Recently, someone asked Dean Dad what kind of impact the use of various social media tools might have on one’s academic career. (The post in question also appears at InsideHigherEd). His response is, to me, an interesting corrective to what seems to be prevailing conventional wisdom. He writes, “I’ve spent most of this decade in administration, and have literally never seen social media emerge as an issue.” I’d describe this as a corrective because it’s an answer based on empirical data; all-too-often we find ourselves internalizing a standard that none of us actually believe in (or have ever seen enforced) but that we assume everyone else is using.
Really? Who? Where?
Once upon a time–2005, actually–there were a couple of Chronicle of Higher Education columns by the pseudonymous Ivan Tribble, who argued that any kind of blogging whatsoever would sink your chances on the job market: “Bloggers Need Not Apply” and “They Shoot Messengers, Don’t They?” Both of those columns are now hidden behind a paywall, but the reactions from bloggers are not. Oh, the irony!
My point, however, is not “Bloggers! Yay!” (okay, maybe just a little) but rather something more along the lines of Your Mileage May Vary (ymmv).
Based on a recent conversation with a friend about ProfHacker, I’ve been thinking that we at ProfHacker could do a better job of making one thing clear. For the most part, we’re trying to take this approach:
“Here’s what’s worked for us. What’s worked for you?”
Not everyone can adopt the same strategies with regard to their professional (or personal lives), and we’d like to leave room for the variety of strategies that are adopted (or necessary). For example, as Nels pointed out in comments on this post, there are good reasons that some instructors don’t want to put their evaluations online for all to read. And Rana’s right to argue in the comments that not everyone can afford to adopt Brian’s advice to “Be Yourself Online.” (For the record, I liked both of those posts a lot–as did others–so I’m not implying that they were wrong-headed.)
Different circumstances call for different strategies. That may seem obvious, but I find I have to remind myself from time to time.
I’ll conclude with this question:
What’s been your experience with regard to social media and the academic world?
(Image of a wax Ivan Tribble J. Edgar Hoover by flickr user cliff1066. CC-Licensed.)
8 Comments
I never, ever would have expected my blog to play a role in my tenure dossier, but it did. I was praised for it. It was something that helped me stand out. The big thing that impressed people was how it helped me network, how my article was included in a graduate seminar elsewhere after I talked about it on my blog, how I was invited to give a talk in a lecture series after the coordinator read something on my blog. I thought my blog would be separate from my career, but it’s become a vital part of it. And I do not research or study social media; I just engage in it.
I have noticed that social media tends to not be used as much in higher education as it is used in elementary and secondary schools. I have really have no empirical data to back this up – mostly just observation.
I, too, experienced positive networking results because of my blog, but it was received somewhat negatively by some people within my institution. No one told me to stop blogging, but I was told once not to blog something–which I wouldn’t have anyway because it would have been inappropriate. Since I’m not a faculty member, I had no way of counting my blog towards anything.
On the other hand, I’ve connected with a few of the faculty at my institution after they found out about my blog, and they revealed they had one too. Since I’m not there anymore, it’s nice to be able to keep in touch via our blogs–and in at least one case, Twitter.
And on still the other hand (how many hands do I have?), whenever I worked with faculty to include social media in their teaching, that’s been received with some skepticism, even when I have data and research to back it up. They are the ones who’ve been swayed by media scare stories, mostly.
So, I’d say my experience has been mostly positive personally, but I still think academia in general is a little worried about the impact of social media and/or whether it makes sense to use it prorfessionally.
I get mixed reviews on using social media. The students like it. Some of my colleagues do. But I sense that there’s a pretty large group of faculty that see it as a waste of time….but since it’s my time, they keep their feelings to themselves. I’m waiting for this negative opinion to come out someday. Probably when there’s a question of whether or not I have enough time to do something they want done.
I keep a blog in hopes that one day it will benefit me. It is my ambition to be a teacher of some sort or the other. I do not discuss politics or social issues on my blog, nor do I comment on them in other online areas. I feel that I have a lot more to lose by using social media poorly than to gain by using it “correctly”.
I find this comment very interesting and valid. I appreciate this perspective.
Thank you so much for talking about this issue. I am of the opinion that the future of education is in social media and I’m excited to see how things develop!
I use the sidebar of my weblog as a sort of pseudo CV with links to all of my academic work, presentations, and also social media websites. I am pretty open about what I am up at any given time and have gotten a number of great networking contacts because of it.
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