Social Media Implications

Social media seems to be the topic of the hour (day/week/month).

For your reading pleasure, Jeff Bullas on “11 Ways to Lose Your Job on Facebook.” Mostly these are examples of folks who have lost their jobs over fb posts where they complained about their work.

Note to self: Do NOT use fb to complain about work, even if the folks I am complaining about are not on there.

Also, Audrey Waters writes on Mind/shift in “5 Ways Twitter Has Changed Education.”

First, I am going to say that most people don’t use Twitter. Most educators don’t use Twitter. So I am not sure that Twitter has really changed education.

Waters addresses that, too.

The real-time communication provided by Twitter has had profound implications for education, and while it may not be fully integrated into everyone’s academic toolbox yet, it is finding a place there more and more.

With that caveat (ie, that I don’t think it has changed education as a whole that much), she does have some good things to say.

I think her first and fourth points are the most crucial and/or impactful in my classroom. I hope to really expand on point four in my tech writing class, helping my students get a handle on this.

1. BRINGS THE WORLD INTO THE CLASSROOM: Internet resources like Twitter give students access to information — more importantly, perhaps — to people beyond the classroom walls…..
…
4. CREATES CUSTOMIZED PROFESSIONAL NETWORK: It isn’t just educators that are using Twitter to expand their access to experts. Twitter has become a key tool for creating personal learning networks, enabling anyone to build their own connections with other Twitter users, sharing learning resources and support.

I think Twitter can be a good networking tool, a good learning resource, and a good research experience. I’m not sure I would go as far as Waters does, but I think there are some definite benefits.

P.S. I am using this post to bookmark thoughts that might be relevant to my MLA 2012 paper as well. Gotta remember to tag these as I write them.