I may never be happy, but tonight I am content. Nothing more than an empty house, the warm hazy weariness from a day spent setting strawberry runners in the sun, a glass of cool sweet milk, and a shallow dish of blueberries bathed in cream. When one is so tired at the end of a day one must sleep, and at the next dawn there are more strawberry runners to set, and so one goes on living, near the earth. At times like this I’d call myself a fool to ask for more…
The real issue, of course, is not social media but learning. Specifically, the fact that our schools are disconnected from young learners and how their learning practices are evolving. The decision to block social media is inconsistent with how students use social media as a powerful node in their learning network. Can social media be a distraction in the classroom? Absolutely. Will some students access questionable content if given the opportunity? Yes. But many students use social media to enhance their learning, expand the reach of the classroom, find the things they ‘need to know,’ and fashion their own personal learning networks. We have met students who have used YouTube to learn how to play a musical instrument—a not so insignificant fact for students whose families can not afford private music lessons. We have seen students use YouTube to help them pursue an interest in building their own gaming computer or share a multi-media project that they developed. Last summer I wrote about students from this same school and how they created a dynamic learning community to support their interest in creating games. Many of them shared YouTube videos with each other in order to learn how to use the game authoring software, GameSalad. (Because it was a summer program, the students and their teacher successfully lobbied to have YouTube unblocked).
Now my students have me on Instagram. What the hell is that for?
I’m a tad overwhelmed. I mean how much does anyone need to know about me? And why can’t we just combine all this business?
How am I supposed to have something interesting to say through five different mediums? Because I don’t and I won’t and I can’t. I’m only interesting like .02% of my life anyhow and now I’m supposed to spread that around the vastness of the Interwebs?
Fodder for wit and intrigue is just slim pickins spread so thin, y’all. Slim pickins.
This website is so much fun! And it’s educational! Type in a term to search, and the site generates a graphic, as well as links to websites, additional terms, and it even makes quizzes. This could be a nice way to generate interest when beginning a unit, or a tool for kids when they are researching.
Playing around with this for five minutes and I’m already in love and anxious to use it with the kids. I think it would only confuse them further for a formal, MLA research paper, but for mini-research projects and introductions to books, units, etc, this is GOLD.
…Because you may be smart, but I’ve been smart longer. I’m sure some of you do not like lecture classes, but as you have probably noted, I’m not as young as I used to be. I would love to spend my remaining breath chatting with you about the finer points of Islamic history, but our time together is short. I must talk, and you must listen, for we are engaged here in the most important pursuit of history: the search for meaning. What is the nature of being a person? What is the best way to go about being a person? How did we come to be, and what will become of us when we are no longer? In short: What are the rules of this game, and how might we best play it?
