Social media reduce barriers to first-generation college students

This is another post in a series on first-generation college students and social media.  In these posts, I have attempted to present characteristics of first-generation college students, and describe possible interventions from social media.

First-generation college student, (and aspiring first-generation high shoo students), are defined as those students who have no parent who has attended college or university.  This definition points to a defining problem for first-generation students: they have no entry into the "culture of college."  

When entering a new environment for the first time, it is extremely important to know how to navigate and to communicate, to know the social norms and how to extricate oneself from difficulties. (If you have traveled beyond your own country, or attempted to fit into another social community, this may resonate with you.)  First-generation college students do not pick up this knowledge from their parents, and are often unaware that this knowledge is, in fact, extant and necessary.  

There are many difficulties that arise from trying to move from one culture into another without having the requisite knowledge.  A difficulty frequently reported is lack of access to resources, from financial resources to those necessary for health and well-being.  This puts up barriers to the success of these college students.  Three related barriers include:

• Lack of support from family members, who do not understand the requirements and pressures of college.
• Alternatively, pressure from family members to be "the one that succeeds." 
• The stress of trying to fit in and live in two separate cultures.

While social media has been demonized for getting in the way of student success through "addiction" and draining time away from studies, a rather remarkable amount of research indicates that the opposite is true.  In fact, social media has been demonstrated to support student success, especially in navigating college.  

Social media such as Facebook and college-specific social media platforms can provide students with information about such topics as buying books and supplies, interpreting course catalogs, and locating places on campus.  Especially important functions of social media platforms are the access to other individuals.  College students can maintain bonds with family members and "pre-college" friends, but can also make contact with others through social media. Depending on the college, students may also be able to connect with potential mentors, with counselors or peer-based support groups that can address the feelings of being overwhelmed, out-of-place and loneliness that most college students face.  Interactions with others that help students cope with such feelings are vital to success.For first-generation students,these feelings may have an extraordinary impact, as these feeling may come out of left field, as it where. Students with a cultural understanding of college may expect these feelings to come about, and be aware of resources that can help.

In summary, social media platforms, Facebook being an example, provide access to information and support that facilitates success.  One way this happens is in supporting the "college-culture" scaffold that students to stand upon in order to achieve their their academic accomplishments.

Credits

Deil-Amen, R. Rios-Aguilar, C. Can Social Media Improve Student Success  
https://www.slideshare.net/sashatberr/can-social-media-improve-student-successfinal,

Today's First Generation https://www.slideshare.net/noiram4/todays-first-generation, presented by Trio Programs.

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay 

First-generation aspiring college students: What they have to say

This is the third post in a blog series about social media, social capital and college success.

This post is about one complex and diverse population of college and aspiring college students, "first-generation" students - defined as those without a parent who has attended college. 

This post was also supposed to be what research has to say about first-generation students, and how social media can support their college success. That was the plan.

Turns out, I was invited to attend a twitter chat hosted by an organization that actively supports aspiring first-generation college students. it gave me a chance to listen to what students had to say, instead of what has been written about them. It was especially interesting to hear their thoughts on how social media could support them.  While much research had been done in this area, it was important to hear from students themselves how social media can support them.  Their voice is the most important.

The conversation was introduced with a discussion of how first-generation students may experience inequity in accessing a college education.  There are many reasons for this, but one is lack of information. The lack of parental experience with higher education may result in the student not knowing about resources, such as those necessary for financing higher education. 

Because many schools lack adequate college and career counseling, counselors for college-bound students may not recognize or be able to compensate for that student's lack of "college culture" knowledge.  Without an understanding of a culture, one does not know what specifics to ask about it.  A college-bound student with little or no understanding about the college environment is not going to know the questions to ask.  And schools may not be aware of the deficits that first-generation students can face, and so be unaware what resources and support to make available.

Once in college, first-generation students may find themselves "strangers in a strange land."  Transitioning from one life stage to another is rarely without bumps in the road. Students with "college culture" in their family may be prepared to handle new responsibilities, such as more control over financial decision-making, or at least know that these issues are possibilities.  Those students without exposure to "college culture" may need to acquire these skills at the same time they are immersed in their studies.  It was brought up that college students make decisions that may impact their entire lives. First-generation students may require support in making decisions about situations that, for them, are especially unfamiliar and complex.

The question was asked during the twitter chat about whether social media might help in bridging the gaps that first-generation students experience. 

Social media, particularly using platforms favored by students, was described as a vehicle for connecting students with available resources, even making them aware that specific resources exist. Stories about how first-generation students were supported by organizations can be shared through social media. Of course, social media can also serve to connect individuals, including mentees to mentors, found to be helpful in transitioning from high-school to college. 

The voices from the twitter chat confirmed what I have read.  But, to hear the voices of the very people whose lives can be impacted by the strategic use of social, to hear them in conversational language and not academese, brings human faces to what otherwise might be just an interesting problem to solve.

I thank them.

Photo resource

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay 

Facebook: Friends and Social Capital

Note:  This blog is the second in a series that looks at social capital, social media and college student success.  The first blog provided a background on social capital, and a glimpse at how it is impacted by social media.  This post looks specifically at Facebook as a supplier of social capital.  The third and last post of the series will look at social capital and socail media in the experiences of a specific population, "first generation" college students.

Facebook is a quintessential social media site.  Originally developed in 2004 as a site for Harvard students only, the site became open to anyone at 13 years old, with a valid email address.  As of the 3rd quarter of 2018, there were 2.37 billion monthly active users, with 1.49 daily active users.  Of the world-wide population, 26.3% use Facebook.

It is well-known in social sciences that humans do well when they are connected with other humans, and one way in which this connection is described is by the idea of "social capital."  I recently blogged about this (see Social Capital/Social Media) but it bears repeating.  

Social capital is a nebulous term that can most easily be defined by its effects.  An individual with a goodly amount  of social capital fits into his or her environment - knows the norms, values and the unspoken knowledge that marks a native.  

He or she has some personal bonds with some that are very close and/or have existed for long amounts of time, and these bonds provide strong emotional support.  He or she has other social bonds that are not so close, but provide support as well.  The support these bonds provide is both informational and supportive in an "atta girl" sort of way.  Motivating, but not necessarily comforting.  Moving one forward instead of making one comfortable where one is.

Health and wellness information is one popular field of information, but another very important source of information from these more tenuous bonds is information about how others react, respond, and appear to think and feel.  

This information, gleaned from many weak social bonds, means that he or she is able to function within other social environments. If this individual has questions about how to fit in, there is a wealth of individuals who can provide examples, if not direct information. 

Mark Zuckerberg may have had social capital in mind as he and his roommates developed and launched Facebook - being a student at Harvard could imaginably have some stressors that social capital could soothe. If not, then Facebook was serendipitous.  It greatly facilitates the collection of social capital.

Generational ties within families and close social circles (such as high school friends) are stretched, as members move for work or to adapt to other social needs.  Facebook provides a quick and easy way to keep in touch with, or at least an eye on, people who are strongly bonded together.  83% of parents are Facebook friends of their children.  Many older adults use Facebook primarily to keep social contacts that cannot easily be maintained by face-to-face contact.  These are instances of Facebook being a mechanism for maintaining "bonding" social capital.

The weaker bonds described above are called "bridging" social capital, and it is here that Facebook is a social capital bonanza.  Think of the benefits of bridging social capital as being touched with a dot of "social well-being" when one is in contact with a "friend."  While such dots might be hard to come by in the work-a-day world, sitting down to 20 minutes of Facebook (the time the average user spends on the site per day) opens up the potential for hundreds of "well-being dots."  The average individual has 338 Facebook friends.  It is likely that these friends are distributed among formal or informal groups, and so contact with any one friend may be sporadic.  

The magic of bridging social capital, however, is in its bulk.  Ask a question on a health site.  Hundreds of individuals may see that question.  It is possible that many will respond.  It is probable that other Facebook friends are reading these responses and supporting them, and so the question poser, with likes or their own responses.  Send out a meme, and the person is likely to get feedback that they are "liked" or somehow commiserated with. Sharing a post provides the opportunity to assert one's position within a network, with the expectation that the network will appreciate and respond back to what has been shared. 

Going back to the bridging social capital dots of well-being, it is easy to see how time spent with Facebook can contribute to an individual's wealth of social capital.

In my last post of this series, I will take this idea of bridging social capital dots to a specific population, "first generation" college students, those who have no parent that attended college.  This population has some interesting tales to tell about the use of Facebook and other social media.

Credits:
53 Incredible Facebook Statistics and Facts , Kit Smith, June 1, 2019, Brandwatch


Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay 

Social Capital / Social Media

Note:  This blog is the first in a series that looks at social capital, social media and college student success.  This first blog provides a background on social capital, and a glimpse at how it is impacted by social media.

There is a term, requently used but ill-defined, to describe your general well-being and how you fit into the world - "social capital."

Social capital is quite loosely defined but, in general, it is an indicator of what you have regarding:

• A sense of belonging in your environment
• Engagement in your surroundings
• Relationships with others
• Knowing the norms and values of your environment
• Participation in your society
• Feelings of safety and trust
• Confidence

You get the idea.  

A more official idefinition of social capital is that it is the intangible benefits that you gain from being a member of the societies in which you live and the number and types of your relationships.  It is as if the people in your life, regardless of how they are in your life, contribute a bit of well-being and sociality to you as a result of your interactions. 

There are at least two types of social capital: bonding and bridge.  "Bonding" social capital comes from interacting with those persons like yourself, those in the networks to which you already belong.  It is comforting and affirming, but self-limiting.  Bonding social capital will help you "get by"1., but does not provide an impetus for growth and change.

"Bridging" social capital, on the other hand, is that which comes to you from contact with those "outside" rather than "within" your social world.1  As bridges span chasms, bridging social capital can take you beyound the boundaries of one environment, and include you in another environment.  Hence, bridging social capital does not help you "get by" - being part of a new group, no matter how transitory the experience is, can be decidedly uncomfortable.  It does, however, help you "get ahead."  You learn about new places and ways of being through bridging social capital.  You experience new values and norms.  You learn new terrain, footpaths and pitfalls.  Bridging social capital enlarges your place in your world by bringing in knowledge, understanding, behaviors, resources, etc... from other places - the places familiar to those who live outside your social boundaries.

Social media, specifically programs like Facebook, are obvious providers of social media, with Facebook especially being known as a premier source.  Consider the number of "friends" you have on Facebook.  Some of these friends will be sources of bonding social capital - and are likely to be the persons you see face-to-face, message, talk to on the phone, etc.  

Now consider the bulk of your Facebook friends.  These are folks for whom you have some connection, but are likely to not be in your life to a "bonding" degree.  These friends are sources of bridging social capital.  Their posts can provide a new perspective, perhaps one you will benefit from.  Membership in a Facebook group can provide you with massive doses of social capital, because you learn the norms, traditions and ideas of a group outside your own.  You are being let into the boundaries or another world, as it were.  If the group can provide you with information or support that you lack, you receive extra benefits. You may be able to solve a problem you are dealing with, and you are receivng social capital from group members as you do so.

I will expand on this idea of receiving problem-solving, life-altering social capital from Facebook in another blog post.  Stay tuned!

1. Terminology attributed to Gittell, Ross J. and Avis. Vidal. 1998. Community Organizing : Building Social Capital as a Development Strategy. Sage Publications. ^

References:
What is the difference between bonding and bridging social capital.  Tristan Claridge, January 2, 2018 in Social Capital Research and Training, .

Image by Anemone123 from Pixabay 

How is this still a thing: A reflection on intellectual property in online courses

If you are not familiar with John Oliver's series "Why is this still a thing?" on his weekly program, "Last Week Tonight," let me give you an introduction.  In this series, he brings up topics, such as the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, that should have disappeared, but have not.  Stephanie Casella's article (Bustle, May 27, 2016) "7 John Oliver "How is this still a thing" moments that will make you question everything," will provide you with a good introduction.  

Outside of wanting to share a good thing with my audience, I bring him up to introduce the concept of intellectual property:  why is this still a thing?

Over the decades as an instructional designer, I have lead workshops, modeled (well, mostly), cajoled and even harangued knowledge experts about intellectual property rights and digital media.  Now, these are individuals who know every jot and tittle of APA formatting, and would never dream of not citing a reference.  Yet, some remained blissfully ignorant of attending to copyright issues regarding digital information and media.

This was thirty years ago, and its still an issue.  A "thing," if you will.  Thirty years ago, there was clip art and a paucity (by today's standards) of images on the Web.  Enough to get in trouble with.  Now, there is Pandora's box of media and information to appropriate. 

There is the issue of fair use, and the common misunderstanding that fair use covers any content used in a classroom.  The follow is typical of conversations I've had regarding fair use:

Me:  What media are you going to use in your (psychology) class?
SME:  Oh, I'm going to show the movie, A Beautiful Mind.
Me:  The whole movie?
SME:  I'm using it in the classroom, so it's fair use. Oh, and I'm videotaping the class, since I will be commenting on the film. But it's still fair use.

Well, perhaps, .Fair use is a complex and somewhat subjective combination of purpose, the amount of a resource is being used, the importance of the amount that is being used, etc.  Fair use does not automatically cover an entire film being shown in a college classroom.  

The use of content in an online class is another issue.

There is plenty of information about how to avoid copyright infringement.  Google has its tool for filtering images by usage rights.  Creative Commons licensing has made easy to recognize what needs to be done to meet licensing requirement. Open Washington has its Attribution Generator. There are sites where images are highly likely to be usable, such as Flickr, Pixabay, and Wikimedia.  Many college/university librarians are highly trained in intellectual copyright issues.  (And a tip of the hat to the librarians at Tallahassee Community College for helping us keep out of trouble while finding great resources!)

So, why is this still a thing?

Could be ignorance.  Could be that its just one more thing to do, when course development may be taking up the last bit of energy that is left.

Dr. Dennen points out the ambiguity of created material.  It is sometimes not easy to determine the intellectual ownership of material, especially that which has evolved as a result of coursework.

For some, there may be a streak of (perhaps unconscious) defiance. If "the system" is going to take my information, then I should be able to take this image.  While this individual doesn't get the difference between "content" and "data,"  that individual is correct that his/her data is being taken, with no permission asked.

Part of the problem is the relative unlikelihood of getting caught.  This raises a challenge to instructional designers everywhere!  We are in the position to educate our SMEs, managers, graphic artists et al. in fair use and copyright matters.  Don't let an uncited images get put into a course!  Don't let an unreferenced URL go onto an Articulate Storyline screen. Unravel, understand and uphold the standard!


References:

Dennen, V. 2017. Ownership of Digital Course Artifacts: Who Can Access and Use Your Words, Images, Sounds and Clicks.  Quarterly Review of Distance Education 17(4) Accessed at https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/eric/docview/1891317757/fulltextPDF/F65829A8C0034699PQ/1?accountid=4840..

Reyman, J. 2013. User Data on the Social Web:  Authorship, Agency, and Appropriation. College English. 17(5).  Downloaded from https://canvas.fsu.edu/courses/89214/pages/week-5-readings.


Image: Oliver at the 2016 Montclair Film Festival
File is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic icense.
Attributed to Neil Grabowsky / Montclair Film Festival

On being the change you wish to see in the world - a digital footprint scorecard

An axiom I try to live by is a saying attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, "Be the change you wish to see in the world."
While reading Reyman's (2013) article, User Data on the Social Web:  Authorship, Agency, and Appropriation, a statement jumped out at me. 

"The current system for control over user data promotes the social web as a space for commercial activity, but it does not harness the power of user data for intellectual, creative or civic purposes."

It occured to me to look at the data I've fed into the "system" lately, to see where my input may have placed a tick mark on some civic tally sheet, a "digital footprint scorecard", as it were.  In this way, I mignt see what infinitesimal changes I might have made.

Retail clothing  - I visited a catalog outlet site, to see if a shirt I've been eyeing has gone on sale yet.  The shirt is 100% cotton.  Tick mark for sustainable farming, I have no idea where the shirt was made, nor by whom.  Tick mark for either fair or unfail labor practices.

VeDa, the Vestibular Disorders Association, a knowledge-base, resource, advocacy and support non-profit for those with balance disorders.  Apparently a top-rated non-profit in 2018.  This I had not known.  I just thought it was a support group with useful information.  Tick mark for advocacy. 

Greyhound Data - database on racing greyhounds. Millions of pedigrees, millions of race results.  Very pro-racing.  Tick mark to a change I definately don't want to see in the world, regardless of getting Berry's pedigree.  

Various retired racing greyhound Facebook groups.  Mixed tick marks on pro-racing, mixed, and anti-racing groups.  One tick mark for visiting a politically active anti-racing group.

A  cosmetics site.  Said its products were tested using anti-cuerality techniques.  Ok. If they say so.  One tick mark for anti-cruelity cosmetics production.

Searching Amazon Prime on the television, looking for something in a WW2 historical fiction film.  One tick mark for French Resistance Groups Awareness?


On the whole, I may have had a slightly positive impact on the world, as shown on my digital scorecard.  IWhile researching this little project, i found some interesting bits of information about the groups I was supporting by visiting their sites.  Mostly I was pleased, but am now much more aware of what personal weight my own digital footprint might have on the world.  I would prefer my foot to be supporting, not squashing it.  

Photo by EVG photos from Pexels

OER: A Benefit to Community College Students

There are many reasons to applaud Open Educational Resources (OER). They support faculty in tailoring courseware by enabling them to legally cut and paste materials into text of their own creation - a great blow for freedom from publishers for many faculty.

OER , as Caswell et al. (2008) state, also have the potential for bringing about "univeral education." At a more granular level, OER resources are helping students at the community college level succeed in school.

While there are many, many reasons a student might choose a community college over another source for higher education, one big factor is money. More dependent students from lower income families begin their education at a community college than at 4- year colleges or universities.  Independent students with families make up a higher percentage of students in community colleges than in 4-year colleges and institutions.  

In an American Association of Community Colleges 2019 study of challenges experienced by community college students, paying expenses tied work issues to be the most challenging factor to their success in school.  In this study, 34% of community college students reported difficulties with finances.  Fifty eight percent of students' difficulty with finances was attributed to purchasing texts and accompanying supplies.

Tyler Kingcade at Huffpost states that textbook costs have risen a startling 812% in the past 30 years, outpacing the 519% rise in tuition and fees (Oy!).  Is it any wonder, then, that purchasing textbooks is often not as high on the list of financial priorities as, say, child care or rent.  It is quite common for students to purchase their texts only after financial aid funds have arrived (two weeks after classes start); many of the faculty I work with design their classes with this in mind.  It is also not uncommon for students not to buy their texts at all.

OER, such as those produced by group OpenStax, has the potential to lift a significant part of this burden.  OpenStax texts (the online version) are free.  Punched paper versions can be purchased for a nominal fee... up to $30 for a bound copy.  (Note that the paper option neatly sidesteps some geographic digital divide questions, as well as providing an option for those who simply prefer to read from paper.)

Kathy Kristoff of CBS New's Issues that Matter: Education (2018), states that only 6% of schools are using OER.  In "my" community college  I find that 100% of the math faculty use OER .  At least two of the high-enrollment biology courses at the college use OER for their textbooks. And those figures only account for the math and science department.  OpenStax also has OER  for social sciences, humanities, business and AP studies.


In one community college cited by Kristoff, students using OER spent as little as $31 for a course on materials, compared to the $153 per course, the national average. Kristoff goes on the quote the National College Board as saying that the average college student spends just under $1,200 on books and materials per year.

While OER is a great advancement in freeing faculty to adapt their own course materials, instead of being bound to a publisher's text, a tremendous boon to college students from OER is more mundane - how to pay the bill.  On my campus, life is made easier for many students by the use of OER.

Image

Wolston, Maran. OpenStax Sociology Textbook, (CC BY 2.0)  Retrieived from 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/162377285@N07/26012358628, on 6/14/2019.

References

Caswell, T., Henson, S., Jensen, M. and Wiley, D.  Open Educational Resources:  Enabling universal education.  International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. 9:1.  February, 2008.
American Association of Community College Colleges. DataPoints 7:6, Retrieved from https://www.aacc.nche.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/DataPoints_V7_N6.pdf on 6/13/2019.

Kingkade, T. College Textbook Prices Increasing Faster Than Tuition And Inflation, December 6, 2017, Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/college-textbook-prices-increase_n_2409153 on 6/14/2019.

Kristoff, K., What's Behind the Souring Cost of College Textbooks, Huffpost. Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/whats-behind-the-soaring-cost-of-college-textbooks/ on 6/13/2019.