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It is impossible to cover all aspects of social media and how they fit into educational philosophy in one hour. But, in fact, this is a much more philosophical discussion than a pedagogical one. Likewise, there are no “this is how you do it” tutorials. We're living in a new era of DIY -- where the user contributes the content. For this reason, you too must experiment with your own DIY techniques.

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Tongue & Cheek Funny, but as you'll see later...maybe not so funny.

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Before we talk about fears and myths of something, it is always good to equalize our perceptions of what that something is.

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Of course, knowing is half the battle. But is there anything we can do to understand the overall usage of something like “social media”? Probably not. But, let’s look at Facebook — which is a social network, not social media…

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I don’t know about you, but my grandmother (87-years old) and several (quote/unquote) older relatives and friends all have some footing in social media.

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But, Facebook isn’t Social Media Remember, the term social media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. In this case, our LCMS is a perfect example of using social media in education. While our particular social ecosphere, unlike the social networks that are accessible via the internet, is contained within the bubble of a password-protected environment, the interactions that we have there; the various forms of communication and media that are generated are all social in nature. It’s not a top-down society in an LCMS, but a level, non-hierarchical virtual world. In retrospect, this actually disproves Myth #2…

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This couldn’t be further from the truth. Frankly, social media survives because of the various channels that feed it. In our case, as educators, we have a step up on many social media platforms that exist today: teachers are traditionally looked to as facilitators; classes can be thought of as channels; students can be referred to as end-users. The educational institution therefore is a model of social interactivity. Quite similar to Myth 3, is Myth 4…

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Currently, there is a push to transition learning environments to an online forum. Likewise, organizations like the Kahn Academy (and others) are placing educational content online for free. But, as most of us who teach in an online venue know, the role of teacher is still very integral to the success of many of our students’ learning experience. Having a single point of contact within any specific discipline aids in creating a smooth, non-confusing path for students to traverse as they’re attempting to transfer to a 4-year school or learn new skills.

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In fact, there is a proven functionality to a healthy social media environment. A person’s identity is actually formed by several aspects, like sharing, presence, conversations, reputation, etc. Within a pedagogical construct, each of these areas requires the input of teachers, other students, and sometimes even a physical location in which to experience these things.

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Let’s take a look at what one thought leader in social media has to say about the current generation first…This is from Gina Bianchini, Co-Founder of the social network, Ning…

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1.Addiction•Addiction is an unfortunate outcome of any influence that provides pleasure for the user. Social media is one of those influences. This isn’t something that education can fix, of course, but it is something to keep in mind.2.Relationships•One of social media’s most successful outcomes is the fact that it facilitates the formation of relationships. It will be up to the teacher to determine whether or not they want to take the dive into forming genuine and deep relationships with their students.3.Difficulty•A fear that I hear about all of the time is how difficult it might be to integrate social media into pedagogy. Well, as stated already, if you teach online, you’re already using social media. Integrating things like Twitter feeds or using Flickr and Facebook alongside an LCMS is merely technical and can be learned very easily.4.Connectivity•Yes, another outcome of using social media is that the amount of time that a teacher is connected with their classes rises exponentially. Love it or hate it, your students are connected 24/7 and they expect those in their lives to be as well.5.Ownership•Lastly, the issue of socially generated content poses the question of who actually owns the content. This is a tricky one and I don’t have any answers right now. But, if you take the stance that student-generated content remains their property (as in on-ground classes), then you won’t have too many issues trying to sort out the details.

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ConclusionSocial media is still very young. Most likely, we’ll even see it evolve into something new before too long. My position is that, as educators, we must evolve with those whom we teach, or else a disconnect will occur. Right now, that evolution is an immersion into social media.