I recently had a lengthy discussion, ironically on Twitter, with a very tech-savvy educator friend about his concerns that big ideas in education might be getting drowned out as a result of the continuing discussions about Social Media and connectedness for educators. I hope I am categorizing that correctly. My friend felt that Social Media is a powerful medium that can be used to learn, but too much attention is given to it at the expense of other powerful ideas. According to him,” it’s still all pretty much primordial soup”.
Of course, being a social media advocate, his comments have been tumbling in my head since we had our conversation. Did others believe this? Is Social Media being discussed and addressed as a more important idea than education reform or, pedagogy, or methodology in education? Is it a distraction rather than a means for transformation? Are the big ideas being missed?
We all learn from other people. We created places where we could come in contact with people who could share their ideas with us, so we that we could learn. Those face to face connections have never been completely replaced, but rather enhanced, by technology. Of course when we first developed our social learning, we were limited as to how we made those connections, because of limited technology. In ancient times with little or no tech learning was always face-to-face learning. Eventually, technology involving ink and paper opened the limited circles of learning. The printing press really got things moving in order to share ideas, and learning. Electricity enabled even more tech stuff to connect people with ideas without having to be in the same place, or space. Technology historically allowed learning to expand from face to face contact to distances beyond the limits of both time and space, and the Internet has moved that to a whole new level.
Now that we are in the second decade of the 21st Century, we are no longer preparing people for that Century, but rather how to use its tools of technology for learning in order to efficiently, and lastingly learn. Of course this doesn’t have to be a replacement of the tried-and-true learning of face to face encounters, but rather an expansion of that experience. We can now connect with almost anyone at anytime, anywhere in the world. The circles of learning probably can’t get any bigger unless time-travel technology is ever discovered.
The idea of PLN’s or Professional Learning Networks is still a great strategy for learning as an educator. The idea of connectedness goes beyond the limitations of a PLN. Understanding the use of Social Media enables educators to reside on the internet using links provided by their PLN to expand their learning on any subject. The connectedness that we talk about is only a vehicle travelling to content or sources in order to address the important questions of education.
Teaching has always been an isolated profession. Teachers were limited to sharing the experiences of their colleagues in their building or district. If they were in the group of a fortunate few, they might have gotten to experience a professional conference. Of course another shared experience of many educators was the required graduate courses taken by many for professional development. Some districts provided an occasional workshop during the course of the year. These experiences, if shared, would be shared with only a limited number of educators within the school or district.
Social Media has the potential for expanding that circle of learners. I say potential, because a majority of educators are not yet involved with Social Media as a tool for professional development. With all of the Social Media outlets that I have at my disposal, I may be personally connected to 50,000 educators. Looking at the memberships of all of the education Ning sites, education websites, and the greatest followings of the most popular education tweeters, we may have as many as 500,000 connected educators, globally using social Media for professional learning. Although that is a large number on its own, it is small considering the 7.2 million educators in the United States alone. To use the idea of connectedness for educators for the purpose of affecting a transformation of education, a primary imperative must be to get most educators connected. Although the continuing use of Social Media should be to share ideas on content, pedagogy, methodology and sources, as well as the big ideas, some time must be spent on involving, and explaining the use of SM to all educators. I would hope that we would strive for a balance, but the more educators that we connect; the faster a transformation in education can take place. A majority of educators are not yet involved with the connectedness of Social Media and need to be educated. If we transform the way we educate educators, can transforming our students be far behind?
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As an opener I wonder how much social media and school reform can mix. From my first use of blogs in the classroom I have had the nagging suspicion that this wasn’t a disruptive technology but rather a ‘supplantive’ one. Your best guess of 500K teacher/users is interesting in that it suggests we may have already reached a tipping point for change to occur AND at an ever faster rate.
Those of us in the ed biz already suspect that the common words of our profession–classroom, teacher, student, textbook–are no longer describing the ecology of our connected learners. So… perhaps the question as to ‘help or hindrance’ is irrelevant. Perhaps school reform is already a dead man walking.
I don’t think big ideas are missed due to the attention being given to social media. I think social media makes it easier for us to learn about those big ideas. Maybe it’s different when you’re not on Twitter. Perhaps it does feel like too much time is given to discussion of SM.
Tom, I enjoyed your post. As for the debate you raise I feel the benefits of social media and the attention on it will outweigh any hinderance. The countless so-called Education Reform efforts are, on the contrary, a complete hinderance on real progress. The testing machine has been used to categorize good schools as failing and mediocre schools (with smart kids) as excellent – all for what? In my opinion, to open the market for non-educators to make their money grab. Charters are supposed to help poor kids – give them equal access to good schools right? why then are students across the country “dropped” from the local charters – all of them low on the socioeconomic scale and/or special needs. All of them kept long enough for the money to stay with the charter school. Just to be clear, there are some wonderful Charters- There are some that have ulterior motives – just follow the money back to corporations or foundations with much to gain – and politicians helping them succeed through policy. True education reform comes when teachers are treated with respect, afforded the opportunity to grow professionally, and aren’t asked to use the “initiative of the week” by their administrators. Most administrators think they are helping by purchasing the latest “program” but instead they should focus on adopting an instructional model and their best practices that fit their culture, so they can have a common language, then conduct walkthrough visits and let the teachers use the data to drive their growth- I am amazed by how awesome our teachers did with this idea over the last two years. Millville headed to World Class. http://t.co/9sjxfIBM Keep provoking deep thoughts and debates Tom, regardless of the format – we need to constantly reflect on the tools we use to help kids- Dave (from NJ)
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good teaching practices will always prevail, but there is a need to stay connected and evolve with others through sharing and learning …. the teaching will oversee any “distractions”, and better yet, the teaching will create relationships with the “distractions” to improve individual students
Great Post Tom. I agree with previous comments that there needs to be a balance as with anything. The great part about learning from social media is the 24/7 access and the opportunity to personalize the learning to your particular needs. How many of us attended a conference with the idea that it would fit our needs when in fact it did not. You sit there struggling to apply the learning to your needs which is a poor use of anyone’s time. With social media, you are almost guaranteed to find learning opportunities if you know the right people to reach out to. Thanks for sharing!
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You have done it again, Tom! This post sparked deeper thinking and prompted me to tackle the same question from a different angle:
Let’s hope it stimulates some needed public discussion north of the 49th parallel.