Finding the professional or academic conversations can be hard enough, but once you are keyed in, how do keep track of them and stay engaged?  On Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+, lots of people are talking, but how to do you listen?  I can show you what’s worked for me, but I would also like to know what works for you. Come ready to play around and share.

Prerequisites:  Helpful to have some accounts already set up on some of the following – Facebook and/or Twitter, Hootesuite or Tweetdeck or Bufferapp.com.  If you played with IFTTT.com then bring that account information with you too!

Difficulty level of session:  Introductory, but also dependent on the experience of folks who come to play.

I gave up keeping up with ALL the new apps and digital tools long ago. Still, there are some that I know I could not manage without. Do you have any like that? Feel like sharing?

How about a little “show and tell” session to share our favorite working tools? They don’t need to be the latest, greatest thing, just something you actually use everyday for keeping yourself on task, foster creativity, managing projects, teaching, learning, or research.

The rise of social media has allowed scholars and students to connect and discuss texts, events, and issues in ways that were previously unimaginable. Synchronous and asynchronous discussions can spark at any moment and connect learners across time zones and disciplines. But each new tool comes with its own set of challenges.

Rates of popular participation in discussions of society, culture, media, and social justice online are astounding, but many of the tools used to foster those discussions seem to encourage sound bite replication instead of dialogue. Those with unpopular views are sometimes silenced through network attacks or even violent threats, and users are likely to only follow and participate in groups of those with whom they already agree. How do we foster meaningful dialogues and promote critical thinking skills for students in the middle of a tl;dr culture?