The Torrent of Knowledge

The two articles for this week’s digital pedagogy were perhaps the most practical we have covered. They warned of dangers, dispelled some myths, and gave some very welcome insight into both the way teachers are using social media and which types of social media are available.

There is a myth surrounding the use of social media in classes. This myth assumes that by letting the learners use social media in the classroom there will be chaos. It states that learners will not be learning anything; instead they will be spending their time using social media to be, well, social. This is an incorrect assumption. There is a big difference between social media and socializing.

In the classroom the learners need to be focused on the task at hand; their acquisition of knowledge. This can be organized through the use of different types of social media So called sandbox social media sites (such as fakebook) create a safe environment for the learners as there is no contact other than the learners and their teacher. There are some teachers already employing such ideas and many more.

Teachers like Don Wettrick who gives his learners the chance to create podcasts concerned with their subject matter, and sharing them with other learners around the world. The same intent is shown in the class of Joli Barker whose students are encouraged to share their learning with others across the world. These teaching styles are at the forefront of the new age of teaching and learning. These digital pedagogues are empowering learners’ knowledge capacities through sharing over social media.

The process alone is not the main idea. It is the reading of others’ ideas and the response given to these that spark the flame of knowledge distribution and growth. Different realities create different perspectives and through the process of sharing and responding we add to both our reality and to the reality of others.

Perhaps an apt metaphor would be to imagine a stream of your knowledge flowing down a rocky mountain. Your stream has the purpose of reaching the sea (your goals). Your stream is moving in the right direction but lacks the volume and strength needed to reach the sea. Imagine then that many other streams join yours. Your stream, as well as the streams of the other people, creates a raging torrent that is able to move over the obstacles in its path with ease in order to reach the sea. The idea of sharing and responding is a tool to enlarge ones knowledge stream, creating a river of knowledge capable of reaching any goal. How can we get the streams to cross and enlarge each other you might be asking yourself?  Some ideas have been clearly marked in our second article.

Social media tools such as Remind, Twitter, Instagram, and blogging all have a great deal to offer learners in their quest for knowledge.

• Remind is confidential text message programme which can be used to send students documents, pictures and of course reminders about their subjects.
• Twitter is all about connecting and sharing ideas with one another. It is a quick and easy way to keep learners up to date and hungry for knowledge, sharing blogs and other sites through twitter opens up the path to information and creates the space for responding to that information with others.
• Instagram is great for visual information, images that grab the attention of the learners, creating intrigue and wonder about the world.
• Blogs are the place where learners can really express their knowledge and thoughts on the subject matter. It is a place where others can read and respond with their own thoughts and conclusions. This is vital to the process of learning through social media.

These digital tools are some of many. They are being used in a constructive way to facilitate learning. The fact that a learner can give an idea to his/her fellow learners and engage in others’ material enough to give meaningful feedback increases the learning experience exponentially.