twitter as scholarship: how not to get fired (much)

TWITTER AS SCHOLARSHIP How Not To Get Fired(much)

BONNIE STEWART @bonstewart University of Prince Edward Island, Canada LaTrobe University, October 2016

http://xkcd.com/802/

Prince Edward Island?

WINTER IS COMING

APRIL 2015. ew.

How did I get here?

Open networked scholarship

ACADEMIC TWITTER

scholarship what people had for lunch

TIMESTAMP:

2013

Rise of hashtag activism…

TIMESTAMP:

2014

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Michael_Brown#/media/File:Memorial_to_Michael_Brown.jpg

+ ‘Callout culture’

+ backlash & rise of alt/right

https://mobile.twitter.com/cartoon_neuron/status/618385493227642880

+ increasing institutionalization of social media

= increased perception of professional RISK

There are a lot of shuttered academic Twitter accounts.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/duncan/3753886017/

This lens of risk isn’t wrong… but it’s not the whole picture.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/the4mahers/6802850117/

So… HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING & LOVE THE TWITTERZ

Understanding the intersections between networked & academic premises is the

KEY to value & safe(ish) use

https://www.flickr.com/photos/28537647@N06/2887726958/

The work of two 20th century thinkers helped me understand Twitter as 21st century scholarship …and think about how to use it.

1. Boyer: Networked practices as SCHOLARSHIP

¤ Scholarship of discovery

¤ Scholarship of integration

¤ Scholarship of application

¤ Scholarship of teaching

!

(Boyer, 1990)

Academia & social media are both reputational economies

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8113246@N02/7932198032

We are trained & acculturated to SIGNALS of scholarly excellence

https://www.flickr.com/photos/126451798@N05/15076855933/

Those within the academy become very skilled at judging the stuff of

reputations. Where has the person’s work been published, what claims

of priority in discovery have they established, how often have they been cited, how and where reviewed, what prizes won, what institutional ties

earned, what organizations led?

(Willinsky, 2010)

Enter…knowledge abundance

https://www.flickr.com/photos/piper/19904408

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jaredzimmerman/15728149611/

The gates are open

https://www.flickr.com/photos/vince2012/14557320666/

Structure of abundance = networks

https://plus.google.com/+DaveGray/posts/CQRVeKEsUvFpid=5751686447270321954&oid=117373186752666867801

Networked publics: many-to-many signals

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/it/thumb/d/d8/Do_Not_Adjust_Your_Set.jpg/280px-Do_Not_Adjust_Your_Set.jpg

…Like a party line with multiple private/public options

https://www.flickr.com/photos/94342662@N00/3869483214/

capacity to contribute to

“The Conversation”

scale of visibility

common interests & disciplines

shared ties

Network signals do similar work…more openly

Factors contributing

to perceived

influence & value in

academic Twitter –

Stewart, 2015

MY STORY: My local cohort, Ph.D year 2

Me, studying networks & education V, 6hrs away,

studying music ed

Z, working 1hr away, studying leadership in ed

Twitter = a cohort without borders

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bswise/4457290211/

Many-to-many signals = global communities of practice

& mentorship

Benefits as thinker: just-in-time choral conversation

Benefits as learner: support & care

Benefits as writer: crowdsourcing

Benefits as teacher: opportunities to connect students to real audiences

Benefits as scholar: connection to leaders

+ expansion of audience

https://www.flickr.com/photos/tattoodjay/4129779298/

+ opportunity. Thanks to many-to-many communications on Twitter.

Academic Twitter = a scholarship of abundance

https://www.flickr.com/photos/92998734@N03/8466586880/

(sometimes change is good.)

Great. But what about when open, networked signals don’t feel good?

And don’t feel like scholarship?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/edenpictures/14399024753

2. Ong: The CULTURE of an environment is shaped by its communications medium

Oral Tradition

¤ Participatory

¤ Situational

¤ Social

¤ Formulaic

¤ Agonistic

¤ Rhetorical

…sound kinda like Twitter?

Literate Tradition

¤  Interiorized

¤ Abstracted

¤  Innovative

¤ Precise

¤ Analytic

¤  Indexical

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letterpress_printing#/media/File:The_Caxton_Celebration_-_William_Caxton_showing_specimens_of_his_printing_to_King_Edward_IV_and_his_Queen.jpg

Academia is the instantiation of what Ong calls ‘high literacy.’

…sound kinda like academia?

Ong’s secondary orality + secondary literacy

“The network message from one person to another / others is very rapid and can in effect be in the present…

textualized verbal exchange registers psychologically as having the temporal immediacy of oral exchange.”

(Ong, 1996)

Speech-based expectations

Call-out Culture = Collapsed Publics

Print-based interpretations

The ORALITY of Twitter – which demands ongoing participation,

performativity beyond rank, casual sociality, & a different type

of conflict – creates challenges.

Challenge: context collapse (Wesch, 2009; boyd, 2011)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dress_code

Challenge: virality

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21031300@N02/4076687726/

Challenge: permanence

Challenge: the ‘comments section’

Challenge: differential identity reception & targeting

Challenge: predatory labour masked as “exposure”

(Okay, *that* one’s a lot like academia)

How can we navigate Twitter in a way that contributes to our scholarship & humanity, rather than risking either?

*assuming Twitter continues to exist*

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tmesis/21126825/

Remember, the internet is people. Who read signals.

To start signaling, build an identity

You need to work on your identity before it will work for you.

Figure out who you want to signal to.

¤  #phdchat

¤  #edchat

¤  #ECRchat

¤  #ScholarSunday

¤  #GetYourManuscriptOut

¤  #acwri

¤  #SaturdaySchool

¤  #highered

¤  #digped

¤  #WithaPhD

¤  #science

Connect: #s help you find people with shared interests

#

Share. Your work AND that of others. Cite & credit people.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanr/142455033/

Be patient. Be friendly. Be part of the conversation.

Believe in the value of your contribution.

Twitter can help your scholarship become many-to-many

scholarship

https://www.flickr.com/photos/122135325@N06/15117809516/in/dateposted/

But to succeed AND not get fired, it helps to remember:

BE HONEST

Always do a ‘shoulder check.’

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ooocha/2632434274/sizes/z/in/photostream/

Institutions are made of people too

Don’t expect a soapbox

Don’t confuse your free speech with your privilege

Don’t aim to be HUGE

Don’t push to tie open networked scholarship TO academic

reward systems

https://www.flickr.com/photos/51764518@N02/9763729373/

You can inhabit both worlds – the academic & the networked

– at the same time, to the benefit of both.

What signals will you send?

THANK YOU @bonstewart

bstewart@upei.ca