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Use of Social Media by Chinese postgraduate students

10/28/2014

One of the themes Lifewide Education is exploring is the use of social media in formal and informal learning. Like most things in life, I tend to think only in terms of the social media I use or am familiar with and rarely think outside my cultural box. So on a recent visit to Beijing Normal University (BNU) I took the opportunity to conduct a survey of the use of social media by postgraduate students in the Education Faculty. I must confess I knew next to nothing about Social Media in China, other than Facebook, Twitter and Youtube were not considered to be appropriate by Chinese authorities. In fact I could not access these platforms during my visit to Beijing.
I started googling and discovered some amazing statistics. Out of a total population of nearly 1.4 billion nearly half are internet users and over 625 million and 1.2 billion mobile subscribers. There are estimated to be over 625 million active social media users and China's top 10 sites actually have a staggering 3.2 billion individual accounts. Along with those phenomenal numbers, the data also showsthat the largest section of China’s social media users – a full 30 percent – are aged 26 to 30. Ninety one percent of Chinese internet users have social accounts, which is way above the 67 percent in the US.

'Go Globe' characterise the top 10 sites in China as Twitter-like: Weibo and Sina Weibo. Facebook-y -like: QZone, Pengyou, Renren, and Kaixin are all focused around a mix of social profiles, albums, buddies, and social gaming.. Whatsapp-ish - The much talked about WeChat is like Whatsapp, and is one of a number of Asia-made messaging apps – like Line and KakaoTalk – that are battling to get onto the smartphones of young Chinese and Southeast Asian web users.

How do BNU postgraduate students use social media?
Having done my homework I designed my questionnaire armed with this basic knowledge. So what did I discover from the 18 responses. Only one person said that social media was not important in their everyday life. All the other respondents said it was either quite or very important with one respondent claiming that they couldn’t function without it. The preferred device for accessing social media was the laptop and smartphone. The main social media platforms used by these students were QQ, QZone, Sino Weibo, Wechat, Google+ and YouKu (like Youtube). However, all the social media platforms offered as items in the survey were used by someone, including Facebook and Twitter! All the social media platforms were used to 'talk to friends'. Most of them were used to 'connect to people who share my interests', Qzone, Youtube and YouKu were used to 'create and share content'. Most of the platforms enabled 'learning of new things' but google+ was overwhelmingly considered to be significant for this purpose. Youtube, YouKu and Flikr were linked to 'fulfiling my interests' for a small number of users. Qzone, Renren, Linkedin and Sino Weibo were linked to 'belonging to a community'. In response to a checklist of 10 possible reasons as to 'How does social media contribute to your life?' All the reasons were cited as being significant with a score of 3 or more. The highest rated reasons were: Maintaining important relationships (score 4.17), Feeling Connected (3.75) and Everyday learning (3.67). Chinese students perceive many benefits of using social media - it makes it easy to stay in touch with friends, 'it's great to share daily life with other friends via social media'. Its convenient and cheap and it can be used in different places. It helps you to find and get information easily, to learn more things and achieve goals and purposes, and exchange ideas. These students were conscious of the risks of using social media and a number of problems were recognised such as: wasting time, 'losing your life', having to deal with too much information, having to deal with useless messages. The creation of new social problems such as 'flaunting wealth and indifference to others', and 'people meeting less and less; easy to ignore people by our sides and rely on the internet' 'Yes, there are some disadvantages. Social media is amazing and we often spend most of daily time on it. If we want to have deep thinking or study, we cannot rely on social media so much. Using it too much will make us lose thinking and a little blundering'.

All in all, social media is considered to be a useful tool if used in the right way. The most important skills and attitudes for effective and enjoyable use were considered to be the ability to search effectively, to plan usage and self-regulate time and behaviour, 'otherwise you'll lose yourself in social media and get sad', and to be able to 'pick out the most significant' information.

Acknowledgement & Future Work
Lifewide Education would like to thank all the students that contributed to the survey. Our intention is to conduct similar on-line surveys of students' use of social media in the UK. Please contact Chrissi Nerantzi if you would like to join this project. chrissinerantzi@googlemail.com
Source of information of Chinese social media
'Go Global' China’s Top 10 Social Media Sites (Infographic) http://www.techinasia.com/2013-china-top-10-social-sites-infographic

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Men's Sheds: Social Innovation for the Social Age

10/16/2014

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Inspiring story
You can find inspiring stories about lifewide learning everywhere. In October I was visiting my mother in Australia this week who lives in a small coastal town over 200km south of Sydney. I love coming to her home which she has lived in for 28 years. It's very peaceful apart from the ticking clocks and the colourful and noisy parakeets, lorikeets and rosella's that fly around continuously. The time I spend here is always good for reflection especially when I take long walks along the local beaches. The place triggers memories of different visits we have made over twenty years as my children grew up and eventually visited their grandparents by themselves. In many respects this has been the family home for the third and now the fourth generation of the Jackson clan for we are many.

Whenever I visit Australia I'm always on the lookout for interesting ideas that I can relate to Lifewide Education's interests. I am never disappointed. On my last visit I discovered a local charity called the Dunn Lewis Foundation(1) that had been set up in memory of young people who had been killed in the Bali nightclub bombing doing a lot of good work to support young people and help them develop skills to gain employment but more generally to develop themselves as confident people.

This time I discovered 'Men's Sheds' because just across the road from my mother's house in Narrawallee sits the Ulladulla Men's Shed.

The story of how men formed their own purposeful social groups around the idea of coming together in a shed to socialise and make things is a great story for the Social Age. The grassroots social movement began in Australia(2) in the mid 1990s when a group of men realised that it would be great fun to have a shed in which they could meet regularly to do something practical - especially to make or fix things. The idea quickly caught on and many sheds were established in local communities and by 2006 the government set up an organisation1 to help coordinate and support the creation of more men's sheds. In fact the Men's Shed movement is now part of the Australian health infrastructure that supports programmes to improve men's health and well being. It's a great example of how a local grassroots idea, became a social phenomenon that eventually drove government policy.

The value is in making friends, feeling useful, making a contribution and learning new things
The idea of meeting up with other men to do something of practical value, often making toys and furniture to raise money for charities, appeals to men both living alone or with partners and at all ages although the vast majority of 'shedders' are at or beyond retirement date. Many older men lose some sense of purpose with the loss of their work role, status, workmates, income etc and can find themselves disengaged from their community if the pub or sports is not their thing. The generality of community activities on offer do not appeal to men and with their own expectation of meeting their own needs then some level of social isolation can occur. Men with their own shed have often developed their skills and interests there but in a larger facility, with better or more equipment, with skills you can develop with others and jobs you can do for the community a Men's Shed offers something new. Finding a way of working, alongside others and with a purpose in view but without imposed demands can be exactly what many men need.

And it doesn't stop at making things there are also activities such as making music and cooking. Like the Melton Men's Shed, 45km northwest of Melbourne, where every Tuesday men prepare and cook a two-course meal. It's part of a national trend where older men who have been looked after by wives who are no longer with them, can learning to cook for the first time.

Emerging global phenomenon
There are now more than 1,200 sheds in Australia and the scheme has gone global. There are nearly 200 sheds in Ireland and over 100 in the UK with a new shed opening every three days (4).

The growth of Men's Sheds is an emergent social response to the need for men, particularly over the age of 50, to make themselves useful by finding new purposes in life when they have experienced a significant life change such as retirement, loss of a partner or debilitating illness.

Social isolation, loneliness and stressful social ties are common amongst older men, and are associated with poor physical and mental health, higher risk of disability, poor recovery from illness and early death.

According to a 2014 survey by Age UK (4), more than one million people over 65 in the UK are often or always lonely, an increase of 38% on the previous year. Two-fifths of respondents said that their main form of company is the television. The UK is among the most socially isolated countries in Europe, according to research published in June 2014 by the Office for National Statistics. Asked whether they feel close to people in their local area, 42% said they did not – the highest proportion after Germany. The Campaign to End Loneliness, a national network set up in 2011, believes the issue is a “public health disaster” waiting to happen. Scientific research shows that for older people, loneliness is twice as unhealthy as obesity, as it is linked to high blood pressure, strokes and a weakened immune system.

Older men use fewer community based health services than women, and are less likely to participate in preventive health activities. They also find it harder than women to make friends late in life, and are less likely to join community-based social groups that tend to be dominated by women. Finding acceptable social interventions for lonely and isolated groups of disadvantaged older working class men is a challenge: one that is being addressed by the Men's Shed movement.

A synthesis of research on Men's Sheds (5) points in particular to the health and well-being benefits of men coming together in a purposeful way. Participation in a Men’s Shed, a community garden or other activity, is linked to older men’s desire to engage with their peers in work-like activity. This gives them a sense of identity, self-esteem and value and provides a space within which they can re-create a sense of masculinity in older age. Overall findings from these studies indicate that Men’s Sheds and other gendered interventions provide an array of benefits for older men including: learning new skills, sharing knowledge; personal achievement; community engagement; the opportunity to meet and interact with others. There is a strong association between having good social relationships through leisure and other forms of activity with good health. However, to date there is no robust measurable evidence that involvement in Men’s Sheds has a significant effect on the physical health of older men.

Personalising this story
My father spent many years of his retirement, until he was well into his 80's, working voluntarily with a group of pensioners to make children's toys to raise money for a local charity that provided holidays for disabled children and their families. He also had his own shed (garage) full of tools neatly arranged and labelled on the walls and a heavy duty work bench where he made toys for the grandchildren and more recently great grandchildren - a dolls house for the girls and a garage for the boys . When he died six weeks ago my mother invited the men to come over from the Ulladulla Men's Shed across the road to help themselves to any of his tools. They had been so appreciative of the gift so I went over the road to introduce myself and say how pleased my dad would have been to see his tools being put to such good use. Apparently many 'Men's Shed's' receive donations of tools and equipment in this way - another great example of men helping other men even in their passing.

I met Barrie (left) who had started the project over 6 years ago - apparently the Ulladulla Men's Shed was number 35 in the whole of Australia. Barry had seen one on the north coast and decided it would be a good idea to have one in Ulladulla so he set about trying to raise awareness and money. The local council were not interested in supporting the project but a church was, and donated the land on which the shed sits. Over the last six years the project has grown and there are now over 100 men making use of the facility. On the day of my visit there were about 10 men busy working in the garden and workshops. Barrie told me that they receive very little financial aid but people make donations which are tax deductable. Mostly though, the Shed survives on the money they raise themselves through selling what they make or grow in the garden. While it might be tough to sustain the enterprise it is not only sustaining itself but there are plans for extending the shed to accommodate more men. Having seen it for myself you cannot fail to be impressed by the power in the idea and the even greater power in the implementation of it.

Relating this to the Social Age
So you might ask how does this relate to the Social Age? one of the themes Lifewide Education is exploring this year(6). In many respects the situation we are seeing in which men are physically coming together in the same space for companionship, to make themselves useful and to learn and be creative through the things they make, is more akin to the Manufacturing Age into which many of these men were born and learnt their values. It demonstrates to me the idea that each 'Age' of learning does not obliterate the earlier Ages, rather it subsumes and enriches it with new tools and approaches. I did not see or hear of Men's Sheds going digital but in my internet searches I discovered that there are opportunities for men to learn about computers and Web 2.0, and digital photography and in this way develop new skills that will enable them to participate in the Social Age of learning. And thanks to 'my sisters dongle' I was able to sit in my mother's lounge in Narrawallee and discover lots of things about Men's Sheds that I never knew before. In checking my twitter feed I discovered a blog by Steve Wheeler(7) that explained the theory of constructionism - a cognitive theory that relates to learning by making things and this seems like a useful theory within which to view what goes on inside Men's Sheds. The culture of learning we associate with the Social Age is all about participation and what Men's Sheds is all about is encouraging men to participate in their own self-determined projects within what Douglas Thomas and John Seeley Brown call 'collectives' (8). It's also about co-creation and the bounded spaces of a Men's Shed is full of creativity and co-creativity. It is in the sense of belonging and participation in a 'collective' for the purpose of creating and co-creating in order to contribute to society and to personal wellbeing where Men's Sheds intersect with the Social Age.

Acknowledgement
A big thank you to Barrie Wilford for inspiring me with the story of the Ulladulla Men's Shed.

Sources of information
1 Dunn Lewis Foundation
2 Mens Sheds Australia http://www.mensheds.org.au
3 UK Mens Shed Association http://www.menssheds.org.uk/
4 Howard E (2014) ‘If I didn’t come to the shed, I’d be alone, watching TV’. The Guardian, Wednesday 8 October 2014 http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/oct/07/mens-sheds-movement-isolation-loneliness-mental-health 5 Milligan C, Dowrick C, Payne C Hanratty B, Irwin P, Neary D, Richardson D (2013)
Men’s Sheds and other gendered interventions for older men: improving health and wellbeing through social activity. A systematic review and scoping of the evidence base. A report for the Liverpool-Lancaster Collaborative (LiLaC) and Age UK
http://www.ageuk.org.uk/documents/en-gb/for-professionals/research/men%20in%20sheds%20age%20uk%20brief.pdf?dtrk=true
6 Lifewide Magazine Issue 11 Exploring the Social Age and the New Culture of Learning
http://www.lifewidemagazine.co.uk/
7 Learning and Making Powerful Ideas http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/ learning-making-and-powerful-ideas.html?view=classic
8 Thomas D and Seeley Brown J (2011) The New Culture of Learning
http://www.newcultureoflearning.com/

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New Leadership for New Learning

10/9/2014

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In a recent article in the recent Lifewide Magazine (1) I suggested that the Flipped Classroom could provide the ideal conditions for a culture of social leadership to flourish. This was based on questioning the applicability of Julian Stodd’s NET framework for social leadership(2) to teaching and learning in higher education in a digital age.

In this blog, I am suggesting that in addition to having frameworks for leadership in higher education we need to open up conversation on what we mean by leadership, how we all conceptualise our role as leaders. I am also suggesting that the deceptively simple 5 practices of good leadership espoused by Jim Kouze and Barry Posner in the 5th Edition of their highly acclaimed book The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations can provide us with a framework for thinking about ourselves as leaders in learning and teaching.

Leadership is currently a hot topic with calls for more or new leadership across all sectors including business, government, public service and administration, and higher education. It almost seems as if leadership is the catch-all for nearly any problem irrespective of context. In the case of Higher Education there is remarkably little research on models or paradigms of leadership in higher education. The studies that stand out are those of MacFarlane (3), and Fullan & Scott (4). A consistent theme in these works is the special and complex nature of leadership in higher education. Co-existing in the same organisations are examples of hierarchical leadership (the norm), distributed leadership by virtue of the compartmentalised nature of higher education institutions with Faculties, departments and administrative centres requiring leaders and leadership that respond to the hierarchy. There will also be many examples of ‘heroic’ individual leadership. What we know very little about is the ‘leadership mindset’ either at individual or collective levels.

Leadership remains a contested concept and despite the vast literature on the topic, there is no magic bullet, no one model of leadership deemed better than another. However, across the terrain of leadership literature and research, much of which is focused on business leaders and leadership, it is clear that the plethora of leadership models and frameworks have a common aim - the ability to influence others to produce positive change that enables an organization or group to achieve its vision (5). But there is perhaps here also a question of whose vision and perhaps the often overlooked role of leader is to engender a spirit of ownership for any vision that is being implemented especially if the vision is being handed down from on high.

The constant call for more or new leadership suggests a perceived gap between what is desired and what is practiced regarding leadership in complex ever changing organisations. What is lacking in much of the leadership literature is an articulation of the vision of what ‘more and new’ leadership is, what it will lead us towards, and what this means for leadership in higher education.

It might be argued that the most appropriate models for leadership of higher education institutions will depend on defining the vision for the institution itself. The institutional mission will reflect the vision and the plethora of functional units will interpret the mission within their particular context.

The five practices of good leadership in Pouze and Kosner’s (6) framework provide us with a tool to reflect on and articulate our leadership practice:

Model the Way – Leaders set an example for all constituents based on a shared understanding of what is expected. Leaders are clear on their values and lead in accordance with these values.

Reflective practice is something of a mantra in higher education. As academics and ‘leaders’ in teaching and learning, reflecting on our values as teachers and how we live up to these values in our practice could be made explicit through our learning and teaching portfolios; our role as role models for learners could be elevated in importance as part of institutional culture.

Inspire a Shared Vision – Good leaders can inspire a vision for the future - 'people commit to causes, not to plans' (6).

The digital and the social age combine to enable new approaches to learning and teaching. Students are stakeholders in the vision for learning and teaching. Why not have learners contribute to the shared vision, shift the dynamics of the classroom, put the ‘social’ back into the act of learning? Design a curriculum for the twenty first century that resonates positively with all stakeholders.

Challenge the Process – The work of leaders is change. All change requires that leaders actively seek ways to make things better, to grow, innovate and improve, to get extraordinary things done (6).

In the 21st century, our constant challenge is rapid and multiple change in almost all spheres of life. There are major global challenges and we need to capture the creative thinking of all stakeholders in the learning and teaching contract. What would a visioning of a curriculum for the social and digital age look like? Can we ask bigger questions of ourselves and challenge our own conceptions of leadership positioning and responsibilities as a leader? Can we constructively challenge the status quo?

Enable Others to Act – Leaders need to consider two essentials: the ability to create a climate of trust; the ability to foster relationships.

Fostering a sense of shared creation of new knowledge and shared responsibility could lead to dynamic learning situations. As outlined in the aforementioned article on the potential of the Flipped Classroom (1), having the courage to let go, to be a learner and teacher simultaneously, creating a climate of trust in the classroom, allows for role modelling the learning process, sharing and creating visions for learning and understanding, engaging with the challenge of a different narrative for higher education and negotiated outcomes for learners.

Encourage the Heart – celebrate the values and victories by creating a spirit of community.

Encourage the heart means remembering to acknowledge, affirm and reward performance, having the generosity of spirit to recognise that success is a shared enterprise.

The most significant function of universities and colleges is to teach, to provide students with the best possible learning experience preparing them for a challenging world. In a changing world being transformed by the capabilities of new technologies and the emergence of the social age, we need to bring to the fore more searching questions regarding our vision for teaching and learning. What is required of us to play a leading role, show leadership and lead the challenge of realising a new vision appropriate to a new age?

The point being emphasised in this contribution to the Lifewide Education blog is that leadership is an active, conscious process. It is so much more than a title, position or mark of status. How often and in what ways do we make explicit our narrative or articulation of our conceptions of leaders, leading, leadership? How do we measure our own effectiveness as leaders?

One final point, leadership is for the many not the few. We tend to think of leaders as those in positions of authority and power but in a world of constant change everyone who is imagining and implementing change be it in the boardroom or the classroom is a leader. So in response to the clarion call for new, better, different or more leadership, we encourage more dialogue and debate within higher education on what it means to be a leader and how we understand ourselves as leaders regardless of our professional role.

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Use of Social Media by Chinese postgraduate students

Men's Sheds: Social Innovation for the Social Age

New Leadership for New Learning

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