Category: Social networking

Why it’s ok to talk in class

3rd February 2010


Image source: sparksheet.com

Few individuals who have stood in front of a class of students willingly tolerate chattering when the students should be listening to them. This is a social convention and, indeed, it is one that applies in other social settings outside of educational institutions. Traditionally, it is seen as disrespectful behaviour, and a sign that what the teacher has to say is of little or no interest. If ‘talking’ takes on a silent, electronic form in class, does it make it any less offensive?

My personal view is that in an age where technology is ubiquitous, not only is this form of talking less offensive, it should be actively encouraged. This video clip [2:30] from the PBS Frontline ‘Digital Nation’ programme provides an interesting contrast in views between faculty and students at MIT about what constitutes acceptable use of the Internet while a class is in progress. The faculty view is that if students are not giving their full attention, they risk missing something important. The student view is that important stuff does not come up every minute of every class, in which case, they can be doing something else while the teacher is talking about something they already have a firm grasp of.

I’m inclined to agree with the students, especially if they are discussing something that has been raised by the teacher with a classmate on Skype or, better still, they are Googling a resource that has been referred to by the teacher and they are sending tweets (appropriately tagged) that share their findings with others. Thus, rather than pay less attention, allowing this type of talk in class actually increases the level of engagement, and while there will be those who suggest that multitasking is damaging to concentration levels, my sense is that it can enhance learning if it is channelled in an appropriate manner.

Did You Know 4.0 and the implications for education

20th January 2010

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8]

The Did You Know video received an official update in October 2009 (there are impostors) and, once again, it includes some mind boggling facts and figures on converging technologies and the changing media landscape. There is no direct reference made to education, it is difficult to imagine how educational institutions can remain immune from these influences.

My grades are going up, so what does it matter if I’m on MySpace?

8th January 2010


Image source: londonstimes.us

There is an intermediate school in the Bronx, IS 339, that has turned things around by implementing a radical new approach using laptops. The story is featured in a PBS Frontline video clip (7:16) (entitled ‘How Google Saved a School’ for reasons unknown!) and it provides some interesting food for thought. Social networking applications are not banned, but student machines are monitored remotely. The ‘big brother’ factor might be considered a worry here, but might also be viewed as a scaffold for appropriate use of class time. Students interviewed in the video clip argue that so long as they complete the work that has been set, what difference does it make if they log in to MySpace or some other application? Listening to the faculty, there seems to be tacit agreement that ‘multitasking’ is a fact of life, and so chatting to friends at the same time as you are listening to a teacher is probably okay within the bounds of reasonableness.

The impact of the prohibition of social networking in schools

7th January 2010


Image source: haroldskids.wordpress.com

Slate ran a piece by Nicholas Bramble last month arguing the case for a more liberal approach to the use of social networking tools in educational institutions, specifically those in the the K-12 space. The article makes reference to the less savoury aspects of social networking among teens (e.g. cyberbullying, YouTube clips of playground fights, etc) and how the knee-jerk reaction has been to outlaw the use of such applications in schools. The author makes the case that prohibition is a poor choice because it closes the door on some potentially very powerful educational tools. He then goes on to provide examples of ways in which these tools might be harnessed more productively for educational purposes and, while these examples are a tad dull, I have little argument with his overall position. The point about engagement and how teachers and principals ‘should meet kids where they live: online’ is particularly well taken.

One point that the article does not make — which might of countered some of the negative comments put forward by some of the readers of the article — is that critics of social networking applications seldom consider the counter-factual. In short, prohibition of Facebook and YouTube will not stop bullying or other forms of delinquency as these problems will likely surface in some other shape or form and, indeed, probably go undetected. Surely it is better to be open about the use of social networking tools and provide the necessary scaffolding to reduce the probability of inappropriate use?

Shock news: Most faculty don’t use Twitter …

24th September 2009


Image source: scienceroll.com

There was a piece in Campus Technology recently that revealed the ‘shocking truth’ that the majority of higher education faculty do not use Twitter. A survey of 1,958 higher education professionals conducted by Faculty Focus in July and August of this year recorded that 69.3 percent of respondents do not use Twitter in any capacity, and 56.4 percent have not tried it at all. Some of the reasons advanced by faculty members for not using Twitter included lack of relevance to education, the danger that microblogging might contribute to poor writing skills, that they don’t understand how to use it, or that they simply don’t have the time for it.

I’m sure a survey focusing on the usage of PowerPoint in the mid-1990s would have generated a broadly similar response. The fact is, notwithstanding the huge growth in twitterers, we are still very much in the innovator/early adoption stage in the technology adoption lifecycle as far as the educational applications of Twitter are concerned. Personally, I was on Twitter for six months without really knowing why and I was quite comfortable about this because it only by immersing yourself in these technologies that you come to appreciate their usefulness (or lack thereof). The twitterisation process has some way to go in the education sector yet and, as someone who is typically an early adopter, I am still very much in the experimentation phase.

The Social Media Revolution

6th September 2009

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8]
This video clip accompanies the new book which came out last month entitled: Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business by Erik Qualman. It is interesting that some of the feedback commentary I’ve seen suggests that, while the video is good, there is some doubt over the veracity of the statistics cited. I guess one has to read the book to be sure of this. Alternatively, one could check the list of references here. The primary focus of the book — which is available on Kindle, of course — is how social media is impacting upon the way people conduct business. The issues raised, however, might equally apply to the way we deliver education.

The new literacy

25th June 2009

This narrated PowerPoint presentation by Daniel Churchill gives an excellent overview of the new literacy in all its many dimensions, and what ‘essential abilities’ are now required of learners if they are to fully participate in modern society. He refers to the technologies that have emerged in recent times, and how they have created ‘new possibilities, practices and demands’. Significantly, how one traditionally conceives of literacy (reading, writing, speaking and listening) has become seriously outdated, and now just one element of a multi-faceted literacy that includes, among others, information literacy, visual literacy, critical literacy, media literacy, and digital literacy. Worryingly, as Churchill points out, few educational institutions have adjusted to the realities of the Web 2.0 world and, by implication, they are staffed by ‘new illiterates’.

The twittering classroom

5th June 2009

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WPVWDkF7U8]

An excellent video clip (5:18) that reports on an experiment using Twitter in the classroom by Dr. Monica Rankin, a professor of History at UT Dallas. It seems to be a good way of engaging students but, more importantly, of enhancing inclusiveness and participation levels, both in and outside of the classroom.

Participatory pedagogy

3rd June 2009


Image source: www.justskins.com

Just came across a reference in my Twitter-Using Educators LinkedIn group to an article published in the Huffington Post a couple of weeks ago entitled: Embracing the Twitter Classroom. Authored by Jessica Gross, it includes some interesting references, among them a story about a Penn State University professor, Cole Camplese, who maintains a screen full of his students’ Twitter streams throughout each class. According to Camplese, once students warm to the idea that their professor actually wants them to chat during class, they begin floating ideas or posting links to related materials. In addition, where a shy student might type an observation or question on Twitter, others in the class would respond with notes encouraging the student to raise the topic out loud. On other occasions, the professor would see a link posted by a student and stop class to discuss it.

This is an excellent example of what Howard Rheingold refers to as participatory pedagogy. Bringing social media into classrooms, says Rheingold, is “challenging the 1000-yr-old paradigm that you have to learn from a master and the only way to do that is to go to lecture and take notes”. Indeed, as the article goes on to point out, “teaching students to learn from and with each other is a wise acknowledgment that more and more, students are relying on their peers for information. Sixty-five percent of Americans aged 12-17 and 67 percent of those aged 18-32 use social networking sites, according to the Pew Research Center. Students’ lives are infused with each other’s viewpoints.”

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Blackborg acquires Dark Angel

1st June 2009


Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikelesombre/

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported last week on Blackboard’s acquisition of Angel. The article’s title: Blackboard Buys Another Rival, to Customers’ Dismay, says it all really. We’re not to worry, however, because Blackboard’s president and chief executive, Michael L. Chasen, said the company had learned from the WebCT acquisition and promised that this time it will be different. Unfortunately, Mr Chasen just doesn’t get it. He and his company continue to misread the zeitgeist, and if ever a business deserves to fall victim to disruptive innovation, it is this one.

Blackboard is widely regarded as the Leviathan of the learning management system (LMS) world, and it is a platform that has come to dominate online delivery of education, particularly in the higher education sphere. Aside from its poor reputation for customer service, this cumbersome monolith does not have the capacity to keep up with the pace of change. The science of online learning continues to evolve at a rapid pace, and as a proprietary, high-cost, and relatively inflexible system, Blackboard can only innovate at the speed of its next service pack. Meanwhile, the open source movement incorporates pedagogical innovation on the run. The end result is that Blackboard is simply ‘uncool’, and it will remain so, long as it continues to tell educators and learners what they can have, rather than give them what they want.

All this will be welcome news for the likes of Moodle, Sakai and Ning, and the smaller proprietary systems that are nimble and versatile enough to ride the social networking wave, and provide the kind of learning environment for students and faculty where they feel they have creative licence and a sense of ownership.

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