters of the discipline!

Down to business: teaching. SOTL is stimulated active learning to encourage students to be critical, creative thinkers- and surely to pass their exams. Is it a good way to encourage engagement and instructor knowledge? Maybe…certainly being able to connect knowledge beyond the course materials will help in situating knowledge for the students, and likely improve my feedback to improve into the future. Using the analytics seems key- how many students are on Twitter and how are they linking it to me? Should my learning materials be open access? I love it when other people’s are- should I give it a go?

And finally, SOA- where the socials come into their own. Making links between theory and practice, application for unique skills and insights and ‘taking it to the people’. I love this explanation, and the work on graduate students, outreach, talking to different audiences (Greenhow & Gleason, 2014). Helps everyone, but I struggle to see how the authors have distinguished the SOI from the SOA. Different sides of the same coin? Talking to other disciplines and talking to the people might be the same. A bit hazy and a bit complicated. But I certainly agree that it is a good way to demonstrate your relevance if you are going for a job or promotion- likes, views, reads, comments all show how you are able to stimulate your audience, contribute to debate and lead scholarship within your area.

So does that mean that my Twitter procrasta-scrolling is work? Yes. Always.

References:

Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate. Princeton University Press, 3175 Princeton Pike, Lawrenceville, NJ 08648. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED326149

Greenhow, C., & Gleason, B. (2014). Social scholarship: Reconsidering scholarly practices in the age of social media. British Journal of Educational Technology, 45(3), 392–402. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12150

Am I a digital native?

The quick answer is no, but it turns out no-one is really. Or maybe just those who pulled out the screwdriver and started fiddling round with the mother/hard board in the 80s.

I remember playing the games on the Commodore 64 when I was a kid, and trying to get the disk out of the classroom Apple computer (why oh why didn’t it come out?!). But I’ve never had an urge to look inside the box, and I can’t build or program or any of the fancy stuff.

But I love social media. I read a paper for an hour, then reward myself with a Twitter scroll. There are some super funny people out there- I love The Chaser headlines, #academicchatter and ‘asking for a friend’. A great way for me to advertise my work, my interests and to keep in touch with the general field of science.

I have reflected on how I use different social media accounts before today- I have a lurking, suspicious presence on Facebook, which is good for keeping in touch with community events and groups. Instagram is all my baking friends, and my feed is a homage to gluten. And Twitter is my scientific community. Linked In on occasions- this seems a good way to keep touch with commercial companies and industries, and researchgate is a good way to find out the collected works of a new colleague, student or collaborator.

Where does all this fit on my Personal to Institutional; Resident or Visitor axes a la VandR diagram? Here tis:

Created on the VandR website and screenshot because it didn’t save the first version…

My questions for teaching: Do I ask students to use the platforms I already use? Or do I join them (maybe they use wechat and tiktok?). Or do we meet somewhere in the middle?

Hello out there

I’m setting up my Edublog! What an adventure. Wish I could pay attention to the ‘how to’ guide…

And a bit more about me.

Zoom boom video 3 March

Associate Professor Kate Howell holds a position in Food Chemistry in the School of Agriculture and Food at the University of Melbourne. While the school is based on the lands on the Boon Wurrung and the Woi Wurrung, Kate is currently living and working on the lands of the Wotjobaluk, Jaadwa, Jadawadjali, Wergaia and Jupagalk Nations. Kate’s work takes her to Yorta Yorta country at the University’s Dookie campus.

Kate’s training in microbiology at the University of NSW as an undergraduate in bacterial genetics led to a PhD at the same institution. Her PhD studies were situated at the Australian Wine Research Institute in Adelaide and investigated how yeast ecology alters wine composition and makes a significant contribution to wine aroma. She followed this work with a post-doctoral position in yeast biochemistry at the University of Geneva, before being appointed at the University of Melbourne. Kate’s work focuses on understanding how microbial ecology and diversity affects the composition of foods and beverages. She has applied this knowledge to improving wine, beer, bread, coffee and chocolate flavour and is expanding this work into improving health outcomes for plant-based foods. Kate is an active member of the national and international academic community, and is continuing her work in teaching, with close links to industry partners and expanding her role in PhD student training and food and nutrition training at the university.