Mindlab by Unitec: A Case Study in Educational Social Networking

15 February 2016 (APC Week 29 - Activity 7)  

A Paradigm Shift: The Rise of Social Media

The 'World Wide Web' has now seemingly belied it's somewhat ominous name - rather than simply ensnaring us in a mesh of electronic content, it has essentially begun to make previous experential, geographical and material boundaries to our learning less and less of a limiting feature...

It's been an interesting journey as an educator in the primary school sector in New Zealand the last several years - more so with the changing role of digital media technology becoming an every day feature to learning (instead of the once weekly classroom visit to the school's "ICT suite" when I first started teaching, almost a decade ago now).

Over the past half a dozen years, my in-class teaching role has changed from using mimio 'smartboard' notebook software that I had to download on to my laptop. Then I would have to create or find downloadable files for in order to use the 'stylus' pen and data projector so that my students and I could interact directly with our whiteboard like a massive computer screen in class. (Let's not revisit having to use CDR's to install new driver software before data downloads and updates became less odiously time consuming - time has long since moved on!).

Those first "Digital Immigrants" weren't at all sure of the jargon, either... (Source)

The need for almost expert knowledge of the software and continual downloads of clipart have not long since been superceded in light of 'Cloud' based apps that allow users to 'interface' with all manner and means of digital media online. 

The need for a centralised computer suite or specialised interactive software platform pre-installed on devices to access this ubiquitous 'brave new world' has also become all but obsolete: almost every student now has full and free access to a digital device or even their very own chromebook for use within our school.

It was but a few years ago that our hosted school website required an almost expert level of knowledge to maintain - and in my role as ICT co-ordinator at our school, I was in charge of both the grunt work and for providing our teaching staff with Professional Learning and Development opportunities to try and master these cumbersome approaches to sharing our learning on an online way. 

Needless to say, few teachers mastered the website and interactive whiteboard technologies. Now these particular technology iterations seem to be quickly losing favour, as my colleagues and I all readily become familiar with the ease and availability of Cloud-based blog and website platforms at our collective fingertips.

The change has been both daunting and exciting for many of us: though I think we can all agree that our students obvious enthusiasm as 'digital natives' have buoyed us all along, as much as the exponential shift in user-friendliness of the afforementioned apps and devices.

With temporal realities no longer being as obvious as roadblock to our learners and leaders "getting connected to the twenty first century", the challenge has shifted as the need for expert ICT knowledge has also been superceded by this new era of digital collaboration.

Our favourite go-to collaborative education resource. (Source)

This blog is a useful example for the ease a person (even an established 'digital immigrant' such as myself) now has in being able to create and share their research, learning and reflections with others online. I can present my ideas in detail and provide supporting links, images and video clips that I can then share via networks available wherever there's wifi and a device to hand...

No longer am I (or my colleagues or any of my students) limited to having to ask just the physical human beings available in our immediate proximity 'what they think'; nor are we limited to having to go to libraries and rapidly aging text books for content knowledge during 'normal office hours' as it were...

Whether it's an article I've pinned on pinterest or something linked on Wikipedia, there's always plenty to read - though like my students, the wealth of ideas being explored 'out there' in cyberspace can sometimes lead me to wander well off the train of thought, quite often into whole galaxies of asides that nonetheless enrich my intellectual landscape...

If I have a question that I need to answer, I can always 'Google it', 'Youtube it' or use social media networks to read, view or ask a 'real' person and expect a readily 'viewable' answer or suggested next step in my 'inquiry'. 

Google an amusing meme on your ergonomically sound micro break. (Source)

Social media networking has been a great source of inspiration and collegiality for me as a teacher, as this recent blog post demonstrates. 

If I have found something I want others to see, I can find and share my ideas with the wider 'online public' on Twitter, or to specific groups of people on Google Plus, no matter what the time is on the proverbial clock. When I've been looking for teacher recommended pedagogical ideas that come from other New Zealand teachers, it has often been a closed group on Facebook (yes, the irony does not escape me, either).

Not sure what you've found is at all relevant to the question you started out with? To get a colleague or even an expert to weigh in, demonstrate a particular app in 'realtime' or face-to-face no longer requires Emails, texts, phone calls and/or even the cost of travel. You can Skype a colleague or expert if you have downloaded the free app; or just 'Google Hangout' with them on a handy device by using your internet browser to save valuable time and increasingly limited onboard storage space.

I myself have found Skype to be more reliable a realtime video connection when talking to people further afield (ie.: as far away as Switzerland, though the twelve hour time difference this time of year meant a few Emails back and forth to line it up). Though, given how it's taken Google only a few short years to get their office apps up to spec, one can see that it won't be long before Google Hangouts irons the glitches out of it's system and becomes as much of  go to option as it's non-cloud based predecessors...

So, in conclusion - it seems that the future of social media networking will inevitably give (and is already is giving) educators and students alike the ability to all but teleport themselves into another's immediate proxomity...

p.s. Where to next - ?

Topic: Professional Online Social Networks
References Cited & Recommended Reading/Viewing
Joosten, T.( 2013. October 22). Pearson: Social Media for Teaching and Learning.
Melhuish, K.(2013) Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators’professional learning. Master Thesis. The University of Waikato.
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants - Part 1. [pdf]
Office of Ed Tech. (2013, Sep 18). Connected Educators. [video file].
Silius, K., Miilumäki, T.,Huhtamäki, J.,Tebest, T., Meriläinen, J., & Pohjolainen, S.(2010) ‘Students’ motivations for social media enhanced studying and learning.’ Knowledge Management & E-Learning: An International Journal, 2, (1).
SocialMediaForKids (2014, Aug 15) Social Media For Kids® The Social Media Education Experts.[video file].
Tvoparents. (2013, May 21). Using Social Media in the Classroom.[video file].