Here, in a nutshell, is why we need to teach the learning potentials of social Web technologies in K-12.
In an article titled “Today’s Question: Should social media be used in education?” in The Missourian, a Univeristy of Missouri student is quoted as saying:
“I don’t really care. It (social media) probably wouldn’t help. It’s social type stuff — we’re trying to learn,â€Â said Michael Phillip, a 20-year-old junior mechanical engineering major at MU.
I think that’s the way a lot of teachers and parents think about social media as well, frankly. I mean, it’s pretty easy to see the social connections that can be made here, but I still think very few people understand that some profound learning can take place in those connections. And that 20-year olds who supposedly are immersed in social media have no sense that those learning potentials exist. Whose fault is that, exactly?
Just sayin…
Further evidence I think that the net generation is a dangerous assumption. There are netgen types of all ages just as there are people with low digital skills levels. I suspect that this student’s view of social technologies is fairly typical and I’ve heard similar myself. Sometimes the resistance to change is strongest from the students rather than the teachers.
UK Teenagers Leaving Social Networking Sites In Droves
Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2009/8/7/uk-teenagers-leaving-social-networking-sites-droves-says-ofcom-report/#ixzz0NV0KwRI4
What if by the time we get the teachers and other adults who can model responsible use and learning with these powerful spaces using social networking sites the kids move on to something else?
So true. Whereas teens do focus on their friends when using social media, there are also adults and mentors being equally dismissive of its educational value. I think mobiles and video games get stuck in that same cultural pidgeonhole of things that are popularly looked at as being purely entertainment. But I expect this has been true of all emerging technologies, and it likely took some time for people to see any value in TV or radio. I wonder how long it took before films were accepted in the classroom..
Psychologically many young adults are not prepared to focus on what needs to be done in the world. They’re still green, they’re still in it for themselves. Perhaps some national service projects would help snap them out of their daydreams and Nintendo stupors.
ugh! I cringed when I read this! “we’re trying to learn” … what’s wrong with learning being social? Almost anything can help you learn, if it’s used in the right way.
Hmmm — interesting.
Perhaps that problem keeps being we keep trying to break it up into sections–
and the students have merged it all into one.
Perhaps we are making a distinction — whether it be social, technological, 21st century — etc…..
and to the students there is not that distinction.
Perhaps that 20 year old is so immersed in social media that he/she does not even realize it and to label it with “our terminology” would only be us having to make sense of something that is like “air” to them?
Just wondering.
This brings to mind a quote from painter/sculptor Dan Attoe: “You have more freedom than you are using.”
This, more than anything, is a perfect example of WHY we have to teach via integrated social technology from the youngest grade levels.
You can’t expect a 20 year old who’s never used social media for anything other than sharing photos and cracking jokes on Facebook to understand the depth of resources social tech offers in education.
We’ve got to teach teachers how to use social tech. We’ve gotta get those teachers modeling the use of social tech on a daily basis integrated with — not auxiliary to — their content areas. And we’ve gotta get admins to allow teachers the flexibility to experiment.
That’s how we change the culture. And in twelve years, one of todays’ elementary school kids will be a 20 year old in college and won’t be able to comprehend the philistine attitudes of the past.
As an educational technology grad student, this just makes me crazy. I teach technology in a K-2 school. I believe that my job is to show these young students right from the start, how to use the technology that they are already so comfortable with, as a tool for learning and communicating. As others have pointed out, the college students of today see social technology as more of a fun fad. I believe this is because teachers don’t have the skills yet to effectively integrate technology into their curriculum. It’s beginning to happen, but needs to start with pre-service teachers and continue with teacher professional development at all levels. Also needed is connection with and support from administration and the community. I can’t wait to train the teachers in my school how to use iPods in their lessons for this coming year!
As a former physics student, I have to laugh at this mechanical engineering student’s comment. Totally typical of these guys. They have gone into these fields because they don’t want to interact with people, so why would they see any value in integrating social interaction into their learning? They should interview a psych major or somebody who is actually interested in other humans …
I would like to add to the discussion (and very excellent points have been made, in my opinion), by noting how the quote from the student continued in the original article. After the part quoted above, the engineering student is said to have asserted, “It wouldn’t be distracting. It just wouldn’t be necessary.” Perhaps for that student new social learning media wouldn’t be necessary. But unless he is faced with a choice, how is he (or how are we) to know?
I think we will always have achievers in our current system of education, the empowered learners in the traditional approaches to education, who will overcome what many find to be insurmountable barriers to learning without undue stress. These students may always be a bit puzzled why we care about students who struggle and are over-stressed by the individualism of learning effort recognized and rewarded in systems that offer less interaction between instructors and students and less collaboration among education participants. The urgent call is not so much to improve education as a process for all learners, but rather to make education more accessible, especially for those disenfranchised by less mediated approaches.
I applaud those who are bringing concepts of social learning through media to K-12 education. For my part, I try to help university instructors learn such concepts, so that students can use their social media skills in higher education. There is a lot of staff resistance to overcome and some administrative inertia along with it, but I believe students given a choice to learn socially instead of (or as a supplement to, if they choose) learning individually will be more secure and more motivated in their education at every level than students who are offered fewer options.
This change – the use of social media in all contexts (school, work, play) – is occuring rapidly. As others have pointed out, some are on the wave and some are waiting for a future swell to bring them along. Others remain oblivious, even cynical.
However, other things about school and education don’t seem to be changing very fast. We still focus on using outdated textbooks that are not only expensive, inaccurate, incomplete and boring but reinforce the notion that it’s OK to support this model of learning. We have inflexible school days and rigid annual calendars despite what we know about learning, the brain and human behavior. We still have discontinuous, unrelated and irrelevent courses, many required. And we barely provide a fraction of the time that teachers and administrators need to plan and collabortate to look for alternative ways of teaching to support current research and knowledge of “best practices.”
The future is here and change is happening faster than ever. A visit to a school, however, would likely show a similar environment in many respects to the one you and your parents (and grandparents) saw when they were students. We need to wake up and change schools, in practivally every respect. Now.
Some really excellent points here. I always gain as much from the comments as I do from Will’s posts.
I would further add that the classroom is an excellent place to explore and dissect the social media that students use at home. How often do teachers ask students about the rich, or not so rich, digital lives that they are immersed in outside of the classroom? Educators tend to shy away from these types of conversations because they are not necessarily connected to the curriculum. However, if part of the job as a 21st century educator is to prepare students to become responsible digital citizens — shouldn’t these conversations be happening daily? While these conversations are happening — a class could also begin developing social networks, blogs, wikis, etc. within the context of the content being covered on the curriculum map. The options are limitless.
There will always be students like the one quoted in the above post. If not, then there would no longer be a need for strong-willed teachers that push students to think beyond their limits.
Ensuring students learn is a different thing… do we really need to focus on that or rather I think the focus needs to be on creating an environment for effective study. When students have a casual discussion in a cafeteria is usually what is remembered and understood well.
Can we create technology and environment that can effect such, an effective collaborative online resource for students and teachers. With all the innovation in online education, it is a matter of universities leveraging it to create a platform for effective education. There are a few universities already adopting to this, like Virginia Tech and Ohio State which uses a hybrid model of online and traditional school approach. Once this is established well, the course can be tailored to make best use of time and make it quicker and useful. There are many innovative platforms coming up, a good online collaborative learning platform such as FunnelBrain has proven to be very effective with many professors and students!
The biggest factor for the success is that it is by experts in the world of education which is attracting many users. It creates an environment for students to have an interactive experience and also with its collaborative approach helps students memorize better with techniques such as flash cards.
What will be more useful is to see a move towards changing the way education is perceived by students and teachers today, moving to a more effective mechanism.
I don’t suppose it’s worth considering that he might have a point? That, despite all the hullabaloo, social media isn’t being used in schools becasue it doesn’t actually appear to add a great deal of value to what happens in schools? In a time when the views of students are (in theory at least) taken very seriously indeed; when teachers are continually told to ‘learn from their students’; when we are bombarded with tripe about the superior skills of ‘digital natives’; how come we are so quick to dismiss what this particular student has to say? @They just don’t GET it!’ is starting to sound a little threadbare…
Just sayin’…
Sorry, Mr. Chips! Maybe the need to begin to “GET” it.
Here’s my example for you:
Imagine the power of Spanish students blogging and responding to each other via a classroom social media site. Using a chat feature to ask questions in Spanish, writing and responding in Spanish.
My 60 Spanish 3 students have posted over 180 written pieces and nearly 1,000 responses and responses to responses in just 2 weeks.
Is this not creation, engagement, and authentic use of a foreign language in a way that excites students? A teacher in front of the room asking questions, let’s see:
20 students in an 80 minute class=4 minutes per student of engagement with the language. Contrast that with 40 minutes of conversation and 40 minutes of Ning communication=80 minutes of engagement
Each student working at his/her own level, asking for new grammatical structures so that they can communicate more effectively…
THAT is a powerful learning environment. Just imagine what can happen when native speakers and students from across the world join the conversation…
Technology is transformational!
Is it a powerful learning evironment? I don’t know. It sounds like a gimmick to me. Kids sitting beside each other communicating via Ning? What are they learning that they wouldn’t by talking to each other? You seem to be doing the same thing that teachers have been doing for years, but because it is now done digitally, it is ‘transformational’.
Now, if you get a link set up with people OUTSIDE of the school, that might be different, I guess. Still not ‘transformational’, but perhaps closer to being ‘authentic’, if for some reson that is a goalworth aiming at.
I’m sorry – I’m not being deliberately contentious, but having attended many, many conferences on this topic over the last years, I am getting tired of the constant fake revolutions, teacher-bashing and deliberate refusal to listen to any opposing point of view. I think technology can enhance learning; I think we have a responsibility to prepare students for the world they are going to enter; I think every student should have a laptop; but I struggle to see how Ning is ‘transformational’, I’m afraid. We’ve been using it for years – the novelty soon wears off!