As a high school teacher for many years, technology is becoming an omnipresent factor in learning. In the "old days" where email was the norm, it has become clear that students no longer really check their email. Then there was Facebook, then Twitter and texting as the primary communication tools between young people these days. This is important to understand because of the impact this technology is having on student learning, how they learn and attention spans. One challenge with this new age of speed in instant communication is that students often forget how to properly communicate with authority figures, forget when it is proper to communicate with someone and expect an instant response and how grammar and spelling actually work. It is important for students to be reminded of the fact that social networking is a powerful tool, but that limits and boundaries and appropriateness are still important lessons.
Social networking is here to stay. Whether we like it or not, social networking is deeply ingrained in our students' lives and is a crucial habit. Thus, it makes sense that we tap into this channel as well.
Dori,
Great point. It is interesting to me students think they can say anything (because they have the right to) and are shocked when there are ramifications. We require our students to take a social media workshop as freshmen so they begin to develop their persona as a professional.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Amy,
Nice post, you can lock it down; but I don't share grades or classroom work or assignments; it is about the content and/or professionalism. I also evaluate and give feedback offline. I actually use the journaling feature in my LMS to give feedback regarding social media.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Jerome,
Yes it should. This is not going to go away. This is how they will find their jobs and their internships.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Stacy,
That is true. Now, social media is more than just a social gathering, it is a professional networking particularly LinkedIn.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Scott,
What a great post. We have to impress upon students their professional persona is what shows in the social media. Poor grammar and punctuation as well as poor presence speaks volumes.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Sabahudin,
You make such an important point. Several discipline really use it extensively; such as hospitality.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
To me it is important for them to develop good social networking habits for various reasons.
1) Once you post things in a virtual world and others see it, it is hard to get it back or dispute that you did not say it.
2) Not being aware of what you are posting can have a negative effect on the job that you are trying to get in the future.
3) The world is always changing and so is technology, so it is best to learn to use it for your benefit instead of posting things that can be used against you.
Simone,
That is true! I used to say "don't put anything on Facebook or an email you wouldn't want to see on the side of the road". Many of our students DON"T CARE! Then they don't understand when it works against them professionally. The work world does look at their employees Facebook!
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I think it is important because social media offers plenty of opportunities for learning and interactivity, and if you take a moment to think about it, it’s not too hard to see how students benefit from using social media. As younger generations use such technology in the classroom, they remake the educational landscape.
Students are experiencing the world through more than just books and assignments; they are learning and adapting to the world using a relatively new form of communication. In a world where connections are important, graduates are coming into the workplace with a lot to offer.
:-)
Phyllis, when I have used social networking in my classroom (f2f), I usually let my students pick the type of technology he/she wants to use. For example, I taught a Harlem Renaissance class last year. Students had to research Af-Am lit in other parts of the country during that time period it to Harlem. One student did a Google Trek. She was from Tennessee and read about some slayings of Af-Ams in the area during the Renaissance. One Af-Am male who was killed had ran; he left Memphis and ran to a nearby town and then to another place after he discovered the mob was on his tail. So, my student was able to pinpoint on the Google map the places where the guy ran and where he was finally caught and hang. Another student created a Tumblr page. He added video and lots of cool graphics/pictures to connect his topic to the Renaissance. I have also had my students create a scaffolded reading of one of the readings we did in my 19th century Af-Am lit class. They selected a piece (a poem, or a piece of a novel/essay, etc.) and created a scaffolded reading through a website. The website/scaffolded reading had to have at least three pages (not including the home page) and some other stuff (that eludes me at the moment).
Always a pleasure, Phyllis!
:-)
This is a new communication medium that is not going anywhere. It is expected that all companies and organizations have a website, a facebook page, a LinkedIn profile and more...
This is an opportunity for us to help students understand how these tools can be used beyond the interpersonal connections they use it for today and make sure they realize how they are presenting themselves and show them how they SHOULD present themselves, if applicable.
Willie ,
What a great post. You make a great point, we need to show students how to use the resources available and using social media is a great way to introduce students to professionals, experts etc.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Willie ,
I want to take your class. How interesting is your point and how interesting you use the technology. You are really connecting students to the learning. You may want to look at padlet.com as a tool to use with your students.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Kimberly,
You are so right. We can't just wait this out and hope it goes away. It will change, morph in to something else but we can't just put our head in the sand and assume we don't have to address it. Students need to prepare to use these tools.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Because it has become part of new media world and is a basic tool now used by individuals to communicate. Just as proper procedures and etiquette for using the telephone and writing letters were learned by earlier generations it important that today's generation learn good etiquette for social media.
Indeed, given the permanence and wide spread availability of social media it is especially important that students learn how to use it responsibility since their behavior on it will impact their careers and work into the future.
Michael,
Yes, it's very availability makes it their defacto public image.
Thomas,
What a great point. Yes, there has to be etiquette just as there was in letter writing or phone usage. All new media goes through the process. we seem to forget that.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Thomas,
We make all of our freshmen work on professionalizing their social media sites. We do make sure they know the consequences of not cleaning the sites.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
