With academics and academic institutions developing a growing presence on Twitter, Academic Twitter is overflowing with papers, conferences, trends and views. Jenni Carr, an avid tweeter, compiles her monthly list of Top Tweets
In 2008 Clay Shirky proclaimed “the Internet runs on love.” He wrote about how technologies which facilitate online collaborations can lead to ‘products’ that taken as a whole, have an exchange value exceeding the sum of the value of each individual contribution. Products of collaboration enrich our world, and then some!
At a time when commentary about social media focuses increasingly on the negative aspects, let’s take a brief look at what can happen when we share the love. Recently, there have been so many negative Twitterstorms fuelled by gendered comments and perceptions, it is great to see the result of a collaboration of 46 women academics on Twitter – a journal article based on Twitter contributions giving advice on how to get published–coordinated by @trishgreenhalgh. Meta!
Here’s a just-published paper that began on Twitter!
Twitter women’s tips on academic writing. All 47 contributors are listed by twitter handle at the end. https://t.co/XCglYXomOK— Trisha Greenhalgh #PeoplesVote (@trishgreenhalgh) July 15, 2019
It’s tough for independent scholars with no institutional affiliation to access journals affordably. In the current HE climate many independent scholars are early-career academics, and their independence is not always a matter of choice. Of course, the best solution would be for open access publishing to become even more widespread. In the meantime, however, we increasingly see authors sharing a link to a certain number of free copies of their journal articles. Thanks to @MarionHeron65 who tweeted the link to her latest article on peer observations. If you have free articles to share, please consider doing so via Twitter.
50 free copies of our paper 'Discourses of peer observation in higher education: Event or system' in Innovations in Education and Teaching International 56(4) are now available at the following link https://t.co/aAQuWgbgjg
— Marion Heron (@MarionHeron65) June 22, 2019
Now moving onto a task many of us face – compiling reading lists. #AcademicTwitter has evolved as an effective way to get feedback and suggestions. Thanks to @Arley_McNeney for this list and to @jessifer for reposting his summary of suggestions in reply. In the process of compiling a reading list, why not look for suggestions from outside your own work context?
Some people have asked me for the pedagogy reading list I compiled after I saw a Twitter thread (that I think @Jessifer started?), so here it is. Interested in what other people would add to the list #pedagogy pic.twitter.com/vko1ta61sy
— Arley Cruthers (McNeney) (@Arley_McNeney) July 17, 2019
Beyond the reading list, many scholars share resources via #AcademicTwitter which makes for incredible scope and breadth of what’s available. Here’s a link to @chris_friend who shares an education site, compiled with colleagues, focusing on critical pedagogy and its role in shaping how we might teach. There’s a lot of resources and advice on this site, so it might take a while to work through it, but well worth the effort. And the Creative Commons (CC) license means that we all don’t have to keep reinventing the wheel!
So happy to release our site into the world! This week in #DHSI19 #CritPrax, we created a website designed to guide educators through an examination of teaching practices with an emphasis on the labor and humanity of our work. Check it out! https://t.co/SWJcpdBSDs
— Chris Friend (@chris_friend) June 7, 2019
Critical pedagogy demands looking at patterns of inequality in power relations and the importance of democratic collaboration. Returning to Shirky’s discussion of collective action – I’d like to point out one collective which has made great use of social media for mobilisation and organisation – @ExtinctionR Their London header photo shows when they turned up at our neighbour’s. Thanks to @dirstevesmith for tweeting a link to the documentary Extinction Rebellion: Last Chance to Save the World? Well worth watching, and particularly for the insights into how young people are engaging in collective action.
Extinction Rebellion: Last Chance to Save the World?: https://t.co/K6y4x0CjlF via @BBCiPlayer Following @ExtinctionR over recent months as they successfully raise #ClimateEmergency up the political & public agenda. Well worth watching and sharing.
— Steve Smith (@dirstevesmith) July 18, 2019
Which brings me to my final highlight, brought to our attention by @RobGMacfarlane, a night at the Proms.
"Roll over Beethoven, Greta Thunberg is in the house…" The Lost Words is becoming a Prom on 25th August at the Albert Hall. Composer Jocelyn Pook has written extraordinary new music for it, setting words by @GretaThunberg. An orison for the Anthropocene.https://t.co/I6dMyVl5Dw
— Robert Macfarlane (@RobGMacfarlane) July 18, 2019
I suspect tickets will have already sold out, but you can catch the Proms live on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Channels One/Two, or catch-up on the BBC iPlayer. For me the Proms always means the start of summer. Hope you all have the chance to take a break.
Being an academic is basically just saying “I‘ll finally get that paper written this summer” until you die
— Shit Academics Say (@AcademicsSay) July 9, 2019
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Disclaimer: This post is opinion-based and does not reflect the views of the London School of Economics and Political Science or any of its constituent departments and divisions.
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Main image credit: axelle b (publicdomainpictures.net)
