“The University as a Hub of Connection: A Vision for a Post-Digital Institution”--Conference presentation at Online Educa Berlin

Amy Zidulka was granted funding through an Internal Grant for Research for a conference paper on the impact of social media sites-based activism and universities’ use of social media.

Social media sites (SMS) offer unprecedented affordances for learning and community. Movements like Black Lives Matter and Me Too have demonstrated that those engaged in SMS-based activism acquire subject-matter expertise, develop capabilities such as organising, and impact real-world change. With SMS having emerged as dominant educational spaces of our era (Fawns, 2019; Gonzalez-Sanmamed, et al., 2020; Reid, 2010), it is problematic that they are owned by corporations like Twitter and Facebook, with neither skill nor motivation to promote learning for public good. This conference paper advances a post-digital vision for universities to leverage SMS for individual and societal benefit.