Social Media in the Classroom

Being as this week is spring break, I've been tempted not to write, but then I saw this great list by Chris Brogan on 100 topics to blog about. I got to item #12 before I was inspired; (maybe someday I'll read the other 88 topics).

The topic that stood out was How Schools Could Use Social Media. 

I mentioned earlier that I've been included in interviewing candidates for a New-Media Journalism position. While giving one of the candidates a tour of my classroom - which is a computer lab - the candidate lamented at the layout of the room. "Oh, you have the teacher station in the front, don't you hate that? You can't make sure they aren't goofing around." I told them it didn't really bother me anymore if my students were using facebook in class. I also said if I can't beat them, I might as well join them. Using facebook has allowed me to connect with my students more as individuals and it has even allowed me to "catch" students skipping class by monitoring their status. (I should mention here that I do not seek out students on facebook. If students find me and wish to add me, I accept, but I don't initiate).

Yesterday I read this article in the Chronicle, Students Stop Surfing After Being Shown How In-Class Laptop Use Lowers Test Scores. While the argument is inherently flawed due to an extremely small sample group (oh yes, I took statistics in college) I also have to disagree with the concept in general.

By the very nature of the subject I teach, computers are an integral part of the classroom experience. I'll often find myself encouraging students to use the internet in class. They will tell me they don't know something or they can't find something and I'll teasingly say "If only there were some sort of electronic device available that allowed us to instantly access all the information in the world." In other words, I feel the internet can be an enhancement to the classroom experience. Very often in a lecture or discussion my students and I will utilize the internet to find additional information or solve a technical issue.

But social media in the classroom, I argue, can be just as useful. Last summer I developed a course called Creativity and the Internet. The focus of the course was using social media sites as a launching pad for creative ideas and exploration as well as developing professional and like-minded contacts. Using sites like flickr, youtube, vimeo and now facebook and twitter, young artists can start to make connections, be inspired and possibly even sell their art. In another new course that I developed this term, The Digital Image in Art, my students have been asked to set up a flickr page for their work. In this way critiques become more than a one-way conversation between the student and myself. The dialog is opened up, students and even people outside the class can comment on anyone's work. This changes the course considerably, it is no longer insular, no longer disconnected from the world.

To use social media in the classroom is to allow the world to enter into your class. Too often college classes operate as a "practice round" but the transition step from practice to implementation is often absent or briefly thrown in at the end. Utilizing social media opens our classes to practical experience at every step of the way. There is a decentralization of authority and an increase in connections, critiques and points of view. While this could be seen as scary or the loss of "control" over a class, I see it as a far more practical, realistic view of the world and pedagogy in the 21st century.