The ecology of the field of education is changing and must change.  It must change, or it will become irrelevant.  I actually typed I must change at first, perhaps that is very relevant as I must also change or become obsolete.

There is active work by others outside of the system to change the system, reward talents and skills in varying areas, such as chess.  This is done through the use of the badge system, a system for which I have a personal fondness as a former Brownie with an impressive selection of badges. However, it does seem like we already do this in some ways. Yes, there are core subjects that must be completed. Outside of that, students choose what they want to do, be it metalwork, ceramics, learn German, play soccer, learn to play piano, ballet, and much more. Perhaps it wouldn’t be as big of a step as we think to move into some form of a badge system.

Education has long history of individualism. Who are the participants, who are the learners?  What are their developmental needs?  I want to get those who don’t understand why one would use social media, to get an emotional connection, to feel and understand why the connections it corrects are important.

I’m left with a personal drive for connectivity… How can we do it more easily, more efficiently?  Social media? That’s what I’m trying to argue. But in this situation, argue isn’t quite the word I want to use. Provoke? Still seems too hostile.

In working on my project today I struggled a bit with the form I chose, while conversely also felt quite comfortable and attached to it. I’m using Haiku Deck for the iPad, which is a simple slide type presentation, yet is very restrictive in the amount of text one can use. I love text. I love to write. I love to write really long things that perhaps people don’t read (ha, leave a comment if you made it this far!). Using Haiku Deck is forcing brevity upon me, forcing me to rely more on visuals. Considering that I’m talking about social media, Twitter in particular, it’s somewhat fitting that I’m forced to be brief.

I want to provoke, and I think I can best do this through limited text. I’ll be posting the first attempt tomorrow, wanting more time on it tonight. I really want to shape it into something that I can set free onto the world.

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