This week Tristram Hooley and I ran a workshop on behalf of the SW & Wales Vitae Hub entitled “Focus on… The Digital researcher and you“. This is one of a series of workshops aimed at those staff in universities who support the devlopment of researchers.
The aim of the day was to take a closer look at the use of social media in the context of research not just from the perspective of the researchers we support but also as a means by which we can improve our own professional practice.
In recent times there have been discussions in the researcher development community about how to improve on what we do; to find different ways of engaging with research students, staff and their supervisors.
Tristram and I worked together on preparing for the day using Prezi, an online presentation platform that makes it easier to collaborate. Here is the presentation that we used:
Digital Researcher #drsww on Prezi
One of the things that I am interested in is using social media to collaborate and/or share practice with researcher development folks. During the workshop we will be exploring how we might do this.
All thoughts welcome.
The Digital Doctorate 
Hi Paul I experienced another example of the benefits this week. After posting a blog and slides about a workshop, a participant wrote a piece on her blog about her perspectives.See http://shintonconsulting.posterous.com/confident-networkingAnd http://kalsau.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/the-route-to-confident-networking/This kind of evidence of the impact of what we do is really valuable and adds credibility to the workshop and its delivery to other researchers. Uptake is still a major issue for many, but if we can show how other researchers have benefitted from attendance we might convince a few more to come along next time.And, as always, thanks for sharing. Loved the Prezi and the TED talkSx
Still having mixed feelings about blogging. On the one hand I can see the advantage of sharing ideas and being alerted to things I wouldn’t otherwise hear about. On the other hand intellectual property is very precious to academics. It would be interesting to know how many scientists use blogs to document science in action (as opposed to publicizing completed pieces that are published)
Many thanks for today’s presentation- enjoyed learning about all the different technologies and most of the social citation ones were certainly new to me. Looking forward to sharing some of your experese with researchers on our CASCADE projectr at Exeter. Perhaps we can work together again on this…?http://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/cascade
Thinking about the idea of using a blog to post content from key workshops, not so much to attract other participants, as Sara suggests, but to enable those who did attend to revisit and reflect … also considering posting the comments from on-the-day evaluations and asking folks to comment a few days/weeks later on how they have applied the learning. Thanks, Paul! Terri
This workshop has been most useful to me in thinking about how to support academics in art and design to think and act on areas of impact and collaboration. These academics are notoriously solitary in their thinking…research tends to be very much embedded in their own practice, and their own practice can be very boundaried. The content of today’s workshop shows that there can be very real benefits to both the researcher and those following the researcher (in whatever form) in the act of sharing. It is useful to know that this doesn’t entail high level writing or the sort of chasing of potential followers (search engine optimistation in web terms) that can seem so onerous.Thanks you both for the day.
I had never seen the point of blogging but now I can see the value in using a blog to organise your thoughts and resources….I wonder when I would find the time – but perhaps the act of blogging could actually clear some space and time for me?
i love blogging as a more informal way to connect on work related issues. I do worry about the blurring of social and work lives however and the implications of never quite switching off from work when twitter, facebook, email and blog accounts are all linked (from a personal view as I have these all set up this way!). Can’t wait to introduce my colleagues to CiteULike – what a fantastic way of networking! Great day- thank you 🙂
Here are some other academic blogs http://adventuresincareerdevelopment.posterous.com/academic-blogs-dr11
Blogging for researchers – I reckon it could work really well for unexpected ways to expand your network or get ideas from places you would not normally look. But it requires researchers to look too and i’m not certain how to persuade them to take that first step. Blogging for researchers developers – well, now I know it doesn’t matter that no-one reads it (at least initially) I won’t feel so guilty about starting something that no-one will get any benefit from except me!
I think that a lot of what we do is about sorting out the clarity of our thinking. The process of writing is (for me at least) the point where data/stuff is transformed into meaning. Having an interim stage before academic publishing is something that I find hugely useful.
Two science type blogs that do well in terms of discussing ideas rather than data:- http://www.ellagale.com/science/ and http://alanwinfield.blogspot.com/
This has shown the value of continuing with my own blog and also the potential that social media has in research. Really enjoyed the presentations today, learnt a lot! Diolch!
I am interested by the idea of blogging as a way of working through ideas, and was useful to hear viewpoints on the value of blogs.
I really enjoyed today. I think it’s great to see how to use twitter, and to be introduced to the wide range of ways social media are being used. From the perspective of the Exeter Cascade Project, I think it’s good for people who are working directly with research students to know how to use these tools so that they can share their skills with the students. Your presentations were great and I like that it was interactive, so it made me connect with the topics. Also, I liked the dicussion about what networks are and how big they can be-really thought provoking!From a personal perspective, I feel like with all of these things the intention is really what matters most for me. I mean, like with anything, you can use blogs/twitter/facebook to really expand your perspective and make connections in your field, and to really share knowledge, or you can use them in offensive, egotistical, and pointless ways. So I have a hard time with thinking that twitter is automatically going to make me, or anyone else automatically better at my work, or research- I think if I am good at my work or research I will automatically use twitter in a way that shows that, and if I am someone who is easily distracted/procrastinates than all these fancy digital tools can be really effective in that capactiy as well! But this is a whole other thing to talk about!
Hi PaulThank you for sharing your blogging thoughts and also for all of the presentations today. I shall be taking away the thought that I can create my own blog – to write for perhaps just fifteen minutes a day on what I have achieved. On days when things have not gone to so well, I can look back on the positive aspects of what I have actually managed to do.Thanks again, going to go now as coffee/tea is callingCarey
The idea of using a blog as a space for reflection is really exciting. It is definately something that I would like to try and adopt because I do think that I need to reflect more on my work as I go along. Today has given me a very valuable space to get my ahead some of these different technologies. I will definately be sharing some of this learning with my colleagues back in the office.
Many thanks to you both for your presentations and friendly approach today. Many things to ponder and think about especially… how can I effectively utilise the technology introduced within my research? I have answer to some of these questions now! Diolch yn fawr.
Blogging as a reflective practice is a fabulous idea (and a great way for me to justify venturing into the blogosphere). Now to put all of the learning from today into practice… If nothing else I get massively frustrated by the tyranny of Powerpoint so am looking forward to tackling prezi. Thanks.
Really helpful data, lots of thanks for your post. la tienda
Really helpful data, lots of thanks for your post. la tienda
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