6.26.2014

Why We Need to Teach Social Media in Our Schools


Parents and teachers are scared of social media, in part because students sometimes use it in mindless and daunting ways, but also because many parents and teachers don’t understand its possible benefits. No one is teaching this generation of students how to use social media productively to nurture intellectual passions and develop marketable skills. Students are not following accounts that provide information and inspiration. Instead, they take photos of their lunch, try to acquire more “likes” than their friends, and try to embarrass one another with less than flattering photographs.

Educators need to begin to help students build their own responsible digital-profiles and use social media for academic enrichment. What crosses students’ desks, or appears in their feeds, should be substantive and based on their interests. The best way to create a culture of curiosity, exploration and sharing is to teach students how to manage content and conversations online. Students who are interested in business, for example, should be guided to the Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Financial Times or The Economist. Students who are interested in psychology should be guided to Psychology Today, Pyschobest and Psych Central. Unfortunately, there’s little time for this guidance in our crowded curriculum and, on their own, students can’t be bothered to seek out educational content in place of their social updates. Yet, this content, ideally grounded in their curiosity, could form the basis of a lifelong intellectual passion or even a possible career.

Educational institutions equip their graduates with the research skills, organizational skills, analytical skills and verbal/writing skills to succeed in the workforce. This has been true for decades. But, thanks in large part to technology, the professional landscape has changed so much that it’s hard for students to figure out in which industry, or for which cause, they would like to employ their acquired skills. As it is, most universities do not invite academic specialization until students are in their final two years. The best way to help students with these issues is through social media.

Social media provides a forum through which students can learn about and engage with industries and professionals that represent a wide-range of intellectual opportunities. The forum invites dialogue and content updates in real-time. We need to teach students what to read and watch in order to develop expertise in a given field. And, we need to teach them how to post, like, comment, inquire, reply, and connect in ways that benefit students and their chosen industries. As educators, we know that the best learning is a product of guidance, encouragement, and debate. If there’s a student who is interested in technology, I want to help him read, analyze, and debate content from Mashable, Gizmodo, CNET, WSJD, and Wired, to name a few. Or if a student wants to save the planet, I’d like to point him toward Greenpeace, Climate Desk, and Green Living.

Upon graduating from college in 2009, my friends and I were asked by executives to use the academic skills acquired in college to curate and deliver information that could help organizations advance their brand, cause or idea. Frequently, we were also asked to combine these skills with our knowledge of social media in order to reach new audiences. Independently, we realized that our ability to flourish in our young careers depended upon our connection with industry leaders, consumption of up-to-date content, and creation of digital profiles, whether for a company or as individuals. Far more effective than a paper resume, strong digital-profiles are the best way for young professionals to progress in a given field, and even move between fields.

None of our professors ever advised us to explore social media, nor did they talk about the changing economy that we would inherit as young professionals. Today, economists keep referencing the “startup economy” but schools aren’t teaching students how to navigate this landscape. Educators should guide students not only in their consumption of information, but to internships and other experiential opportunities to build a resume in a given industry. Ideally, social science teachers should encourage their students to follow Re/code, Techstars, or Kickstarter so that they can feel empowered to start their own business.

Ironically, if schools taught a class on social media, and that was the only class a student took, some could still find employment monitoring feeds, creating snapchats, producing vines, or curating Pinterest for a business. Businesses will pay for these services. Young graduates, who have learned to harness the power of social media, update pages, curate a digital footprint and forge connections to make themselves knowledgeable in their content area and valuable to their employers.

Fulfillment comes from exploring a wide variety of interests and developing our understanding of them all. It’s time to help our students pursue interests outside of their core academic courses. It’s time to help them to customize their own learning, and engage in professional dialogue in an appropriate manner. With our guidance, students will feel prepared and confident navigating the professional landscape they inherit. Social media has disrupted society; the learning environment is changing, the professional environment is changing, and schools should be changing with them. If we want our students to be curious, informed and competitive, we need to acknowledge, appreciate, and, finally, teach social media

A version of this post was published by NAIS

6.03.2014

Social Media 101: My Presentation to the Parents’ Association


Last week, I was given the opportunity to teach a lesson called “Social Media; What’s in, what’s out and what’s trouble?” to any middle or high school parent who was interested. About thirty parents arrived, a few with notebooks in hand, to hear what I had to to say. I started by admitting I am no expert on Social Media. But, I do have a different perspective on how their children use social media since I’m around them every day in so many different capacities--as teacher, coach, advisor, mentor, and friend. I decided to start my presentation by scaring the parents, then presenting my more optimistic thesis about teen social media use: that with the right mentoring, they can harness its potential to pursue passions and express creativity.

The Apps:
I felt obligated to start with Facebook largely because the adults in the room to whom I was speaking all admitted that they had facebook accounts. I moved away from it quickly, though, because teenagers are doing the same. Next, I moved to Tumblr and Twitter to give the parents a landscape of the social media their children use. I also used these apps to highlight how our economy values social media start-ups: Yahoo paid $1.1 billion for Tumblr, and Facebook paid $750 for Instagram. I showed a video, explaining how much a stranger can learn about someone by searching nearby social media pages, that understandably terrified a lot of the parents in the room.

Relentless, I then moved to the apps that I red-flagged for the parents: Snapchat, Vine, Tinder, and Chatroulette. Snapchat, an app that turned down $3 billion from Facebook, moves 350 million photos a day. I told the parents a story of a sophomore girl who, upon checking her snap profile, realized she had sent 28,000 snaps since she downloaded the app the previous year. I used my math skills to highlight that she sent, on average, over 50 snaps a day! Naturally, the parents hoped that it wasn’t their kid, so I shared the story of a junior girl with 33,000+ snaps sent since she created her profile. The scary thing about “snaps,” of course, is that they don’t actually disappear, as teeangers think they do. Others take screenshots, and Snapchat holds them in a database. After my Snapchat warning, I told the parents about the meme “do it for the vine,” and implored them to discourage their teens from doing something stupid or dangerous for internet fame.

Finally, when I got to Tinder and Chatroulette, the parents started to speak up--even though I had said I would take questions at the end. Fortunately, I don’t think a lot of our students are on these apps, but they exist, and they’re popular. Tinder is a “dating” site based on proximity that allows users who have mutually “liked” one another’s photo to chat and perhaps meet up! In February, Tinder boasted 750 million swipes a day. And, Chatroulette is one of the scarier apps--through Chatroulette, users can connect to anyone with a webcam anywhere in the world with just a click.

The Argument:
Despite all the negatives associated with these apps, and the overarching disconnect teenagers are facing, I tried to spin this talk optimistically. Acknowledging the negative, I urged parents to speak to their kids about this stuff. I argued that students are sacrificing their physical relationships, basing their self-worth on the number of “likes” on their online profile, and that’s not okay. I told the parents a story of a 16 year-old girl who I caught during check-in at 10:15 putting make-up on so she could go take a “selfie” with another student. The next day I asked her why she was on her phone while I was talking, and her answer was that she was checking how many “likes” she received. Unfortunately, this happens when students don’t find anything else to post about, and therefore put themselves out there for the digital world. We, parents and teachers, need to be on the look-out for this behavior and find other ways to help our kids evaluate their self-worth--hopefully based on interest.

Again, in an effort to emphasize the positive, I looped back around to an opening statement I made about the Arab Spring revolutions and their dependence on social media. I pointed out that social media has potentially immense value. Though I argued students were stuck using apps for “social” updates, I hypothesized that they could be using them for information updates. In order to get students from “social” to “informational,” I hope to help them explore their passions on social media. I talked about Tumblr blogs, Twitter accounts, and Facebook pages that students could “like” to get updates that help them become deeper thinkers, informed citizens, and inspired creators. Unfortunately, our students struggle to get outside their social circles and into the part of social media that benefits the 21st century student. Social media has beneficial, informational uses, including opportunities for personal and professional development and networking, a platform from which to ignite regime change, a source for promoting a worthy cause, and an outlet to help a boy fighting cancer become batman for a day. I’m convinced my students can be inspired by these uses, and though I didn’t say it explicitly, I think schools have to be teaching this stuff. Fortunately, I didn't have to say it: The parents did in their follow-up questions, which turned out to be more of a discussion and less of a Q&A. I couldn’t have been happier; it was a great first step!