Barry Switnicki Learning Journal Entry 1.1
Think back to your understanding of social media and social networking before you entered this course. How has the D2L content, the external readings and/or resources provided extended, challenged, or deepened your initial understanding? (Cite references as appropriate.) What about educational applications of social media--has the D2L content, the external readings and/or resources provided extended, challenged, or deepened your initial ideas?
From <https://d2l.viu.ca/d2l/lms/dropbox/user/folder_submit_files.d2l?db=29412&grpid=0&isprv=0&bp=0&ou=76009>
As I have traveled through the initial components of this course, I have been struck by the complexity, ambiguity, fluidity and fast growth of social media and social networking use. Definitions of terms such as social media and social networking often seemed to be used interchangeably. My understanding is that social networking (verb) is part of social media (noun) and that social networking sites are a type of social media. Other types of social media include wikis, social networking, video networking and news aggregation (Rapid Learning Life, 2010).
In terms of education, there is pressure from one side to integrate social media in the classroom as a familiar tool to students, while the other side is working to keep the use of social media out of the classroom. For me, the challenge is keeping in sight the goals of education, especially as we do not have a clear picture of the exact skills young students will need as adults, and not getting hooked into using technology because it's there and glitzy.
Another two points stood out for me. The first is that while East Asia, I presume China, has 22% of the world population and 33% of active media accounts (Kemp, 2015), they are not represented in the top social media sites globally. Essentially, they have their own duplicate system of social media sites due to government restrictions. The other point, which disturbed me greatly, is that of marketing, and advertisements, being included with educational materials being presented via social media such as blogs and Facebook. Although I knew, intellectually, that this is done I had never personally experienced it. I am wondering about the ethics of this type of activity. I am sure there will be more focus on this type of marketing as the use of social media increases in education and marketers put more focus to marketing in this manner.
References
Think back to your understanding of social media and social networking before you entered this course. How has the D2L content, the external readings and/or resources provided extended, challenged, or deepened your initial understanding? (Cite references as appropriate.) What about educational applications of social media--has the D2L content, the external readings and/or resources provided extended, challenged, or deepened your initial ideas?
From <https://d2l.viu.ca/d2l/lms/dropbox/user/folder_submit_files.d2l?db=29412&grpid=0&isprv=0&bp=0&ou=76009>
As I have traveled through the initial components of this course, I have been struck by the complexity, ambiguity, fluidity and fast growth of social media and social networking use. Definitions of terms such as social media and social networking often seemed to be used interchangeably. My understanding is that social networking (verb) is part of social media (noun) and that social networking sites are a type of social media. Other types of social media include wikis, social networking, video networking and news aggregation (Rapid Learning Life, 2010).
In terms of education, there is pressure from one side to integrate social media in the classroom as a familiar tool to students, while the other side is working to keep the use of social media out of the classroom. For me, the challenge is keeping in sight the goals of education, especially as we do not have a clear picture of the exact skills young students will need as adults, and not getting hooked into using technology because it's there and glitzy.
Another two points stood out for me. The first is that while East Asia, I presume China, has 22% of the world population and 33% of active media accounts (Kemp, 2015), they are not represented in the top social media sites globally. Essentially, they have their own duplicate system of social media sites due to government restrictions. The other point, which disturbed me greatly, is that of marketing, and advertisements, being included with educational materials being presented via social media such as blogs and Facebook. Although I knew, intellectually, that this is done I had never personally experienced it. I am wondering about the ethics of this type of activity. I am sure there will be more focus on this type of marketing as the use of social media increases in education and marketers put more focus to marketing in this manner.
References
- Kemp, S. (2015). Digital, social & mobile worldwide in 2015. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/wearesocialsg/digital-social-mobile-in-2015
- Rapid Learning Life. (2010). What is social media? In simple English.