Week 3 - Posting #5 - Social Media

Most people have heard of the digital revolution ... but how about the social media revolution?  How is social media changing the way we communicate with each other?  The way we share information?  Everything is quicker, that is for sure and every one is able to have an opinion and get their voice heard.  Such diversity, creativity and opportunity for unique and varied perspectives have not been possible.  But what do we use all of this technology for?  Everyone uses technology for their own purposes.  Some people believe social media is bringing people together to forge real change.  In Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, the author states, "Our social tools are not an improvement to modern society; they are a challenge to it.  New technology makes new things possible: put another way, when new technology appears, previously impossible things start occurring.  If enough of those impossible things are important and happen in a bundle, quickly, the change becomes a revolution." (Shirky, 107)  I wonder what impossible things can start to happen when we use social media in the classroom?

Not only can our students join global conversations on important issues, but now they can journey towards self expression.  Social Media Revolution is approaching us all at a dizzying rate.  Gone are the days when people only wanted to consult the expert.  Now we all have opportunities to share information.  The children we teach want to share, too.  What type of things will they want to say?  Around what issues will they want to organize?  We must consider that, "Our social tools remove older obstacles to public expression, and thus remove the bottlenecks that characterized mass media.  The result is the mass amateurization of efforts previously reserved for media professionals." (Shirky 54).  Students are already becoming amateur reporters, photographers, videographers and social researchers and scientists using iphones, myspace blogs, skype, facebook, IM, and twitter to name a few.  It is our job as educators to offer them suggestions and point them in directions that will help them to become responsible, contributing and socially conscious members of society.