Comments on: Social Media: Help or Hindrance to Education Reform?

By: Paul W. Bennett

Paul W. Bennett — Thu, 31 May 2012 00:23:50 +0000

You have done it again, Tom! This post sparked deeper thinking and prompted me to tackle the same question from a different angle:

http://educhatter.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/social-media-and-education-is-high-tech-talk-crowding-out-ideas/

Let’s hope it stimulates some needed public discussion north of the 49th parallel.

By: Social Media: Help or Hindrance to Education Reform? « My Island ... | Changing the Face of Education | Scoop.it

Tue, 29 May 2012 23:41:24 +0000

[...] background-position: 50% 0px ; background-color:#222222; background-repeat : no-repeat; } tomwhitby.wordpress.com – Today, 6:41 [...]

By: Social Media: Help or Hindrance to Education Reform? | Empathy, Evolution, and American Literature | Scoop.it

Tue, 29 May 2012 23:22:11 +0000

[...] background-color:#222222; background-repeat : no-repeat; } tomwhitby.wordpress.com – Today, 6:22 [...]

By: Rory Manning (@LI_Principal)

Rory Manning (@LI_Principal) — Tue, 29 May 2012 22:16:36 +0000

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!

By: dewayneharrell

dewayneharrell — Tue, 29 May 2012 17:29:49 +0000

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

By: Social Media: Help or Hindrance to Education Reform? | Social Media in the K12 Environment | Scoop.it

Tue, 29 May 2012 13:01:16 +0000

[...] background-position: 50% 0px ; background-color:#222222; background-repeat : no-repeat; } tomwhitby.wordpress.com (via @j_murphy12) – Today, 8:01 [...]

By: David Gentile

David Gentile — Tue, 29 May 2012 12:39:11 +0000

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)

By: Ms. Estep (@MsEstep)

Ms. Estep (@MsEstep) — Tue, 29 May 2012 12:27:17 +0000

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.

By: Terry Elliott (@tellio)

Terry Elliott (@tellio) — Tue, 29 May 2012 11:43:17 +0000

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.

By: Social Media: Help or Hindrance to Education Reform? | ICLTS in Education | Scoop.it

Tue, 29 May 2012 10:47:48 +0000

[...] background-position: 50% 0px ; background-color:#222222; background-repeat : no-repeat; } tomwhitby.wordpress.com – Today, 5:47 [...]