LEARNING 2.0

 Education  is an important part of our culture.  We want to live in a society which values education and empowers its citizens to be informed.  The new innovations in technology have afforded society with many methods for retrieving and disseminating information. Social media is an added component available to education in our always plugged-in society.  It became the horrifying images that flooded twitter when the reporter was shot, a voice for the #blacklivesmatter, and money to the ALS cause with #icebucketchallenge on Facebook.  The question is whether this sharing of information is actually education?  Or should education be considered best within the traditional form of a school house?  What constitutes learning? Has it evolved to include the various avenues of social media?

Some of the benefits of incorporating social media in the classroom are to promote student interest.  When students are engaged it is linked to positive student learning outcomes, as evidenced with critical thinking and individual student development. There are several factors to consider with increased use of social media in the classroom. An increase in peer interactions occur with social media and relationships are available through this medium.  Twitter provides a running history of the movements as they unfold.  Also collaborations are made available, and this is especially useful through google docs, where entire groups can develop a project and continue to improve it in differing spaces and times.  Additionally, this aids in knowledge development because students are encouraged to read peer inputs  to classroom discussion, and come to understand the differing viewpoints on many subject.  The virtual classroom is a new venture, and once the students get comfortable in the new environment it can be a place for a different learning experience.  In these examples, yes sharing information can be educational.   School doesn't have to be constrained to a brick and mortar building.  Current events are important to understand because it is the newest history that is being written right before our eyes.  Social media has grown and there is something we can learn from it everyday.

Everybody learns in a different way, and the generations that are going through school now  are extremely comfortable in the virtual community that houses our society.

 Through this medium, many are embracing its possibilities and sharing the present as it passes through time.  The question isn't can social media allow education, the question is what are you going learn from it?  The answer is up to you.