I noticed when reading this week’s papers that there is a theme of education adapting slowly as time passes. I can see why this can be frustrating for some who wish to see change in the education system, but I believe that the slow pace of change happens for many reasons and many of them for the greater good. It is important that as new technologies and educational approaches develop (which they are doing rapidly) we, as educators, approach them critically and take the time to reflect on their effectiveness/appropriateness.
Social Media
I would agree with the observation, stated by Weller, that social media has a negative and positive effect on education. Social media services, such as Facebook and Twitter, have their pros and cons. They allow people to connect and communicate in ways they have not been able to in the past which we have discovered can be both good and bad. For example, I am apart of a group on Facebook that has over 400 members who are all shop teachers in BC. This group shares project ideas, teaching experiences, and is an open forum to problem solving in Technology Education. Overall, I would state the group as extremely helpful and positive. Meanwhile, Facebook itself has been gaining a reputation for spreading misinformation and being a forum for people to “yell” at everyone else about everything they disagree with in uncivil ways. It is not surprising to hear that younger people are not interested Facebook as much as they used to be with these kinds of user practices.
Oddly enough we hear often that we need to educate our students how to safely navigate the internet and to not be cyber bullies. Meanwhile, many internet comment sections break down in ad hominem attacks and other general silliness.
Wikis and Open Source
Meanwhile, open resources like Wikipedia are often scoffed at by academia but provide students and the general public an easy source to begin researching a subject of interest. The basics of a topic can be quickly found and learned and open the door for further research, if the user feels so inclined. Wikis and open source material are a disturbance to the well-established publisher system that does not want to lose its position of power or its monetary income. There are people/groups working towards changing this but only time will tell what will happen.
It is important to remember that it is inevitably society which decides what is important and what is not. We may get excited about a technology and it may even be a great resource and/or education tool but that does not mean it will be adopted and implemented. If a new technology does no get buy in it will likely fail or become a novelty or find niche specialty use. For example, many different companies have tried to create new
Blogs
Blogs can serve an educational purpose just like how in this program we are able to document our thoughts on papers and explore ideas with others. That being said, I would be curious how many people use them regularly after the class/program is completed. I can only speak from my own experiences and I have not found myself attracted to recording my thoughts, new concepts, and journals I’ve read online. I don’t find myself interested in the idea of opening myself to complete strangers about everything I learn. I honestly don’t know who would want to read that either.
Blogs can be used well for educational purposes, but I do not believe they are for everyone. I would be interested to see the statistics of how many people who use blogs in a course/program continue to use them after.
Conclusion:
In the last 20 years that has been a large boom of technologies being touted as the next new big thing to revolutionize the way we learn. Many of these technologies appear to be promising and in time may develop and evolve to find a home in education. There is one constant that can be seen through the analysis of education technology, adoption will take time and there will be growing pains as we implement new technologies into the classroom.
Readings: