I’m going to play Devil’s advocate for a bit here, because while I believe social media offer enormous opportunities for students to learn how to respectfully communicate with teachers, parents, one another, experts in various fields, and the public at large, I also strongly believe that kids and grownups alike need spaces (and simply because of societal shifts, these spaces are increasingly online) where they’re not working, not thinking too hard, and not feeling like they’re being analysed and evaluated. Dean Shareski (@shareski) a Community Manager for Discovery Education Canada, said the same thing in his talk at the TDSB Google Camp I attended a couple of weeks ago, that initially, he used Twitter because it was fun, and when we use social media with kids, it should be for fun as well.
I have very big concerns about using social media in the classroom, mostly because, while I’d say I have about 100 times more self-discipline than my average student (aged 8 to 12), I cannot possibly hope to open Facebook and stay on task. It’s like asking a kid to go to a candy store for some miso soup. Even if you love miso soup, when you see it beside a lot of candy, it won’t seem that appealing. The same can be said for trying to integrate work into social media. If one of you were my Facebook friend and posted a great article about Learning with social media, and it comes up right between Rihanna and Drake’s new video (shot on my street, btw…) and John Oliver making fun of Trump, it won’t have the same drawing power as it does in another context. Niether Bates (2014) nor November (2012) acknowledge the possibility of social media being distracting.
For social media to work in a classroom setting, it must be established and maintained for the classroom setting alone. That means, if a student posts “why did you slide tackle me at recess?” to another student on the class Twitter page, the teacher needs to have a word with the student to maintain professional parameters. So rather than redesign a course around social media, I think the social media needs to redesigned around the particular group of students and the subject matter it’s being used for. And most importantly, educational and non-educational social media need to stay separate, even if some of the fun Shareski advocates can be injected into the educational social media.
Hey R2,
Had I read your post before school today I could have said Hi to Dean Shareski for you (he was at one of my schools visiting a teacher/friend of his).
I think your comments from the “dark side” (devil’s advocate) are great in keeping things tethered to reality.
As well, how you envision implementing social media in a classroom setting is tempered with the wisdom of one who sees it in the light of reality rather than in its idealized state.
Refreshing!
Enjoyed reading your thoughts,
Keri
Hi Keri,
I never actually met D.S., just heard him speak among an audience of 500 or so teachers, so probably good that you didn’t say hi for me!
I think one great thing about MET when compared to a full time F2F program is that most of us are teaching during the day and can compare the theory we read about to the practice that we experience. Even for academics with teaching experience, it’s different when you’re not living it on a daily basis. Because I am living it, and thinking about my readings while my student is rolling around on the floor yelling “I hate school”, it brings some reality into these conversations.
Hi Randy,
I enjoyed reading your post. You make good points that students need their space and just unwind. In this day, a lot of the unwinding occurs online and doing other activities not related to school. Could you imagine if the school board or say a hospital environment were to incorporate an educational lecturer during staff lunch time? As much as the topic could be very interesting and educational it is during staff’s down time. There are always going to be some people who are committed to spending their lunch time learning about something new and others who need to just keep their own time private.
Edwin
Hi Randy,
I like your point about educational and non-educational social media needing to be separate–it really made me stop and think about my current use of social media as a teacher. I started using WeChat to post reminders for students for the activity I coordinate and, at first, the students commented, shared, and liked the posts at lightning speed. However, a year later, posts don’t receive even 1/8 as many reactions. Your post made me realize that the students probably see my posts as an invasion of their space. However, posting reminders on WeChat is the quickest way to get information out and ensure a large audience sees it. Now, I’m not sure whether to continue posting or not. However, I feel certain that, if I used it for IT class announcements/interactions, the posts would probably suffer the same fate. I feel like a traitor for jumping ship when yesterday, in my own post, I felt cautiously optimistic about social media, but I also feel grateful for your point-of-view.
–Meghan