One of the most interesting ways I think social media is being used is in education. Since this is my first post I figure I will give you an example of how social media is being used in education and why it works in its simplest form. While pursuing my undergrad at Juniata College, I had to take a class called Politics and Cultures of Modernization. The goal of this course was to examine the effects of modernization on culture and politics.
One of the projects assigned to us was to research a country and then participate in an online conference, which was setup to be like the United Nations. The conference took place twice a week for about three hours each day. Each group had three students and we were given various topics to debate about. Since the conference was conducted online we could have been anywhere on campus, as long as we were in the virtual conference room. Once the conference started the Professor was of course the moderator and one person from each group had to be in the main conference room. Whereas the other two could be in the other rooms making backdoor deals. Essentially the conference took place in multiple chat rooms. However, there was an online forum setup for us to post our country’s general position on an issue or to post a draft resolution. The conference was going along great, lot of students were participating, posting many revisions of draft resolutions and actively debating the topics. But wait there was a twist to the project. The very last day of the conference was to be held in a classroom environment, where we would debate face to face.
Why do this? Well the course instructors explained to us that throughout the years, they have noticed that students who normally don’t talk in class tend to be more outspoken in a virtual environment. This turned out to be true. When we debated the topics in a classroom environment, those who were active virtually, were quite when it came to speaking in front of the class. A simple use of chat rooms and forums empowered those who were shy or intimidated to speak in front of the class to express their views and participate, which they wouldn’t have done otherwise. This also allowed the few international students, who were in the class to participate.
What is the point of all this? Sometimes the students that barely speak in class have some of the most interesting views, but have a harder time expressing them face to face. Using technologies such as chat rooms, forums, and blogs allow for more participation from these students in the classroom, which results in a healthier discussion within the classroom environment. Finally, I took this course about four years ago, when the concept of web 2.0, social media barely existed.
#1 by jonhickman at August 25th, 2009
#masocialmedia students have started contributing to course blog @jigar_patel http://bit.ly/16yCCg and @lelandstrott http://bit.ly/Dgfs7
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
#2 by Paul Hadley at September 2nd, 2009
Nail – Hammer- Hit!
The organisation I have managed for the past 18 months experienced exactly the same.
We started with a blog, which is how the organisation was formed, and used this as a mechanism to show our development to, and invite people from, across the local region and the UK.
This proved to be successful as an engagement tool, and also a good place to share ideas, comments, and information.
Alongside this, we held monthly meetings for all members to attend to meet, and exchange more ideas, and turn the blog comments into real action.
The regular meetings may as well have been a lecture- lots of people attended, but very few really spoke their minds- the pressure of speaking in front of 50 or so “strangers” was too great.
So, the meetings became bi-monthly, and now there are much smaller sub-team meetings happening, with 6 team leaders attending a monthly progress meeting with the management team and relaying information.
The really beneficial communication exchanges take place on the members discussion forum- topics are discussed openly, and frank discussions lead to more action, with greater speed and better effectiveness, simply because of the immediacy of reporting updates to all members, in a written format.
So, taking this into account, I can confirm that the study mentioned above is 100% true in my experience also.
As for me, I am also a “let me see your eyes” person, but I guess that’s because ever since high school, I’ve been very used to public speaking and am very comfortable meeting new people and holding discussions.
However, since being ‘involved’ with social media platforms of communication, I soon realised that it takes all kinds of characters to build the strength of a network in any form- as long as that happens for the common good, I’m all for it.