Researching social media, I still see a large amount of articles that focus on the business side of this new trend and little that focuses on the relevance of social media and its impact on education. I found one article that looked at the use of social media and its pending outcome in higher education. More and more, it seems that college is no longer valued for its ability to educate. Many feel that college is where you go to get a job. The goal is to pass courses and get a degree. A blog by grant McCracken looks at college as a place of “knowledge production” and not “knowledge distribution”.
http://www.cultureby.com/trilogy/2009/09/is-the-university-next.html
It still seems that even with the growth of social media, the growth of knowledge distribution from teachers to students is lacking. There is the direction that colleges are heading: access to knowledge from the Internet, greater online resources, individual student mastery, and self-instruction. The teacher has evolved into a guide to help students find and use information rather than the source of the information. The only thing left behind is the degree/ the name of the college/ the grades that get students a job.
This is all relevant because as educators, we need to strive to distribute new knowledge and information. With the trend, I am worried that social media is having an impact because students are more aware of these new technologies and use them more and better than those whom are in place to teach them. It helps when educators are informed. The use of social media is not a bad idea, but there is a divide that I see between the generations. How do we teach the digital natives and the digital immigrants in the same classroom so that both receive the same benefit to get the job? That is my struggle now. I am requiring that my students familiarize themselves with digital media and social media tools whether they see an advantage or not. I feel very strongly that college students should be using these skills despite their generation or age. I think that in order to stop the gap from widening, we have to stop making excuses and forgiving those who are new to technology. It is time to encourage them to learn and begin distributing knowledge rather than watching others produce knowledge. The production value has to grow for all students, not just the digital literate.
http://www.slideshare.net/GeoffBrown3231/the-space-between-action-research-and-social-media
The second view I wanted to focus on was not my interpretation of social media and how it relates to me as an educator, but as a learner. I found a great slide show on slideshare called The Space Between…Action Research and Social Media. Web 2.0 and Action research are similar in terms of the associated content, including: convergence, participation, usability, design, and remixability among others. If our goal as learners is to reflect critically, the best way to do that is through experience or action. To learn something completely, the best method is to immerse oneself or become a participant not an observer. The next step in learning is growing from those experiences. The focus should still be on distribution of knowledge through sharing and collaboration. I have always believed that top down information is not complete. We need to know how everyone understands and learns based on his/her place and experiences. I learn better from those that treat me as a collaborator and not as a consumer. Many people still prefer to learn in the more traditional ways of lecture and consumption, but we can teach them to learn differently by bringing more to the learning experience. By looking at open source, we see how valuable and innovative people can be. By moving from a one-way model of knowledge acquisition to a two-way model, we can open discussions in the classroom that can lead to more inclusive and relevant learning experience.
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