Social media: A guide for researchers

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transferable adaptability innovative acceptability impact effectiveness availability creativity collaborative

The good teaching practice at a glance

Subject of practice

social

Target groups

Any

Educational level

Higher Education

Short Summary

This guide will show you how you can use social media to help your research and your career. Social media have big implications for how researchers (and people in general) communicate and collaborate. Researchers have much to gain from engaging with social media in various aspects of their work. This guide will provide you with information to make an informed decision about using social media and enable you to select wisely from the vast range of tools that are available.

Difficulty of ICT solutions used

Medium

Detailed description

Learning outcomes

It aims to provide the information needed to make an informed decision about using social media and select from the vast range of tools that are available.

Typical learning time

2 hours

Description of challenges faced (Are there any difficulties teachers/learners might face?)

Social media is an important technological trend that has big implications for how researchers (and people in general) communicate and collaborate. Researchers have a huge amount to gain from engaging with social media in various aspects of their work. The guide discusses the use of social media for research and academic purposes and will not be examining the many other uses that social media is put to across society.

Social media can change the way in which you undertake research, and can also open up new forms of communication and dissemination. It has the power to enable researchers to engage in a wide range of dissemination in a highly efficient way.

Detailed description

Web materials 1: Links and resources

Audio and video tools
Blogging and Microblogging tools
Examples of academic and research blogs
Social networking services
Location based tools
Social bookmarking, news and social citation tools
Research and writing collaboration tools
Presentation sharing tools
Project management, meeting and collaboration tools
Information management tools
Virtual worlds

You can access the full list of the above resources here, or download below.

Web materials 2: Researcher case studies

The guide is rooted in the practical experience of its authors and that of the ten social media users that we interviewed as part of the project.  You can read their individual case studies below:


You can download the guide below, as well as documents listing Web materials 1 and 2.  To request hard copies of the guide, email contact@rin.ac.uk

Learning Activities / Implementation

 

Country of originUnited Kingdom
Language of the practice
Website relatedCommunicating and disseminating research
Status of the practiceFinal
Download full practice desciprion
Area of good practice
  • ICT enabled learning - Using digital resources for face-to-face classroom practice & for online learning/blended classroom practice
This practice is
Transferable, Adaptability, Innovative, Acceptability, Impact, Effectiveness, Availability, Collaborative

About the author

Name of contributorAlan Cann, Konstantia Dimitriou and Tristram Hooley
Affiliation of contributor RIN project
Institution where this practice was implementedUniversity of Leicester, International Centre for Guidance Studies
Contact e-mailcontact@rin.ac.uk