Jon Stewart on Twitter

A funny look at Twitter through the Daily Show looking glass.

Marc Prensky, Social Networks and Interconnectedness

I've read Prensky's "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" article before. Over a year ago, when the concept was new to me. Since then I've developed some questions on whether there is actually a fine line that can be driven down the middle or rather a fuzzy gray area that most people sit in. I'll explore this in more detail in another post but for now I want to give you this background on my perspective while answering these questions.

— 1. How can we re-envision the educational potential which exists in the burgeoning number of social networks – the new media of interconnectedness? What role, if any do they play in education?

To answer this I started with a definition of social networks. I like this definition from LenovoSocial: "Social networks connect people, not just information. They power interaction instead of delivering information, giving participants the opportunity to do almost anything they would in a physical community via the Internet." Coupling this with some of the concepts I've learned in my Cognition courses, students (and people in general) learn best (remember more, transfer more) when they learn concepts in real-world situations with hands-on exploration. Sounds like a perfect match to me. Social networks, and their interconnectedness of peers and experts alike, offer a unique opportunity for educators to bring the classroom outside the school. Leverage the multitudes of virtual learning environments, imaginary worlds, multimedia self-publishing tools, interactive educational games and more to deliver an engaging teaching platform that develops higher level thinking skills critical for 21st century learners.

— 2. What has been the wider social, educational, cultural, and political impact of these new media for inter-connectedness?

In some ways I think this can be summarized best by Obama's campaign platform of CHANGE. I honestly believe that one of the biggest contributors to his win was that he was the first candidate ever to run a campaign on Facebook, Twitter and other social tools. Ok, maybe this wasn't the only way he won, but he did capture the votes of many Digital Native voters through these mechanisms. Political campaigns will never again be sucessfull without using these new social interconnectedness tools. The impact goes far wider than just politics though. As Prensky indicates in "The Emerging Online Life of the Digital Native", these new media effects the way the future will communicate, share, shop, exchange, create, meet, learn, evolve and develop. his can't help but influence social, educational and cultural aspects of society. Another way that I see this interconnected already changing society is through the intense passion Digital Natives have for environmental cleanup and ecological reform. There are so many online conversations and organizations focused in this important area that it's easy for people to get connected to other people who care about these "Green" issues. More is yet to come...

Robin on Social Media - Part I

My latest blog posting begins the conversation on some of the Social Media tools that we were asked to sign up for. I'm posting in 2 parts because it started to get long. Part I is posted and contains my online presence and comments about some of the tools I'm already using.
Enjoy!
-Robin

Introduction

Hi all,
I just wanted to let you know that I just posted my introduction on my personal blog. Check it out! Looking forward to learning all about you too.
-Robin

Evan Willams at TED 2009

Just watched a video of Evan Williams, founder of Twitter, about how unexpected uses are driving growth.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/evan_williams_on_listening_to_twitter_users.html

My name is Olga, I am from the Counseling Psychology program but I have a strong personal interest in digital media as I firmly believe that it is an essential tool for the development, promotion and appreciation of ideas, cultural standpoints and information. Familiarity with social and digital media is valuable across professional fields and can be used in the field of psychology in order to better understand the nature of contemporary socialization and human relationships and also the way humans spread knowledge, ideas and creativity. 

I forgot you have to read from the bottom up! Start at the bottom.
Anyway, check out this blog post...

A non-fanatical beginner's guide to Twitter

For week 1:

Assignment For week 1 Personal site:

1. Create a personal and/education related blog at http://www.blogger.com

2. On your personal blog: Post an introduction of yourself and some thoughts about why you are taking this class, the experience you bring to the group and provide some insights on the potential for social and digital media in your class. upload a small photo if you'd like. Please do take the time to read and respond to your classmates.

During the week:

3. Complete readings and use them to inform your responses to the questions posed above (to be posted on this class site). Instead of the main discussion board in Blackboard we will use this as a class blog where we will discuss as a group your posts regarding the use of social media.

4. Sign up for the various sites listed here

The following are some suggestions of sites to sign up with and try for yourself. In Blackboard you will find a document labeled signups which will list them in full description. Some of you may already participate in a few of these social media, so for the purpose of this class if you have a personal Blogger (http://www.blogger.com) account and want to separate your thoughts in another account that covers the course topic areas feel free to start another blogsite...otherwise keep and build upon your current site.

Except for a blog you are not required to sign up for every single one of these listed here, but you should have familiarity with the ‘experience’ of participating in ‘like’ sites. After all, your blogsite should be logging your thoughts about your daily use or ‘ingestion’ of these social media outlets to place yourselves in the experience. Be sure if you don’t decide to sign up for Twitter, to sign up for one of its ‘like’ counterparts (facebook does include one but the experience is very different, especially because Twitter uses simple SMS (text messaging) which connects you from your phone.

The object is to create an awareness of your own use; do you feel more connected or isolated by the experience? Use questions driven from your own thoughts and those from the class discussions.

(On our in-person workshop day April 25th we will insert videos and learn to podcast your audio files.)
Suggestions to sign up for: (For full descriptions and weblinks you can google them or see the class blackboard site for a word document labeled signups)

Lenovo Social
Twitter
Facebook
Ning
Flixwagon or QIK
Seesmic
Flick'r
Feedburner
Twhirl
TeacherTube
YouTube
Ushahidi

TC Digital Media Blog

Teachers College Digital Media in the Classroom MSTU5814.001

A broadened spectrum of digital learning technologies brings along new possibilities for education across cultural boundaries.

If social networking spaces such as facebook, Second Life, G-Chat, IM, Twitter, and YouTube, alongside handheld devices, cell phones, text messaging, email and voice mail -- have become an integral part of the lives of young people looking for new ways to engage in online digital sociability, how can education tap into that collective? New studies on Internet and social media tools reveal their affinity for mobile, untethered and social opportunities for interaction and cite their current uses to communicate, gather and share information.

Our first week's questions to respond to, from your own experience and the readings provided:

Mark Prensky writing in Digital Natives, Digital Narratives articles comments on students as opposed to those teaching them:
"Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language."

— 1. How can we re-envision the educational potential which exists in the burgeoning number of social networks – the new media of interconnectedness? What role, if any do they play in education?

— 2. What has been the wider social, educational, cultural, and political impact of these new media for inter-connectedness?

We will experiment with social networking tools and learn to locate specific audiences in order to critically experience and discuss the possibilities and limitations for personal use and within an educational setting.

Short post on ‘Why Social Networks are good for the kids:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/24/why-social-networks-are-good-for-the-kids/


Final Assignment:

Students are being asked to

1. Join a blogging network such as blogger, set up a blogsite and post your thoughts and experiences there. Students are required to post a minimum of three posts per week on your personal/professional blog.

2. You will receive an invitation to join this blog. Discussions will be shared on this site and students are required to post responses to questions (provided by the instructors) here.

All one-credit students will complete a project or design a blogsite describing a plan for incorporating digital media and/or social media into school curriculum. The setting for the project might be the school the student actually teaches in, or a hypothetical school situation and you may use your blog site to create and promote this assignment. These descriptions should be informed by readings and class discussions, and should provide a rationale for using media in the classroom, a description of the media to be used, and a discussion of how these media would fit into a school setting. Projects will be due after the workshop date of April 25th, on Sunday May 3rd by midnight.