Participation: Social Media’s Invitation to Learners

[Nikos Theodosakis]

It’s a curious thing this absorption of social media into our lives and into our classrooms. On one hand, there are now more reasons to remain glued to our laptops, tablets and phones as we check out the latest blog, update and tweet. These acts distract us, even for a moment, from being present with each other physically and replace human contact with screens. On the other hand, these new streams of information enable us to fulfil a natural desire to connect, communicate and create with an ever expanding community. This desire to share ideas and stories, after all, is at the heart of being human.

In many classrooms, social media is expanding and enriching the potential of this sharing of ideas and stories by enabling students to connect, create and distribute their media like never before.

Virtual community spaces have become effortless to produce. Sites such as Facebook, Edmodo, Weebly, Yola, and Google+ can act as extended classroom “studios” where students meet virtually via text, audio or video to brainstorm ideas, share project research and further the preproduction process. Sites as simple as Google Docs, or as extensive as Celtx, enable students to collaborate on the scripting, storyboarding and development of their media pieces. Online video editing sites such as JayCut enable students to upload video and share editing decisions with others in the classroom and around the world. And finished films, posted on those community sites as well as on YouTube, Vimeo, School Tube, Magnify and others, enable students to be both broadcasters and audience to each other’s projects.

But more than making dispersed filmmaking convenient or classroom technology current, perhaps the real potential is in how social media can help transform learning itself through these new tools of participation.

If one of the keys to creating engaging learning environments and experiences is to provide students with real world, authentic projects, complete with real audiences beyond the classroom, then it seems that social media can help provide these new channels of connection and participation. Student media projects rooted in real issues and involving participants from around the world expand a student’s interest and knowledge of the world outside the classroom by providing a context for their explorations and ultimately, hopefully, enabling a greater understanding of what is being explored.

And as students create media projects they are discovering that, unlike the media of the past which tended to be monologues, today’s media creators launch dialogues.

This new participatory dialogue is transforming how professional filmmakers present their films to audiences. The National Film Board of Canada’s new Interactive section is an excellent example of how new media documentaries use social media to be both a personal artistic expression as well as a public invitation for audience conversation and participation.

How interesting then for today’s young media students to develop their skills and voices with an awareness that, as creators of media, it is not only about the story you want to tell, but the conversation you want your story to spark.

And so what conversations do we want our students to spark? Let’s ask them! What is it in their lives, communities and in their world that they want to talk about, or perhaps, even change? How do they want to participate in the world around them?

If the potential in social media is about sparking conversation and encouraging participation, then perhaps the invitation to educators may be to have conversations with their students that explore these new tools. Drawing from the wisdom of educators and the technical savvy of students, let’s experiment with how social media can enable today’s learners to speak, listen and reflect on ideas in meaningful ways, and in the process, become citizens who participate in the world they live in.

Article from Media and Learning News, European . View entire newsletter here: