It's ideas like these that have made me hesitant to dive into social media. Don't get me wrong, when social media emerged, I was more than happy to stake my claim on Myspace and Facebook. Later, I even created a Snapchat and Instagram account. But then I saw how easy it was for me to lose hours at a time to these entities and I eventually decided to take a step back from my social media accounts.
I still have my accounts, but I don't really use them with any kind of regularity. It's going to be a challenge for me to rethink social media, but today's class was a start.
Today we learned how social media, Wikipedia, and Google can be used as tools in education. Having the opportunity to see how some of the features of Twitter and Wikipedia can be used to support an educator really challenged me to rethink my approach to using these technological tools. I grew up hearing over and over again that Wikipedia is not a credible source, but getting to take a look at Wikipedia's Quality Scale has slightly altered my perspective. I tend to hold to the belief that when it comes to research, all sources are untrustworthy until you investigate their trustworthiness (and I intend to teach my students to hold a similar degree of skepticism). Even when searching academic journals and databases, I am critical of any research until I take a look at its sources. The reason why I was skeptical of Wikipedia in general was because I didn't know how to evaluate the credibility of an article. But now that I've been shown the Quality Scale as well as how to track the changes made to a page, I feel more confident about allowing my students to use Wikipedia articles, so long as they can support their reason for trusting that particular article. In large part, this still means a lot of Wikipedia articles will not make the cut, but at the least I'm open to the investigative skills that this process can build.
With regard to Twitter, my experience is even more limited than it is with other social media tools. As we took a look at it yesterday however, I saw how it could be used to connect and collaborate with other educators, especially those outside of my own building and district. This could be a great way to approach professional development.
Cool gif! I love Will Smith. How has social media helped you? For example, I have Facebook to keep in touch with my family. I was really blown away by how we could use Twitter for school purposes. I always thought of it as being "bad" or "drama". I realy liked your insight on Wikipedia and I too completely agree with you. I will definienty consider using twitter as well for professional development. Great post!
ReplyDeleteTwitter for collaborating and professional development? Sign me up! The teaching community is always so helpful and full of ideas. Why recreate the wheel? We would be foolish to not tap into those resources. Great post Neil. I too, have been hesitant to increase my social media activity. Facebook is a time sucker for me, but if I can find a way to use these mediums professionally and set healthy boundaries, I can definitely see the benefit!
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, Neil, I've been pretty hesitant to dive into Social Media - I had dial up internet and no cell phone until I was in high school (and no smart phone until my sophomore year of college), and I didn't get Facebook until my friends forced me to make one before I left for college. Because of how "behind" I was on technology compared to a lot of people my age, I sometimes feel like a part of the generation who sees social media as a waste of time/time sucker. I really like that we spent part of the lesson yesterday focused on positive ways we can use social media, like Twitter, as a way of expanding our professional network (which can have massive benefits for our students!) It's definitely changed my way of thinking about these sites!
ReplyDelete