Social Media and learners

Social media as a learning tool 

Social media allows us as a population to engage with others in a way that was unthinkable only a few years ago. The thought that you can have a meaningful interaction with someone who lives on the other side of the world, via a box is mindblowing. My generation and those who come after us, accept this as normal. The significance of having “internet friends” is no more or less than having friends who we know outside of the digital realm.  

When is comes to learning communities, it is relatively common to have them online.  I am in quite a few learning communities on facebook and reddit that are for teachers. The platform allows for the participants to learn from each others wisdom and grow. Often there are book clubs that spring out of the collective desire to learn more, to develop professionally and to become a better teacher.  Some times these are facilitated by a leader, others happen organically. It is a wonderful opportunity to learn from teachers with varied experiences. Some are new, some teach in wealthy schools, some teach in other countries some have been teaching for many years. It doesn’t matter, there is no pretense about who is better than who. This is wonderful.however many teachers cannot access our groups for a myriad of reasons.  “lack of social media readiness, poor infrastructure, poor cost effectiveness, low literacy rates, quality control issues, the exclusion of women, challenges with participation and engagement”  (Carr et all, 2018). I think that this is a great example of the pitfalls of digital learning. It is an amazing tool for collaboration and learning. For learners to explore ideas that they might not be able to get in person.  However, many learners cannot access even the most rudimentary of digital tools. This can create an intergenerational gap in access and further the divide between rich and poor. 

I do not think that this is an insurmountable barrier, and I do firmly believe that the benefits of social media as a learning tool mean that more learners need to have access to these tools.  It is just a manner of training, funding and access which are no simple feats.

References:

Carr, A., Thamizoli, P., Rengalakshmi, R., & Balasubramanian, K. (2018). Learning through social media: A promethean gift? CSI Transactions on ICT, 6(3-4), 301-310. doi:10.1007/s40012-018-0211-2