Distributed & Open Learning.
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Among the previous four posts, the topic of social media and social networking interests me most because it has been built into our life already. As I have described previously, both of the two things change the way people communicate, interact and think. However, while bringing positive changes to people’s daily life, they might generate unintended consequences if not handled well. Since I published the original, there are many ideas popping in my head around this subject, and some of my mind changes when I reflect on myself as an educator in the 21stcentury. On this subject, my major reflection is that social media is not only used in communication between friends and families.
Along with mobile phone and personal computer, social media has become one of the most important learning or teaching tools in the field of education. Put it another words, social media has played a crucial role in contemporary education. To be specific, a growing number of students have been upset about the traditional way that they gain knowledge: simply via lecture or textbooks. With the wide development of various social media technologies, extracurricular institutions are able to connect with students via YouTube and Facebook, where students can access useful, real-life and up to date information in certain fields. From this perspective, it can be argued that social institutions get engaged in public education through social media in the modern era.
Secondly, social media does its part in research process at schools as well. This is in that social media platforms provides the most handy and accessible monitoring tools for audience to extract data, especially when it comes to qualitative research (Moran, Seaman & Tinti-Kane, 2011). For example, when trying to predict the success odds of Donald J. Trump to serve consecutive terms in the 2020 election, researchers can reach a rough conclusion by observing how the majority of voters feel on social media platforms. Furthermore, according to their comments, researchers can even find out the specific reasons why the voters take such sides instead of making speculations themselves.
In addition to the direct participation in learning process, social media can help monitor and regulate educational reform at a high level (Tess, 2013). It is not an uncommon phenomenon that social media has become the important tool that the general public engage in politics, including policy in education. Firstly, social media can, to large extent in such an information age, reflect the true mindsets and ideas of the public, through which the educational department can access the most real conditions. This is in that social media is featured with real-time communication and simultaneous interaction, where Internet users can share information, discussion questions and exchange ideas on the subject of specific education issues. For example, when deciding to incorporate middle school education into compulsory education system in China, educational officers can easily see the outcomes from the comments posted online by parents, teachers and even students themselves. Under such circumstances, they can make adaptation to this new policy in the following steps.
Another approach that social media engage in enhancing educational activities is to cultivate key opinion leaders (also known as KOL). KOL tends to be those with professional knowledge and certain social status, and they are in possession of much more abundant information relative to the general, ordinary public. In other words, KOL can help disseminate ideas more effectively than others on social media, making certain opinions go viral quickly. This is not only important but also necessary because a large number of people cannot realize the valuable meaning when certain educational affairs happen at the very beginning. However, through the extract, synthesis and dissemination, people’s minds are then opened and their awareness are raised. These KOL, on most occasions, get free of the restrictions brought by any institutional or bureaucratic identities because they usually do not work for the government.
In a nutshell, therefore, what can be argued is that social media means more than communication among ordinary people. Instead, educators could make the best of it if they are determined to enhance the quality and equality of contemporary education. Students can improve their academic performance and related skills though all kinds of knowledge and tools provided by a wide range of social media platforms; and education practitioners can also engage in the process by leading the key and useful opinions. However, what should be kept in mind is that social media and related technology might generate unintended consequences if not managed well, and such negative effects could be worsened because of the tremendous dissemination effect of Internet itself.
References
Moran, M., Seaman, J., & Tinti-Kane, H. (2011). Teaching, Learning, and Sharing: How Today’s Higher Education Faculty Use Social Media. Babson Survey Research Group.
Tess, P. A. (2013). The role of social media in higher education classes (real and virtual)–A literature review. Computers in human behavior, 29(5), A60-A68.