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This chapter focuses on how social media tools can be used to enhance collaboration in higher education and the benefits and challenges that this can bring. We investigate how two social media tools, social bookmarking, and microblogging, can be utilized to foster collaboration and determine why this is important in contemporary higher education. Case studies of social media use at Bournemouth University show how social bookmarking and microblogging have already yielded benefits.The case studies are grounded in the challenges facing higher education in 2010. We explore how social media has been used in the context of a need to enhance academic excellence and drive efficiencies in the face of funding constraints and changing demographics.

The case studies illustrate, first, how social bookmarking has been used to foster group cohesion, reflective practice, and evaluative skills in students, as well as being used at an institutional level to drive professional and administrative efficiencies; and second, how microblogging has made a difference in promoting reflective learning, group cohesion, and professional awareness in students and how this style of social networking has contributed to enhancing academic and professional networks.

Whilst the tools, uses, and stakeholders vary, the case studies show how social media has enabled collaboration between, students, academics, librarians, learning technologists, and even professional groups beyond the institution. We conclude that, when used appropriately, social media can facilitate the collaboration that will be essential to overcome the challenges facing higher education.

This chapter addresses the needs of ongoing educational reform and presents the merits of social bookmarking as a technology integration option for pre-service teachers. Delicious, a social bookmarking tool, was introduced as a Web 2.0 tool that assists in tracking websites that hold the potential to contribute toward the meaningful learning of students. Delicious and other social bookmarking tools give 24/7 access to tagged websites from any computer anywhere in the world as long as Internet access is available. Numerous emerging technologies are making their way into the classrooms. As such, K-12 schools and post-secondary institutions of higher learning bear the responsibility for preparing all students to successfully use them to compete in this global economy. During fall 2009 and spring 2010 semesters, the authors piloted use of Delicious in seven mandatory teacher education technology-based courses. Specific instructions were provided for selecting interactive, user-friendly websites with content that would complement lesson plan content and thereby contribute toward greater learning potential. A total of 106 graduate and undergraduate pre-service teachers located, standardized, and began sharing their tagged Delicious bookmarks as part of a major course project for integrating technology into a classroom. The websites were documented within full and abbreviated lesson plans that detailed the rationale for use of each technology resource/tool. Approximately 300 websites that met specifically defined criteria were located by the pre-service teachers who also benefited from the merits of collaboration and sharing through social bookmarking with Delicious. They simultaneously experienced how ready-access to quality technology resources/tools could positively impact the learning opportunities of their K-12 students. Access to the Delicious database collection is available by contacting the authors.

Purpose – As researchers need partners to collaborate with, this study aims to provide author recommendation for academic researchers for potential collaboration, conference planning, and compilation of scientific working groups with the help of social information. Hereby the chapter analyzes and compares different similarity metrics in information and computer science.

Methodology/approach – The study uses data from the multidiscipline information services Web of Science and Scopus as well as the social bookmarking service CiteULike to measure author similarity and recommend researchers to unique target researchers. The similarity approach is based on author co-citation, bibliographic coupling of authors and collaborative filtering methods. The developed clusters and graphs are then evaluated by these target researchers.

Findings – The analysis shows, for example, that different methods for social recommendation complement each other and that the researchers evaluated user- and tag-based data from a social bookmarking system positively.

Research limitations/implications – The present study, providing author recommendation for six target physicists, is supposed to be a starting point for further approaches on social academic author recommendation.

Practical implications – The chapter investigates in recommendation methods and similarity algorithm models as basis for an implementation of a social recommendation system for researchers in academics and knowledge-intensive organizations.

Originality/value of chapter – The comparison of different similarity measurements and the user evaluation provide new insights into the construction of social data mining and the investigation of personalized recommendation.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to explore whether and how social tagging can be useful in an information web site for cancer patients and their relatives.

Methodology/approach – Three studies have been carried out in order to investigate the research questions. First, we reviewed and analyzed literature about cancer patients’ information needs and seeking behavior, and about social tagging and patient terminology. Second, we analyzed tags applied to blog postings at Blogomkraeft.dk, a blog site at the Danish information web site Cancer.dk. The tags were compared with the formal browsing structure of Cancer.dk. Results from the two studies were used to develop a prototype for social tagging at Cancer.dk. Thus third, we evaluated the prototype in a usability study.

Findings – We found that tags have the potential to describe and provide access to web site content from the users’ perspective and language use. Social tags may be a means to bridge between scientific viewpoints and terminology and everyday problems and vocabulary. Tags at Blogomkraeft.dk are mainly factual, often detailed, and do not cover as many functions as tags in more general bookmarking systems. An important finding is that some tags seemed to add to and supplement the content instead of factually describing the content of a blog posting. The usability test showed that our test persons liked the tagging feature.

Social implications – Tagging features give the public an opportunity to apply their own terms to documents, reflecting their own model of the current topic. Tags may furthermore function as colloquial lead-in terms from users’ search formulations at search engines such as Google to the domain-specific, tailored cancer web site.

Originality/value – Unlike most research on social tagging so far, we investigate tagging in a domain-specific setting, how tags can improve the interaction and communication between layman users and domain experts in an information web site within health care.

This chapter covers a diverse range of alternative methods for capturing deep major account insights online. Increasingly in the twenty first century, B2B decision-makers remain abreast of industry innovations and product information through participation in online communities. Through using social mobile technologies businesses exchange product and service experiences online amongst peers not just vendor organisations. A key aspect of this chapter shares rationale for selection of a marketing versus research community, community objectives, online techniques to gain major account insights using big data, resourcing, integration with existing marketing systems and budgeting for ongoing maintenance of marketing communities supporting B2B sales and marketing initiatives. This chapter focuses on the emerging area of B2B sales activities for creation and management of online communities for Major Account management of energy supply customers. A case-based research strategy specifically honed towards sensemaking of major account activities through using B2B online communities in conjunction with emerging research methods is outlined and critiqued.

Purpose – Describes the various ways mobile devices are becoming part of the 21st century classroom and how best practices of reading instruction are applied to the use of these devices to support struggling readers.Design/methodology/approach – Situates mobile devices within the framework of other information and communication technologies (ICTs), especially as related to struggling readers. Following that discussion, uses of various mobile devices are addressed based on the learning/reading task rather than a specific device.Findings – Uses of mobile devices in the classroom often build on or simply “digitize” traditional reading/learning strategies. Other implementations of the devices can take students beyond such basic approaches to engage them in multimedia and New Literacies to create their own texts and multimedia projects that enhance reading skills rather than just consume them.Research limitations/implications – The field of mobile devices in the classroom is quite new and extremely fluid. It is certain that there are other great applications and strategies being implemented in schools all over the world. More research to gain further understandings is needed.Practical implications – While obviously not exhaustive, this chapter offers instructors and researchers an opportunity to become aware of the issues related to mobile devices in the classroom and to launch their own exploration of this field.Originality/value of paper – It is hoped that instructors and researchers will be inspired to try out some of the strategies and/or devices discussed and find even more inventive ways to positively impact learning for their students.