We are entering the age of conversation and this is spreading to education.
The Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and flickr sharing phenomenon (which is exponential is growth) is definitely NOT a fad that we can ignore.
In fact we ignore these and other tools at our peril. I am not making an argument that we need to be using any of these specific tools. Not at all. However we should definitely NOT be blocking them and let teachers use their own expertise to figure out what works best in the classroom.
Thank goodness our school does not block Twitter and Flickr.
We need to figure out with students how the of social media enhances our learning.
Let’s get rid of the filtering for most, if not all, social tools. Look at how we were all scared of cell phones in our high school. We finally allowed them in school this year. What’s the big deal? We learned that it’s not a big deal at all. Ditto for these social media tools. They are just tools….after all.
What we need to pay attention to:
Sharing
Collaboration
Power of conversation
Real time learning
Live chat
Engagement
If we block all the tools how can we teach this stuff?
YouTube is still blocked. What are we waiting for?
