Read the following claim: “Our goals should be to encourage youth to develop the skills, knowledge, ethical frameworks, and self-confidence needed to be full participants in contemporary culture” (“Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century,” Henry Jenkins, et. al., MacArthur Foundation, 2006).
Do you agree or disagree?
Now ask yourself: does social networking (podcasts, alternate reality games, Twitter, texting, blogs, etc.) help kids “develop the skills, knowledge, ethical frameworks, and self-confidence needed to be full participants in contemporary culture,” or does it merely serve as a distraction (or worse)?
If you said social media merely distracts children, you’re likely not alone. To many, social networking seems to be at odds with the goals of a healthy education. But a compelling article by educator Patricia Deubel makes the case that instead of fighting social media, schools need to incorporate it into their curriculum. Argues Deubel:
Many of our youth are already [engaging intellectually] informally through their various affiliations in popular open social networking sites, their creative forms of expression using social media tools, their collaborative problem solving (e.g., via alternate reality games) and in what they circulate in their podcasts, blogs, and so on. Our challenge is to harness that informal learning bringing it to school settings as “each of those activities contains opportunities for learning, creative expression, civic engagement, political empowerment, and economic advancement” (p. 8). There are many ways to be social; there’s more than one way to learn, and definitely a nearly infinite number of ways to form a network. But you have a winner if you can put all three together in a social learning network in schools.
Not only does Deubel argue for the inclusion of social media in the schools, but she also explains how and why schools might want to stop resisting and start embracing social educational technology:
So where is the evidence that district leaders need, and what are the incentives for participation in social networking activities? Such evidence is tied to providing a 21st century global education, including project-based learning, which connects the social and the networking to curriculum and standards. An additional incentive considers the value and renewed focus on the development of the whole child, if changes in school accountability noted within School Accountability: A Broader Bolder Approach (BBA, 2009) become a reality.
Deubel goes on to discuss in detail both the evidence and the incentives that might make schools decide to move forward with educational technology improvements. Well worth a read — always refreshing to see an article that highlights social media’s positive effect on children’s academic/personal growth.
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