Social Media And Educational Technology: Making The World A Better Place

As my final blog post for Part One of The Integration of Information and Computer Technology in Education I would like to be a little bit informal. I have been quite meticulous with my posts, they tend to be very organized, colour coded and blocked into sections but in this case I just want to share my train of thought about Social Media and Education.

I will begin with an anecdote, (those who following me will know I love these).
This Easter I was sitting at the kitchen table chatting with my family spoiling my diner with a mountain of appetizers when I noticed my ten-year-old cousin was scribbling in a little notebook. He was copying out something from his Ipad Mini. I was curious, and so I asked what he was writing? He told me that a he and a friend had been tracking the missing Malaysia Flight, looking at different news sources and twitter, and treating it like a mystery that they were going to do their best to solve. I was blown away. Later that day the same cousin’s father airplayed a video clip of my cousin reciting a speech in front of the whole school at the finals for a school wide speech competition. His speech topic was “Positivity”; it was simply about being positive, grateful and seeing the class as half full. He informed us that he got the idea from watching Youtube clips such as the one about a man with no arms and no legs who lives life never saying “I can’t”. 

I couldn’t believe it. I was so impressed at how my ten-year-old little cousin was using technology to make the world a better place. Those who work in the Tech Industry know that this term gets thrown around a lot. “We’re making the world a better place”. The term is used so often by big tech companies such as Google and Facebook that it has become a joke in the world of computer science, (side note: Watch HBO’s Series Silicon Valley it’s a hilarious parody about the Tech Industry).

We may laugh at the fact that the term is so widely used but isn’t it partly true? If my little cousin is using Youtube clips as inspiration to make a brilliant speech to inspire others to be positive then I think we really are making the world better.

Social Media is about communication. It’s about being social, reaching out and connecting to other human beings and coming together with common interests. Social Media helps educators share ideas and resources. It allows us to inspire each other and learn from one another. It even allows us to test and challenge each other as well.

Social Media allows students greater access to information. It helps them to connect with peers and gain deeper understanding of a world outside their immediate surroundings. It gives them be global responsibilities and allows them to have a global voice through tools such as twitter. It allows them to build forums such as classroom blogs for communication with each other and the outside world.

Social Media allows for better, more efficient and effective communication with Parents. Parents are also beacons of the text, type, tweet generation and they are emerging online more than ever. Many teachers communicate with parents through e-mail because that is how the parent prefers it. But think about what a classroom blog, a weekly podcast , or an online newspaper could do. Parents would get to be a part of their child’s educational life and kids might take more pride and initiative while at school if they knew their great achievements were going to be publicly shared with parents and classmates

Of course we still need to protect our children and I have posted many strategies in my blog about safety, policy, and responsibly, but why not look at the glass as half full and be positive. We have the opportunity to be pioneers of 21^st Century educational technology and I for one, am looking forward to what is to come.