Thursday, July 10, 2014
Pre-engagement with social media
In my last post, I addressed the age factor as a possible hindrance to the adoption of Web 2.0 tools for pedagogy. After just reading Goodyear’s article, I felt compelled to add as a possible facilitator the love of social media as leverage…a much more positive approach or fix to the issue at hand.
People, including teachers, use Facebook and Twitter all the time for personal, social interaction. If someone already loves and uses a tool, it should be relatively simple to help them make the jump to also using it for professional reasons, no?
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It seems pretty common sense, but I'm not so sure that someone who loves a tool for social interaction will love the same tool for educational purposes. Sometimes people enjoy the separation between their personal life and their work life and social media can draw a big line here. Sometimes it can take the fun out of the tool if you have to use it for work instead of fun. For example, I used to be a graphic design major because I am creative and love doing artsy projects. However, I ended up hating my graphic design classes because the constant critiques took away all the fun. Therefore, I couldn't turn my hobby into a career. It may be similar for educators who don't want to turn their fun into work. However, I'm sure this is not the case for all, but some. At least in my opinion :)
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right. Other articles I've read make it perfectly clear that most people do not like mixing business and social technology platforms.
ReplyDeleteI also ended up hating one of my favorite hobbies (gardening) when my husband and I opened and operated a plant nursery. The fun dried up very quickly.
Hi Yvette Buchamp, I don't think it is very simple to help them to using these social media tools for professional reasons. Because when you use these social tools for professional reason, you are easily get distracted. Furthermore, these tools are designed for entertainment, social interactions purposes, which might could be implemented in informal or formal learning. However, higher education or some sophisticated learning objectives might have many specific requirements for the scaffolding instructions or facilitating learning tools. Maybe, majority of will accept these tools when they have some business or educational versions. Over all, it is just my opinion and my understanding about Web 2.0 tools.
ReplyDeleteI've long thought we can help people transition from use to use and tool to tool. It must be carefully done, however, to ensure that people are comfortable with it (think Facebook and reluctance to merge personal and professional). Sometimes it's a matter of skill transfer. Sometimes of putting up privacy walls.
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