Prompted in part by posts from Zach and Chris plus the video from Michael Wesch, I have been thinking about the adoption, rejection, or suspicion of certain technology platforms by the academy. Micheal Wesch discussed the self-consciousness induced when starting to make and post youtube videos. Both Zach and Chris expressed concerns about over sharing in a space accessible to pretty much everyone. Zach certainly felt concern about revealing too much personally, perhaps the lack of immediate interaction or the difficulty of conveying sarcasm or that you are joking makes him leery of blogging? Chris expressed concerns about over sharing technical advice or insights that may be patentable. Both valid concerns.
Maybe I should be concerned that I lack this self-protective instinct? I think I am by nature an over sharer. I’m too loud, too willing to share the latest thought that runs through my head, too willing to say something for the shock value, too willing to play devil’s advocate. Could this get me in trouble? Yes, but let’s face it, it gets me in more trouble in “real” life than “virtual” life. In virtual life I think twice and maybe thrice before I hit “publish,” “share,” or “send.” In real life I get myself in trouble by shooting off my mouth when emotions are obvious and fresh. The advantages of electronic communication were mentioned in the TechAsLever reading.
My most recent direct experience with the fear of over sharing had to do with trying to convince my undergraduate Biology Department to start a facebook fan page. I had no problem getting permission to start one but convincing faculty or university alumni relations personnel to participate in posting is another matter. Some of the faculty have facebook profiles but they either don’t have the time to add to the fan page or are leery of “sharing.” Some of the faculty are reticent to set up a facebook profile and share the minutia and personal thoughts that grease the social networking wheels, some just don’t see the point of social networking. Time is definitely an issue for the faculty but the alumni association at William & Mary has gone through the trouble of creating their own social networking site in which only W&M alumni are allowed to set up profiles. The idea is that alumni might be afraid of the openness of facebook and that facebook is harder to control so the W&M only social networking site behind a W&M only firewall is safer and more likely to be used. For me, the benefit that facebook has the critical mass of users necessary to allow the interaction that is the heart and soul of social networking outweighs the losses of control. I am willing to feed the W&M biology fan page with posts but at least for the moment departmental facebook fan pages at W&M seem to be a tool to that engenders a little suspicion and confusion from faculty and staff. I admit, facebook over sharing, especially with current students, could be a problem but I think it is one that is manageable. I wouldn’t friend students until they are alumni, at which point I’d friend them as valuable contacts for your current students and to foster a sense of alumni connection to the school and department (translation: fund-raising/alumni donations). I also try not to post anything on my facebook profile that I’d be embarrassed to have everybody in the world know about me. As for a departmental fan page, I wouldn’t post anything controversial or that is not in a category approved by the public relations people.
Beyond that the question is whether social networking is valuable or mostly pointless navel gazing? I’d say there is value along with some pointless navel gazing, what do you think? What are your over sharing fears? What holds you back from embracing a new technology or form of communication?
Bottling Magic 
You raise many interesting opportunities for discussion here…I’m most intrigued by the idea of “adoption, rejection, or suspicion of certain technology platforms by the academy.” In some ways I think the expressed reasons of adoption and rejection are lenses for understanding teaching practice. One of the things that routinely happens with tech adoption in education is that teachers gravitate to technologies that help them do something they are already doing…not necessarily to do something new. Tech use in education tends to reinforce existing practices. I think this provides some major clues about why tools like Blackboard have enjoyed such widespread adoption – despite the majority of use being quite basic – among higher education faculty.
That said, I think we are all coming to terms with understanding how a participatory web that is open, public and social, is impacting traditional notions of teaching and learning.
I guess one of the big questions I have about the idea of sharing – at least in the context of education – is this…are we ready to not only share about ourselves, but to also share agency with our students in the learning process?
@Jeff, I think facebook groups and pages that facilitate sharing of links and comments are a great way to share agency with students but for right now I suspect most faculty are uncomfortable and unfamiliar with this tool. I think the fear of loss of control is definitely one hurdle to sharing agency with students. On the other hand most people are more interested in their own ideas than other people’s ideas. (Ex: Want to convince somebody something is a good idea? Convince them it is THEIR idea.) On this logic student generated reading assignments might spark more engagement than professor dictated reading assignments. I read articles my friends send me or recommend voraciously. I think it would be a great assignment to ask one or two students each week to find “real world” readings that are relevant to topics being discussed that week. You could grade the students on relevance and ask them write a brief justification of the relevance. Good assignment, bad assignment? You could even ask students to write responses to another students analysis. Hmm, this idea of sharing the “professor” work with the students is really appealing to me. Probably have to be careful that students stay civil in criticizing each others’ work and that professor must provide feedback as well. Do you see pitfalls to this approach?
I use this approach in several graduate courses I teach, and find that my students tend to find better sources and more up to date sources than I originally had. It also helps me to stay current.
As we discussed last night, the trick is feedback so that the students see this as value added and not just “work.” Positive reinforcement that you valued the sources found goes a long way to motivating future student searches.
Ok, so to get over my anxiety about this genre, I am currently blogging in the shower! I thought it would make me feel dirty but I actually feel quite clean!
Before i get electrocuted, let me offer a social psychology perspective. In face 2 face interaction, it is rather easy to “define the situation” and to slip into the appropriate roles and statuses (i.e. If we are in a classroom, then we are student and teacher and we accept the accompanying hierarchy, if we are at a music festival then we are peers – music lovers, and there isn’t a hierarchy — although there is a bit of a residual hierarchy left over from our familiar relationship determined by the classroom).
When you are interacting through a social media, the definition of the situation becomes a little less clear and as such, “rules of engagement” are blurry. I find that people do not always honor traditional statuses, roles, and relationships. This can be both liberating and oppressive, authentic and disingenuous. People may feel like they need to manage their persona with more attention while others feel like it is license to cut lose. So for better or worse, social media is compromising our traditional notions of identity, dialogue and interpersonal relationships. Until it gets sorted, many people are going to enter it timidly at best.
It is particularly interesting for some like me who has a sociology identity, a faculty identity, and an administrator identity. I feel it is particularly important to convey what hat I am wearing when I am posting commentary on the web…thus my disclaimer on my blog.