2013 VoyagerSopris Blog Contest Winner
By Alexandria Mooney
One of my favorite Internet videos is from Erik Qualman. Although a bit outdated, this video from 2011 is a great example of how much of an impact social media has on our society. Qualman calls this “Socialnomics,” and in his video (and book) shows how social media is a revolution, changing the way we look at and see the world. Although this video is not geared toward any specific profession, it speaks volumes in education.
Qualman says social media is here to stay, and he’s right. Our world is absorbed in social media. My dog Scooter got a job with Beggin’ Strips because of the viral photos “he” posted on his Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages. When I have a question about a product, I tweet the company and usually get a response immediately. Before I buy anything, I check out the reviews people have posted online—Qualman is right; I trust those more than I trust advertising.
A lot of people get nervous about putting education in the same sentence as social media. It’s a sensitive subject to many. There have been so many news stories about social media and education going wrong: teachers messaging students, inappropriate content posting, cyber bullying, and so on. However, despite the media’s portrayal of these occurrences, they are actually quite infrequent. What we don’t see a lot are the news stories about all of the awesome, positive, inspirational, powerful, and innovative ways social media is being used in education.
Social media provides for instant collaboration with others near and far. It offers instantaneous feedback, networking, and idea gathering and sharing. Educators who are using social media in these ways are the exact revolution Qualman is talking about; they are using it to engage students, collaborate with others, share and be shared with, exchange content and teaching ideas, and so much more. Every time I check my Twitter or Google+ feeds I am overloaded with incredible content: blogs about classroom projects, new tech tools for 1:1 integration, inspiring education quotes, Common Core tie-ins, and much more.
There are so many awesome ideas out there that educators are eager to share with others. However, there is a stereotype that needs to be broken in this regard—people need to see that social media and education can indeed go hand-in-hand.
Destroying this stereotype is no simple task: to do this, the public needs to see all of the good and inspiring things that are going on in the education world on social media, and educators—all educators—need to start/continue to flood the social media networks with their ideas, content, classrooms, and inspirations. As a result, many incredible things will happen to the education community and the world.
First, the negative stereotype about social media in education will be silenced. People will see that social media can be used for good inside and outside the classroom.
Second, the online education community will be packed ideas and collaborations from all grade levels and content area. There will be a seemingly infinite amount of resources available to all educators. Professional learning networks will exponentially grow in members and ideas. Classrooms and content areas will be connected, and the education community will thrive and grow.
In order to destroy the negative stereotype of social media in education, I pose this challenge to you: share this post. Get on social media. Share your own ideas, your content expertise, your teaching wisdom. Start a blog. Put your thoughts, inspirations, and experiences into words that can be shared with others. If you see an inspiring idea, pass it along; someone else is bound to find it inspiring too. Don’t be afraid to collaborate and learn and share and be shared with. The effects of this will be amazing, and our students of today will reap the benefits tomorrow.
Alexandria Mooney is a 7th/8th grade social studies and technology teacher at Maplewood-Richmond Heights Middle School in St. Louis, Missouri. She has a bachelor’s in secondary education and history, and a master’s in educational technology. In 2012 she became a Google Certified Teacher. Visit her at: http://mooneyclasses.blogspot.com/
