#SocialMedia – the Future of Teaching and Learning – Friday, October 31 at 11 a.m.

#SocialMedia – the Future of Teaching and Learning will be presented at Spartanburg Methodist College in the Buchheit Board Room on Friday, October 31. Dr. Brian Gloor, SMC Professor of Chemistry, will present an encore program he recently gave in Denver, CO at the Teaching Professor Technology Conference. SMC faculty and Spartanburg District 7 representatives will be in attendance and are reminded to BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) to the 11 am program.

Gloor will focus on both “the why not” and “the how to” concepts of extending the learning experience beyond the set classroom. “With all of the new ‘smart phones’ on the market today and an increasing number of people using them on a daily basis, why not use the technology provided by Apple and Android to an instructor’s advantage? If we take it a step further and utilize the networks our students are using, will that make them more engaged with the topics being taught in class? Personal experience would tell any teacher or faculty member that the time spent in the classroom is not enough time to cover everything that we need to cover in the span of a semester, let alone in the span of a day. So how can we impact the classroom experience and engage our students by extending the classroom time outside of the actual classroom?” asks Gloor.

Two theoretical foundations guide Gloor’s presentation, the connected learning theory and the extended learning theory, both of which are hot topics in educational technology dialogue. Connected learning is based on utilizing the power of today’s technologies to spark students’ interest, friendship and academic engagement through hands-on production, shared purpose and open networks. Connected learning capitalizes on learning being social and participatory and leverages the personal and individual interests of the students. Extended learning, viewed as the main argument in the use of social media for academic contexts, occurs when an instructor creates a social media presence for the classroom. No longer is the teaching engagement time restrained to a face-to-face meeting, but through social media, students and teachers can share their work and connect anytime/anywhere.

Practical tools and hands-on demonstrations on how faculty can immediately leverage and implement social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, social bookmarking) in the classroom will be shared. Attendees will see firsthand how easily even the most social-media-novice-instructor can engage students in a professional and academic environment outside of the classroom with a connected learning experience.