Handbook of social media for researchers and supervisors

Digital technologies for research dialogues

Social media such as wikis, blogs, social bookmarking tools, social networking websites (e.g. Facebook), or photo- and video-sharing websites (e.g. Flickr, YouTube) facilitate gathering and sharing of information and resources and enable collaboration. Social media is a new form of communication that is changing behaviours and expectations of researchers, employers and funding bodies.

The goal of this handbook is to assist researchers and their supervisors to adopt and use social media tools in the service of their research, and, in particular, in engaging in the discourse of research. The handbook presents an innovative suite of resources for developing and maintaining a social media strategy for research dialogues.

This handbook has been written for:

• postgraduate researchers (PGRs) and early career researchers who want to learn about the role of social media in research dialogues
• supervisors and managers who want to expand their understanding of what social media offers, and the risks and opportunities involved.

The handbook makes extensive use of the examples of social media use amongst researchers and supervisors. The handbook has been written in a way that each section stands on its own as much as possible and therefore, it is not necessary to read the handbook from cover to cover.

About the authors

Shailey Minocha is a Reader in Computing in the Centre for Research in Computing at The Open University. Shailey's recent research in educational technology has focused on how emerging technologies can support digital scholarship, for example, blogging and reflective practice, wikis and virtual team collaboration, 3D virtual worlds and training and skills development, and the role of social media in research dialogues and research skills training and development. Shailey's paper 'An empirically grounded study on the effective use of social software in education' was the Highly Commended Award Winner at Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence, 2010. Shailey's research on the design of learning spaces in 3D virtual worlds 'Designing navigation and wayfinding in 3D virtual learning spaces' received the Gitte Lindgaard Award for best paper at OzCHI 2011. Shailey's publications are listed on: http://oro.open.ac.uk/view/person/sm577.html

Marian Petre is Professor of Computing at The Open University (OU).  She holds a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award, in recognition of her research on the nature of expertise in software design, and on reasoning and representation in software development.  She has also done substantial empirical research in Computer Science Education, and she has been involved both within the OU and internationally in building research communities, running innovative doctoral consortia and research development workshops, and mentoring researchers.  She co-authored the best-selling ‘The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research', as well as books on research methods and Computer Science Education research.  She re-structured PhD support in her department, using discussion and technology - both face-to-face and online - to build a collaborative research community that enhances the student experience and maximizes researcher development.