Fluvial Fishes Lab Year in Review, by Don Orth

Before the calendar changes, let's look back on 2019.  Long ago I adopted Author D.S. Mixell's  New Year's resolution: “...to never make New Year's resolutions. Hell, it's been the only resolution I've ever kept!”   I am required to create an electronic Faculty Activity Report (eFAR), not to make resolutions. Most colleges and universities have an electronic data base designed to make reporting as tedious and uninteresting as possible.  While it serves for annual merit review purposes, it's format and requirements are annual reminders of the creeping and creepy corporatization of the university. 

"The corporate university's language of new findings, technology transfer, knowledge economy, grant generation, frontier research, efficiency, and accountability dominates how academic scholarship is now framed both within the institution and outside it." Berg and Seeber (2017)

Calvin, from Calvin and  Hobbes, has plenty to say about resolutions.  Watterson (1988).

Two years ago while working on my eFAR, I took a break to visit Virginia Tech's Animal Hospital carrying a dead Freshwater Drum Aplodinotus grunniens. It was destined for the x-ray machine. My Ichthyology students had an easy time finding the lucky stones with the help of this radiograph (below), showing the large ear bone behind the eye socket and under the brain case. Large otoliths in the Freshwater Drum are called lucky stones, which are often found washed up on the river banks or lakeshores.  I have no lucky stones in my pocket, but do keep a lucky fish scale in my wallet.

Lateral view of Freshwater Drum radiograph. 

The Virginia, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia chapters of the American Fisheries Society met in Blacksburg for a joint annual meeting.  The first-day workshop focused on R3 Initiatives to Recruit, Reactivate, and Retain anglers.  John Arway, retired Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, was our keynote speaker. John shared his experiences and questioned whether the North American model of conservation is still relevant for the 21st century (hint: it's not).  Ever since this session, I've had the word "relevance" buzzing around in my head.  Can I find messages of relevancy for my eFARS?  Jane Lubchenco, Tyler Laureate and former NOAA administrator and distinguished University professor,  wrote that:  “Scientists need to make their research more relevant, more understandable, more connected to people's lives. I believe this is part of the way to address our ‘post truth’ world.”  Science and society are linked and making work relevant is not as easy as it sounds. Many debate how scientific findings should be shared and by whom.  

John Arway presents keynote address to AFS chapters meeting in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Hae Kim, BS 2017, won the coveted fertility fish hat at the annual chapter raffle. 

I hope my teaching and scholarship is relevant beyond the classroom.  Virginia Tech Ichthyology is a public Facebook group that has topped 1,020 group members this year.  Members greatly enrich novice student experiences in Ichthyology.  Students are reminded daily of how others are making a living and finding enrichment through fishes.  Students posted relevant assignments to Facebook, including the Ichthyologist of the Week.  Virginia Tech Ichthyology class blog is viewed by people around the world each day and provides an outlet for relevant student writings.  Please share these outlets with others who may find them relevant.   

Ichthyology class, spring 2019, with Mahi Mahi Coryphaena hippurus.

Andrew Bartee (left) and Emma Hultin (right) are excited about capturing a colorful Luxilus!

Hanna Moreland (right) and Emma Hultin (left) examine live fish in a photo box.  We can never have enough field trips to learn more about the fishes.

Ichthyology class at the wet and sweaty end-of-semester field trip. 

Relevance in Virginia Tech’s strategic plan means commitment to a comprehensive global land grant mission and transdisciplinary learning and engagement.  Every day we connect with students in ways that transcend the classroom experience. It's called the Virginia Tech Difference, which relies on a globally relevant campus experience that has a life-long influence on students. At the annual meeting of the American Fisheries Society in Reno, Nevada, I was honored to receive the 2019 Excellence in Public Outreach Award.  Relevance depends on writing for many audiences, and not just for the few scientists in my own narrow field of interest. Even introverts can do public outreach and I hope my students will be inspired to explore innovative methods to reach a broader audience.

Executive Director of AFS, Doug Austen, congratulates me on 2019 Excellence in Public Outreach Award, in Reno, Nevada. Photo by Valerie Orth.

The long-awaited Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes of Virginia was released by Johns Hopkins University Press in September.  Many relevant lessons were learned while creating this new book. Ben Aaronovitch wrote, “There’s nothing quite like Latin for disguising the fact that you’re making it up as you go along.” Seriously, getting all the scientific and common names correct and up-to-date was harder than we expected.   New fish facts are discovered each day and we may not learn about them unless and until we attend fish conferences.  Get a copy and learn what's new in the world of Virginia's freshwater fishes.  Book reviews by Matthew L. Miller,  Bruce Ingram, and Scott Smith (2019) suggest that you shouldn't collect fish without it.

Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes of Virginia was published in September 2019.   Photo by Pat Cooney. 

Even the Hokie Bird needs a copy of the Field Guide. Photo by Valerie Orth.

I wrote a 38-page letter (March 15, 2019) to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in response to their request for input on study plans for re-licensing the Byllesby-Buck Dam Hydroproject Pre-Application Document (FERC NO. 2514). There's no place to put this in the eFAR--it's "other professional activities." However, environmental effects of the hydroproject operations will be altered because the power company installed new gates that allow more control of water levels.  Consequently, new studies are needed during the re-licensing process so that FERC may balance environmental protection and power production.  These two dams block the upstream migrations of many fishes, including the Walleye, a unique strain and the target of restoration. Walleye eggs from this unique river-spawning population have 65% larger volume, an adaptive trait for living in less productive waters. Byllesby and Buck dams flood presumed historic spawning habitats and block their migrations.  For more relevant background on the New River ecosystem, read this conference paper from the 2019 New River symposium. 

Buck Dam and bypass reach. Photo taken March 20, 2019 by Don Orth.

Former and current lab members are moving on. Corbin and Lindsey Hilling were blessed with the birth of Penelope Hilling (photo below).  Rebecca Bourquin defended her Master's thesis, Genetic Diversity and Population Fragmentation of Chrosomus sp. cf. saylori (Clinch Dace). Ryan McManamay, PhD 2011, left his position at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and moved to become an Assistant Professor at Baylor University in August.  Zach Moran, BS 2015, began a PhD program at Baylor University.  Hunter Hatcher, BS 2016, left Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission to take a Fisheries Biologist position with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries in Farmville.   Skylar Wolf, BS 2017, completed his MS at Oklahoma State University and begins a new job as fisheries biologist at the Utah Division of Wildlife in Logan, Utah.

Penelope Hilling was born on October 30.  Congratulations to Corbin and Lindsey. 

The top viewed blog post of 2019 was How Old Do Flathead Catfish Get? This post was relevant to over 1,700 viewers.  In June, Timmy Dixon posted a photo (below) of a 62 pound Flathead Catfish caught on a trotline in the New River.  This photo generated much interest because Smallmouth Bass, not Flathead Catfish, are the top targeted sport fish in the upper New River.  Flathead Catfish are targeted by trotline fishers in a hidden fishery.  Corbin Hilling removed the otolith and counted 25 annual rings. The hidden population of Flathead Catfish is well known by trot liners and those who SCUBA dive in the New River.  Watch this short underwater video by SCUBA divers in the deep whirl hole in Eggleston, Virginia (video posted by Charles Horton).  Many other relevant writings for the general public were posted in ChesapeakeCatfish.com.

Flathead Catfish caught in July 2019 from New River near Fries, Virginia. For comparison, Timmy Dixon (pictured here) stands 6 feet, 4 inches

Finally, the Fluvial Fishes Lab was renovated in 2019.

BEFORE photo of Fluvial Fishes Lab. I'm ready to move out so renovations can begin. Last renovation was a drop ceiling and upgraded electrical. Otherwise plumbing, air, water and paint is original from 1970 s when Cheatham Hall was opened @vt_fishwild @HollyKindsvater pic.twitter.com/cxudyLglYO

— Fluvial Fishes Lab (@donaldorth) July 19, 2019

Here is a photo during the renovation.

Fluvial Fishes Lab in September.

Relevant Publications in 2019 (I can pluck these right into my eFARS!)

Bugas, P.B., Jr., C.D. Hilling, V. Kells, M.J. Pinder, D.A. Wheaton, and D.J. Orth. 2019.  Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes of Virginia.  Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland.  200 pp.  

Hilling, C.D., A.J. Bunch, J.A. Emmel, J.D. Schmitt, and D.J. Orth. 2019. Growth and mortality of invasive Flathead Catfish in the tidal James River, Virginia. Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management 10(2):641-652.

Orth, D.J. 2019. Socrates opens a Pandora’s Box of Northern Snakehead issues. Pages 203-221 in J.S. Odenkirk and D.C. Chapman, editors.  First International Snakehead Symposium. American Fisheries Society Symposium 89, Bethesda, Maryland. 

Orth, D.J. 2019. Fish, fishing, and ecosystem services and dysfunctions in the New River.  New River Symposium. Boone, North Carolina.  18 pp.

Schmitt, J.D., B.K. Peoples, L. Castello, and D.J. Orth. 2019. Feeding ecology of generalist consumers: a case study of invasive blue catfish Ictalurus furcatus in Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, USA. Environmental Biology of Fishes 102:443-465.  

Schmitt, J.D, J.A. Emmel, A.J. Bunch, C.D. Hilling, and D.J. Orth. 2019. Feeding ecology and distribution of an invasive apex predator: Flathead Catfish Pylodictis olivaris in subestuaries of the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, USA. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 39:390-402.  

Schmitt, J.D., B.K. Peoples, A.J. Bunch, L. Castello, and D.J. Orth. 2019. Modeling the Predation Dynamics of Invasive Blue Catfish Ictalurus furcatus in Chesapeake Bay. Fishery Bulletin 117(4):277-290.  

Stang, S.A., C.D. Hilling, and D.J. Orth. 2019. Lessons learned from 35 years of students organizing the mudbass classic. Fisheries 44(3):115-117.

  

There are so many ways to disseminate research findings so that they are are relevant to broader segments of society (below).  The bewildering number of options may discourage one from the activities entirely. However, it is our personal responsibility to make choices about the audience and mode of communications to be used.   

Possible approaches to research dissemination arrayed by size of audience and mode of communication.  From Gould et al. (2019).

So it's time to celebrate the end of 2019 and the end of the decade of the 2010s. This 'Slow Professor' plans many more timeless times, detours, and delays in 2020.  Timeless times are needed for me to think critically and creatively. These slow times counteract the notions of efficiency, productivity, and speed that creep into the corporatized university.  Things may not go as hoped, but that's okay.

from Berkeley Breathed

References

Berg, M., and B.K. Seeber. 2017. The Slow Professor: Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Academy. University of Toronto Press. 136 pp.  

Gould, R.K., K.J. Coleman, D.H. Krymkowski, I. Zafira, T.Gibbs-Plessl, and A. Doty. 2019. Broader impacts in conservation research. Conservation Science and Practice DOI: 10.1111/csp2.108

Smith, S. 2019. Review of Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes of Virginia. American Currents 44(4):27. 

Watterson, B. 1988. The Essential Calvin and Hobbes: A Calvin and Hobbes Treasury.  Andrew McMeels Publishers, 256 pp.

 

Will Social Media Empower Fisheries Students Via Learning Networks? By Don Orth

I raised this question in a recent article in Fisheries. I contend that social media can be used effectively to encourage student development and facilitate the utility of personal learning networks.  Students and others must join in and create the new networks to meet their needs.  I suggested that five pedagogies will benefit students greatly if they and their instructors choose to use them.  These are public writing, Twitter and infographics, digital storytelling, online communities, and electronic portfolios.   Educators must assist students in this quest for change.    Refer to the article for a complete discourse with scholarly references. {email me at Don_Orth@vt.edu, if you have access issues.}  

The key element for this to work is development of digital learning networks (aka communities of practice).  Online networks facilitate a “just-in-time” connection with experts. One recent example on Facebook (TM) comes from the All Fish Species Identification group.  With over 2,000 members who are respected fish experts or specialists with identification of many fish families, this is the “go to” group when you have a difficult fish to identify.  Photographer Irvin Calicut recently posted a photo of a heron with a fish and asked "What fish is this?"   Within two days the fish was identified by member, Grégoire Germeau -- the Grunting Toadfish Allenbatrachus grunniens.    This is only one of many online communities that are being formed every day.  

Heron with unidentified fish. Photo by Irvin Calicut

Students in Ichthyology class are archiving photos and drawings from their notebooks to the Ichthyology Class at VT site on Flickr.   As we transition into new fish groups, students follow others on Flickr and invite them to add photos to our photo pool.  Witness the addition of a Yellowtail Snapper Ocyurus chrysurus by a professional photographer.   The work of experts and novices come together on one network. 

Student work gets better over time and there is a record of their early efforts as well as improved sketches, annotations, and photos as the term progress.  Social media does not have to make students stupid. Social media is a venue for sharing results of deeper learning activities or exposing shallow learning.  As John Dewey wrote many years ago, “Education is a social process; education is growth; education is not preparation for life but is life itself.”  

Photos posted in Ichthyology Class atVT Flickr site.  A. closeup of Northern Hogsucker Hypentelium nigricans; B. Breeding tubercles of Bluehead Chub Nocomis leptocephalus; C. Cartilaginous ridge of Central Stoneroller Campostoma anomalum. Photos by D.J. Orth.

Learning can be fun.  I know students find it hilarious to watch me struggle to sketch a fish on the whiteboard.  Even funnier to listen to me translate some lessons as musical parodies, such as Learn Your Fishes Well  and others. Writer Anne Lamott wrote “Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. ... and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft.”  Students realize that the first “shitty” draft is expected.  However, if final essays are posted online on the Virginia Tech Ichthyology blog, then the students have a broader public audience for their writings and incentives to revise.  Students also reflect on their struggles during Ichthyology class and create digital stories.  These digital stories evolved out of practical processes for resolving issues, educating ourselves, and pursuing our goals, while combining traditional and emerging literacies.  A quick search of “On Becoming An Ichthyologist” on YouTube returns some online stories; here’s one.  Many traditional class assignments can be readily updated to use online tools, such as meme generators, infographics, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.  Memes are internal representations of knowledge that are culturally inherited through sharing and “fish memes” are a favorite assignment.
 

Example fish meme assists the student in remember new family name

We have a key role to play in training fisheries students in the communications of fisheries issues for multiple, diverse audiences in open-access media.  Our youngest college students are entirely different than 20th century students.  In fact a 10-year old, Henry Foster, wrote to Arkansas leaders with suggestions for the state fish of Arkansas, which led to #GARkansas on Twitter, and an online petition to make the Alligator Gar the official state fish of Arkansas.  

In summary, the answer to the question is "YES" -- Social media will empower students.  However, we all have be engaged to create authentic online learning networks.  To join the network, visit us at Virginia Tech Ichthyology.  

Reference

Orth, D.J.  2018.  Social media may empower fisheries students via learning networks.  Fisheries  DOI: 10.1002/fsh.10034

Social Media is About the Social, by Don Orth

When the subject turns to teaching, I often hear  “But I like to lecture. everyone is doing it. And my students like my lectures too!”  Lectures are familiar media. Non scholae sed vitae discimus is Latin, which translates to “"We do not learn for school, but for life.”  And in life there are thousands of things we must do and seldom does it mean a 50- minute lecture.  Rather we need to help students develop meta-skills for the 21st century (Neumeier 2013). Newsflash: note-taking and test-taking are not meta-skills needed for the workplace.

Today social media is changing the way we communicate, share ideas, and develop networks. It must play a role in teaching. Therefore, I advocate a holistic approach to learning social media that is incorporated in my teaching practices.  We learn from each other, therefore a community of practice approach can be inform better practice. Paul Tess, in 2013,  wrote that the “ubiquity of social media is no more apparent than at the university where the technology is transforming the ways students communicate, collaborate, and learn.”   Last year I was asked to present a talk on the trials and tribulations of adopting social media in college education.  It should have been titled "Damned If You Do: Adopting Social Media in Teaching."

Social media has an low entrance fee, but it’s constantly changing.  Since the beginnings of a movement toward user-created content in the 1990’s, earliest social network sites such as Sixdegrees.com and Friendster morphed into Web 2.0 apps (Van Dijck 2013). My notes and manuscript were in a constant state of flux since the uses of social media in college is highly dynamic.  Therefore, you should read this article  now, before it gets any further out of date.  My favorite article, published since this manuscript was finalized, popularized the "nerd of trust" meme in the #SciCommJC.   You too can become a Nerd of Trust, just click here.  Someone needs to create the emoji.

Nerd of Trust is a real thing.  Read about practices of Facebook for science outreach here.

But Tess and others (many others, read my article) provide evidence of the positives and shortcomings of social media.  Hence it is the damned if you do -- damned if you don't dichotomy.  I make five modest suggestions for how to begin.   The best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question, its to post the wrong answer (Cunningham’s Law).  If I'm wrong, I'm confident that some astute reader will point it out.   No one doubts the pleasures and benefits of some aspects of social media – what major innovation in history has had no benefits? This issue is balance, and how we get enough distance from our own embedding in social media to assess that balance. The paper makes the case that some social media uses are maturing and may prove to be useful additions to your pedagogical toolkit.  If interested, read the pre-print of the article here. 

We should facilitate our students growth in their process of creating a digital identity. Our choice of pedagogy speaks volumes to our students.  Are we communicating these messages? You are important and you matter!  Your voice matters! Your feelings matter! Your life matters! Your story matters!  (Jones and Leverenz 2017).  Do we teach our students how to protect their privacy and intellectual property while sharing ideas via social media?   Twitter’s policy states that “By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through the Services, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute such Content in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed). Facebook’s states that:  “For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License).”

Elements of personal digital brand development pedagogy from Jones and Leverenz (2017).

Seventy five percent of academics do not use social media to express their views on scholarship or politics. Do they believe you need to get through the journal pay wall or take their classes to learn from them?  If you are one of these academics, I encourage you to try something new.  Read this up-to-date guide on the A to Z of social media! You're damned in you do, or damned if you don't.

References  

Carrigan, M. 2016. Social Media for Academics. London: Sage.

Jones, B. and C. Leverenz. 2017. Building personal brands with digital storytelling ePortfolios. International Journal of ePortfolio   7:67-91  

Joosten, T. 2012.  Social Media for Educators: Strategies and Best Practices.  Jossey-Bass, 144 pp.

Lipschultz, J.H. 2017.  Social Media Communication: Concepts, Practices, Data, Law and Ethics, Second Edition. Routledge. 396 pp. 

--> McLain, C.R. 2017. Practices and promises of Facebook for science outreach: Becoming a “Nerd of Trust.” PLoS Biology 15(6): e2002020. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2002020
Neumeier, M. 2013. Meta skills: The five skills for the robotic age. New Riders, San Francisco, CA 
Orth, D.J. 2017. Social media may empower fisheries students via learning networks. Fisheries  

Tess, P. 2013. The role of social media in higher education classes (real and virtual) – A literature review. Computers in Human Behavior 29(5):A60–A68.

van Dijck, J. 2013. The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

Damned If You Do: Adopting Social Media in Teaching. by Don Orth

Social media is changing the way we interact with friends, families, and many others (Couldrey 2012).  Should it change the way we teach?  We have learning management systems (LMS) so why would we need anything else?  Will it be another time waster?  Adopting social media in teaching does seem to be another damned if you do, damned if you don't choice.   

from Jorge Cham, Piled Higher and Deeper. 

With the prodigious rise in online content we need fewer distractions and better pedagogy.  Yet, our frustrations are not a new.   McLuhan (1964, p 23) wrote "for the message of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs." The instructor’s choice of media is a critical pedagogical decision in instructional design as it shapes the environment and thought.   Television as a medium taught us that life is packaged in 8-minute segments (Postman 2005). If texts, worksheets, and tests are the dominant media, the the “cram, pass, and forget” model will be adopted by students. I imagine a pedagogy where student 2.0 should help narrate, create, critique, curate, and share the content, although I seldom realize those ideals. Social media plays a role in these ideals.

Binders were my dominant mode of content curation in 1980s and 1990s. 

Social media offers instructors and students to communicate and collaborate in ways that may be efficient, effective, and yes, even transformative.   In my teaching I have transitioned from curating the course content in large binders (1980 s -1990s)  to five different LMSs.  Each time we are promised a better system. But each semester as I curate an improved content, students watch as the content is washed away after exam week, as if what we created together is not worth maintaining for the future.  College administrators advocate for online teaching to alleviate shortage of classroom space. However,  taking bad teaching online is like giving a bad guitar player a bigger amplifier (Ohler 2013, p. 6).   Rather, I advocate more connected and open pedagogy that gives students more control of learning and sharing. 

The internet has also spread the use of memes. Memes are internal representations of knowledge that are culturally inherited.  As educators we can use lessons from memes to help students master and retain key concepts.  Memes can be developed by students with readily available smartphone apps (e.g., QuickMeme, and MemeGenerator) and shared via many networks.  We can use lessons from memes via online communities to help students master and retain key concepts and new terminology (Brodie 2009). 

Students can develop and share fish memes to facilitate retrieval and recall of new taxonomy.

Community of practice is a social learning theory that fits my teaching philosophy.  Learning  is fundamentally experiential and learning is fundamentally social (Wenger 1998).  Therefore, the learning must be open and connected because the knowledge resides in numerous communities.  Yet the structures of our learning management systems make it difficult for students to be connected and for all learning artifacts to be archived and shared. 

Imagine the visual depiction of students at the periphery of the  community of practice.  The vision of student (novices) moving through collaboration toward the core is empowering. I  tell students that accepting the notion that "I am a novice" or "I am becoming" will make  it easier for them to ask questions (for more background, see On Becoming an Ichthyologist). Every action is a chance for to move from periphery to involved. Not all learning takes place in the classroom and the social media trials I describe can assist with motivating students to be active participants in open and connected networks.

Source: Pinterest

Be afraid, very afraid, because Google is making us stupider Carr (2008).   Be afraid of the curse of irrelevance if you stay within the safety of your University's LMS.   Teaching that is closed and disconnected encourages superficial learning. Instead, take one of these bags of gold and change your teaching.  Gardner Campbell and Jim Groom,  in their talk No Digital Facelifts: Thinking the Unthinkable About Open Educational Experience, describe these new possibilities.  Bik and Goldstein (2013) emphasize that we fail to adopt social media because we are afraid of being wrong, being yelled at, or violating some social media norms.  Fears can be reduced by working with a trusted mentor.    I offer these five ways to try out social media in your teaching.

1. Public Writing 
 

Public writing is open and connected learning. Kumpulainan and Sefton-Green (2014, p. 10) wrote "design principles for such connected learning environments include breaking boundaries between formal and informal; valuing learner agency, authority, and accountability; and stressing the importance of learners pursuing meaningful and authentic activities with relevant resources and tools.”  I encourage public posting of essays (i.e., blogs, or op-ed) because the student has an audience.  In some cases I have added students as blog authors and in most other cases, student writing and revision (and revision and revision) is done offline.  Only some final essays are posted on the Virginia Tech Ichthyology blog.  Graduate students are more frequently creating and curating their own blogs (e.g,  Chesapeake Catfish,  Clinch Chronicle, and The Troutlook).  I won't comment on the many blog platform options; just pick a free one (GitHub, Medium, Tumblr, Wix, Weebly, Wordpress) and get started.

2. Twitter and Infographics

Twitter is widely used by instructors.  Don't think of Twitter as a passive website.  Rather consider Twitter as a place to start and continue a discussion.   You will find followers who have similar interests.  Start or follow a discussion with a unique hashtag.  Right now #PenceScience and #NationalBookLoverDay are trending.  Stories of scientists working in the field were shared in the #fieldworkfail discussion on Twitter.    Students can use Twitter in many ways.  Twitter allows students to initiate discussions and invite authors of their readings to weigh in on discussions. A list is a curated group of Twitter users, which allows you and your students to make more connections. 

Sample Infographic or Information Graphic, developed by the USEPA. 

Images and videos added to tweets get more attention. If you want your message to be re-tweeted, make a simple graphic.  In the new media, these are called Information Graphics (i.e., infographics) and a simple assignment to create an infographic on a topic will engage more parts of the brain than "write a summary of the passage from page 368-390."     Another app, called Storify, allows the student to locate and write a summary with tweets posted on a particular topic.   For example, after the death of Michael Brown in  Ferguson, Missouri, educators used the many tweets posted on this story and developed a storify syllabus on the Ferguson issue.  Other Storify stories tell of fieldwork of scientists to support world water day and #scicomm.   

3. Online communities

Many instructors are creating Facebook groups for their classes; there are many Facebook ideas you can adopt.   I have used these since I joined Facebook to easily facilitate student introductions at the beginning of class.  Because of privacy concerns of students (the law known as FERPA) and Facebook evils, I never make membership a requirement.   My Ichthyology Facebook group is a public group and is dominated by past students and other fish enthusiasts.   However, you can create a closed Facebook group.  I use Facebook to join and learn for a variety of groups.   I also maintain a Flickr Ichthyology class site and require students to post their better fish photos (with annotations) to this shared site.   On Flickr I follow my favorite photographers and joined a number of Flickr groups.   Similarly, I follow some individuals on You Tube.  Here I am able to encounter rare and interesting videos that are useful for my teaching.  For example, Brandon Brown  posted a beautiful underwater video of Longear Sunfish breeding behaviors and Cardinal Shiners in breeding colors.   One problem with many learning management systems is they are designed for instructors to post, curate, and deliver content.  If you wish to create an online open learning community you may have to find alternative platforms in which students can create discussion, post materials, and be more engaged in the learning process.   Consider experimenting with PBWorks or  Slack; here are notes from one such experiment.  

4. Digital Storytelling and Video Essays

We need to train people to be inspiring communicators if they are to be effective in their work or public lives (Dahlstrom 2014).  One easy teaching trial is to assign a video Essay instead of a written essay.  One example, is the This I Believe Essay which many college classes have adopted.  In this video version present "I Believe in Resilience."   However, students in the STEM courses seldom write in a narrative form.   I spent many decades teaching before asking students to tell me their stories.   My teaching has personally transformed when I began facilitating student storytelling and sharing my own stories.  When it is safe to tell stories, then learning communities become storytelling  communities.

In my Ichthyology class, I first tell students some key ideas behind learning to study Ichthyology (video) or Stream Habitat Management (video).  This provides students with some background on research on learning that informs practices that I suggest they adopt.  Click for more on How to Learn Ichthyology.   I have found that digital stories have many uses for my teaching.  I can post a short fish mystery that forces students to think about it, or even read the assigned text.   In this post I provide a brief answer the mystery of Bloody Neutrality of the Smallmouth Bass.  

To prompt students to examine defining events in their own young lives,  I share my story Not Everyone Truly Lives and assign students to create a wondering map (Brooks 2010, p. 19-47).    Students are always struggling with new and challenging materials.  I use a digital story assignment in order to get them reflecting on their struggles and sharing the story.  This digital storytelling assignment was described in the post, Inside the head of a fish head.  If you need more background before adopting digital storytelling, start by reading Ohler (2013).  Ohler (2013) presents a number of important revelations about storytelling as pedagogy.  For me, the most important was that the story provides a set of practical processes for resolving issues, educating ourselves, and pursuing our goals, while combining traditional and emerging literacies (Ohler 2013).

The Hero's Journey from Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces.  "Students need to become heroes of their own learning stories as well as of the stories they tell with their own lives" Ohler (2013, p.  9)

 5. Eportfolios and a Web of One's Own

Gardner Campbell called for giving each student a personal cyberinfrastructure in 2009 podcast or read the text. In 2013 University of Mary Washington initiated Domain of ones own where first-year students are assigned a web domain name.  Dozens of other universities have adopted similar initiatives.  The University provides free, personal domain names and web hosting and students take control of their work.   Creating a domain of one's own may be the most important wickedly subversive education innovation of our times (Waters 2014).  Listen to Ted talk by Jim Groom and find out why Jim Groom rocks.
 
Bass 2014 wrote "E-portfolios are at heart a set of pedagogies and practices that link learners to learning, curriculum to the cocurriculum, and courses and programs to institutional outcomes."  Here is a place for the student to reflect and narrate about their learning experience, show the artifacts of their learning, organize and curate their scholarly works, and share with others.  Most importantly, ePortfolios are leaner-centric and may demonstrate a student's creativity and sense of wonder better than any exam.   I use ePortfolio as a course-level demonstration of student learning; it's been ten years since I gave students the option of creating a hard-copy portolio.  Students can choose to make their final ePortfolio private or public.   For one example, click here.   The easiest way to initiate this trial is to develop your own teaching portfolio and use your struggles and successes to help model the ePortfolio development process.   See My Teaching Portfolio.

Try one of these ideas!  Social media have vastly changed how we communicate online. Our students are no longer just consumers of online media.  Fisheries educators have a key role to play in training fisheries students in the  communications of fisheries issues for multiple diverse audiences. Students 2.0 are content creators, curators, distributors, editors, opinion makers, and much more. Consequently, it is our responsibility as educators to help student 2.0 to navigate through the social media.  It is also our responsibility to remind students and instructors that not all learning is digital and, further, outreach to some publics must be face to face (see The Grapevine).  While the media landscape has changed dramatically, the criteria for evaluating the credibility of media (arguments, evidence, conclusions, implications) have not.  If you choose not to adopt social media, you might be damned with the curse of irrelevance.

References

Bass, R. 2014. The next whole thing in higher education. Peer Review. Winter 2014, 16(1):35.   

Bik, H.M. and M.C. Goldstein. 2013. An introduction to social media for scientists. PLoS Biology 11(4): e1001535. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001535 
Brooks, K. 2010. You majored in what? Mapping your path from chaos to career. Plume. Penguin Group. New York. 322 pp. 

Carr, N. 2008. Is Google making us stupid? The Atlantic. July/August.

Couldry, N. 2012.  Media, society, world: social theory and digital media practics. Polity. 242 pp.

Dahlstrom, M.F. 2014. Using narratives and storytelling to communicate science with nonexpert audiences.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111 (Supplement 4):13583-13584.  
Grossman, G. D., D. J. Orth, and J. Neuswanger. 2016. Innovative teaching methods in Fisheries Education.  Fisheries 41(8):451-457.

Kumpulainan, K., and J. Sefton-Green 2014. What is connected learning and how to research it? International Journal of Learning and Media 4:7-18. doi:10.1162/IJLM_a_00091
McLuhan, M. 1964. Understanding media: the extensions of man. Signet, New York. 318 pp.

Ohler, J. 2013. Digital storytelling in the classroom: new media pathways to literacy, learning, and creativity, 2nd Edition.  Corwin. 304 pp. 
Waters, A. 2014.  Beneath the cobblestones...a domain of one's own.  Hack Education.  April 25, 2014.  

Wenger, E. 1998. Communities of practice: Learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge University Press, New York.