Archive for June 6th, 2008
Friday, June 6th, 2008
My Personal View of Social Media
I decided to take the picture meme challenge. The picture I posted is not very colorful, but it means a lot to me. It is the picture of my 21classes blog . You can see students posts and students names. The reason I have chosen it, was because Brazilians are big fans of Orkut . This is the number one social networking in Brazil. It is a place for conversations, and messages. However, it is blocked in schools and it also has the problem of language (students would feel embarrassed in front of their friends if a teacher required them to start posting in English in their orkut community).
My idea of social media is one of open doors. My question and my quest as a teacher has been about finding a way to take my students to have conversations in class and outside the microcosmos of class. Social media should be open to everyone, open to comments and ideas, open to the serendipity of the web.
Social media media in schools, is many times anti-social media : a blog that only registered members can comment on (a group of people like us). If the group is too closed and too small, there is not much space for diversity, for serendipity.
For conversations to start, one should build in trust. In my view, it is difficult to build trust, if one does not trust educators and blocks certain tools, websites. It is not possible if we are too paranoide about our privacy. How is it possible to meet someone new, discover a new idea, if we are not open to the innovation of casual encounters.
My idea of social media in class involves conversation within the class microcosmos, other school classes, and with the outside world. It involves online conversations and f2f conversations between students talking about what they have posted, a drawing they have created. It involves sharing perspectives, opinions, ideas, and exchanging comments.
This is at least some of the things I have experienced and some of the things I have searched for. I am humble enought to admit that I have not achieved them all, but it is my goal. I really do not know if I will get there, but I do believe it is worth trying.
