Category: Social media
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We don’t need global-level conversation platforms
Instead of more sessions on how to use Twitter to build community (a conversation that’s been going since Twitter launched), I would have liked to see more thoughtful and critical discussion around the use of social media for HPE at the AMEE conference. For example, this piece by Cal Newport, where he questions the idea…
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Using social media to build learning communities
I was in a session earlier where one participant asked about the inevitable disintegration of social media platforms, and how the #AcademicTwitter / #MedEd social media communities might respond. I thought it was a good question, although I was skeptical about much of the conversation that followed. The consensus seemed to be that social media…
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A thought on Meta’s Threads
https://startupy.substack.com/p/things-im-thinking-about-67f I think Zuckerberg will be able to build another money making machine with Threads. But alas, this is not the feel good internet I was looking for. More endless scrolling, chipping away at my capacity for concentration. More people incentivized to churn out loads of content to please an algorithm. More user-friendly sameness. More…
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Where does value accrue?
I went down a bit of a rabbit hole this morning, following a few links that started with a post from Inger Mewburn that caught my attention: The enshittification of academic social media. Telling academics they can achieve career success by using today’s algorithmic-driven platforms is like telling Millennials they could afford to buy a…
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I deleted my Twitter account
I deleted my Twitter account about a week ago, but I’ve waited a bit to see if I regretted the decision. There’s a 30-day cooling off period and I didn’t want to write this post, then realise that I’d made a mistake, and recover the account. But the fact is, I don’t miss it at…
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Playing around with Mastodon
I created a profile on Mastodon in 2019, but haven’t done anything with it. I’d check in every now and again to see how the platform was developing and, while I was always intrigued with the notion of an open source microblogging ecosystem, it never really captured my attention. So for a while now, it’s…
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On changing my opinions
I wouldn’t usually listen to an interview with Mark Zuckerberg but three things changed my mind: This particular interview was recommended by someone who’s opinion I value. Lex Fridman is an excellent interviewer and I generally enjoy the conversations he has with guests. I’ve recently come to question the narratives presented by mainstream media. The…
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Social media and performance art
When we go online, we are programmed to react to engagement triggers — likes, shares, retweets, hearts, and thumb-ups. Social and this addiction of audience have made us addicted to something even harder to give up once tasted: a constant feeling of self-importance.
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Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier – review
His most dispiriting observations are those about what social media does to politics – biased, “not towards the left or right, but downwards”. If triggering emotions is the highest prize, and negative emotions are easier to trigger, how could social media not make you sad? If your consumption of content is tailored by near limitless…
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AI Can Now Identify Racist Code Words on Social Media
“We essentially gathered hateful tweets and used language processing to find the other terms that were associated with such messages… We learned these terms and used them as the bridge to new terms—as long as we have those words, we have a link to anything they can come up with.” This defeats attempts to conceal…
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Without anyones permission: The open web and online learning
As teaching and learning activities move into online and blended learning environments we need to think carefully about how we use those spaces, which is often determined by the features of the platforms and services we choose. One topic in the field on online learning that’s been getting a lot of attention, is the MOOC (the New York…
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Using open source software in higher education
Universities and other higher education institutions are increasingly moving towards what many are calling the “connected campus“. While this move brings with it many benefits for students, it can also be expensive to implement. In 2008 I wrote a short post entitled “Open source alternatives to proprietary applications“. This was before the launch of the…
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PHT402: Final thoughts and moving forward
This is a short review post for the PHT402 Professional Ethics course that was recently completed by physiotherapy students from the University of the Western Cape and qualified physiotherapists who participated through Physiopedia. We believe that this is the first time that a completely open, online course in professional ethics has been run as part…
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PHT402 Ethics course: Developing an online professional identity
This post was written for the participants of the #pht402 Professional Ethics course. For many of our participants working online has been a new and interesting experience but for most it will probably won’t progress much more than that. This post is intended to highlight how the blogs that have been created as part of…
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PHT402: The last independent act?
This is my fifth contribution to a series of weekly posts related to the #pht402 Professional Ethics course. This week’s topic asks if assisted suicide is ever OK? I thought it would be an interesting question to ask health care professionals and students what they thought about the possibility of a legal framework that enabled…
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Strategic blogging in the PHT402 Ethics course
This post is intended for the participants in the #pht402 Professional Ethics course who would like to take a more strategic approach to their blogging. By using a few strategies suggested here, you may find that it’s easier to make the best use of your time when preparing your posts for the course. One of…
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PHT402: Morality, belief and behaviour
This is my post for the second week as a participant in the #pht402 professional ethics online course. This week we’re exploring the concept of morality and where it comes from, and it’s role in our professional practice. The way that I understand the difference between ethics and morality is that ethics is what guides…
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Privacy and public discussion in the PHT402 Ethics course
This is a post for participants in the #pht402 Professional Ethics online course being run by the University of the Western Cape and Physiopedia. Since few of our participants have much experience engaging as professionals in online spaces, this post aims to suggest some resources that might be useful in terms of developing skills in…
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Navigating the WordPress Reader interface for PHT402
This post is is for the #pht402 Professional Ethics course participants who are using WordPress Reader. Hi everyone. For those of you who are using WordPress Reader to follow the posts of other participants, I thought I’d annotate the Reader interface to highlight the components that you might find useful when it comes to interacting…
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PHT402: Empathy and professional practice
This is my first post for the #pht402 professional ethics course that I’m participating in for the next few weeks. The topic for the first week is to explore personal objectives related to empathy and professional practice in the health care context. I’ve been teaching the Professional Ethics course at UWC for five years and…