Darlene Koenig
Teaching Tolerance
Spring 2011
Issue 39
http://www.tolerance.org/magazine/number-39-spring-2011/social-media-schoolhouse
Social media can be used for collaboration as well as extending the academic experience to relevant activities that keep students interested. Technology can lead to a situation of full group engagement which benefits the individual learner and the classroom dynamic as a whole. Social media provides opportunity for students to be stronger actors in an international world, but does not necessarily make the world a kinder, gentler place. Experts agree that media in the classroom is a great tool for exposure, but saying that it will change the face of education is going too far because regardless of the communication styles we use, people are people and will communicate the same regardless of how we do so.
Students are now using social media application to rewrite classic stories and dig deeper in regards to what lies beneath the common stories we are told. In this articles introduction, students break down fairly tails and discuss the generalizations, gender roles and stereotypes found behind the classics.
Intended audience: Teachers, students and administrators
Social media has the ability to shrink the spaces among nations, cultures and people due to our communication and access to other locations. The goal in teaching is to create learners who are problem-solvers and critical thinkers. The most important task at hand in doing so is to provide meaningful instruction design, which technology can assist in creating. Those who understand how to effectively design curriculum and intertwine the use of technology and social networking are the most efficient and successful educators. Those teachers that are successful are creating a world perspective for students by putting them in touch in the needs of others around the world. Schools and districts view social media in the classroom a touchy subjects because of its lack of censorship and the uprise of cyber-bullying, but many teachers argue that good teaching, sensible filtering, good supervision and trusting kids to act responsibly can lead to many benefits that may not be found without the use of technology in learning.
This stacks really well with the other social media post you did on the 7th! If anyone hasn't read this article and is interested in technology in the classroom, this one gives three or four really CONCRETE EXAMPLES of LESSON PLANS (sorry for shouting, just need to make it pop for anyone skimming). I particularly enjoyed the first example, not only because it used a lesson about gender roles and stereotypes as an example, but because it took what was essentially a basic LA lesson and activity and used technology as the "hook," as one person in the article put it, to stimulate engagement where kids might be reluctant otherwise.
ReplyDeleteI am also excited about the idea of podcasts, ala the teacher working on community and social outreach projects with students from her/his page at http://web.mac.com/chsadmin/Site/iPod_Pals/iPod_Pals.html . Thinking about this from the perspective of my field, what an obvious way it is to encourage language production, something that can sometimes feel like pulling teeth! I will have to try some things out.
Apart from these personal insights, I think that the article is another in the series of articles that have been coming out recently in response to both the technological luddite crowd, and to those who embrace it as the be-all-end-all educational tool. It takes a moderate perspective and points out advantages and disadvantages. One overarching theme of these articles is the potential for both interaction with technology in general, and social media in particular, to act as the tools of engagement; contextualizing a lesson or activity in a medium with which the students are already familiar and comfortable can personalize or "bring home" the material, and like Duckworth (and a lot of the other constructivists we have been reading) said, real learning doesn't happen without a personal reason for it.
Your school may ban any and all technology beyond the word processor and slideshow presentation, or it may promote it in all its forms. In the case of the former, some of the examples from this article (Google Docs, in particular: an interactive, social word processor) may be just the thing to use as the vanguard to introduce a more sophisticated approach to technology to your school.
This is an interesting article that I wouldn't mind revisiting when we start the tech course. I'm also always interested in hearing how your mentor teachers feel about technology or integrate it into their classrooms
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