Melanie McBride is a faculty member at the Centre for Creative Communications at Centennial College in Toronto, Ontario. She is also an educational new media content developer and consultant who advocates for the integrated use of social media technologies in education. Here she discusses her use of Web 2.0 in the classroom.
What Advantages Does Social Media Afford Educators?
Social media is a great tool for bringing the classroom to life. I use social bookmarks instead of traditional textbooks in my courses because I need the content to be cutting edge. It doesn't get any more cutting edge than the content that’s online. So instead of a textbook I used social bookmarking tools like Delicious to share the most current articles, websites or content, and my students subscribe to the RSS. Every time I add a new bookmark, they are notified automatically.
Students are also expected to use the bookmarking tool to find, collect, contextualize and share articles relevant to their field. They also maintain blogs during the course. By using these tools, they're learning to be responsible for staying on top of industry trends and information.
What Other Web 2.0 Technologies Do You Use in Your Classes?
I use a wiki to provide students with access to course documents, outlines or peripheral information. They can add their own content as well. I like Google docs and presentations as well as I can share a link with students or colleagues and add them as viewers or collaborators.
I have also used video streaming tools like Seesmic, Yahoo Live and Ustream to bring guest speakers into my classes and create more visual means of addressing a topic
How Do You Assist Students in Adopting New Social Media Technologies?
My students who have the greatest success using technology aren't especially technically minded, they're just open minded and willing to make mistakes. I always say that you get as much out of any new technology as you put in. If you write compelling blog posts, you're likely to have readers. If you don't make an effort to contribute in an online forum, you're not likely to inspire a response.
Conversely, it takes a good teacher/facilitator to make this stuff accessible. For many people, technology is overwhelming and intimidating. Patience, sensitivity, humour, flexibility, agility and the ability to self reflect are critical qualities in those who seek to teach others how to use the web. Students often complain to me that some tech teachers tend to get impatient or annoyed with those who cannot keep up. If you want to make technology come alive, you need to know how to deal with the person who is really overwhelmed or simply doesn't like technology. Being able to relate to their attitudes and fears helps them to feel understood, which often results in their willingness to take the risks they need to in order to learn.
How Do You Deal with the Attention Problems that Can Result from the Use of Technology in the Classroom?
I ensure that any and all use of technology in the classroom is directed at specific content. If you teach in a computer lab, there's always the chance that your students will be on Facebook instead of working on the task at hand. I tend to move around the room a lot, sometimes teaching from the back of the room so that their monitors are facing me.
One really interesting thing I did try was to open up a group chat using a new online tool called Chatterous. I told the students they could create an anonymous handle and use this chat while I was teaching to pass virtual notes. I figured since they're already using chat and e-mail to communicate during class, they might as well do this as a directed activity. Using the chat, they can add their voice to the lecture as well as feeling like they have the agency to multitask while listening. I think they are capable of this. But it needs to be directed.
Read more on social media in education from Melanie McBride.
Lisa Manfield - Lisa Manfield is a Vancouver-based editor, writer and publishing consultant. She has worked in print and online publishing for more than ...
