Sunday, January 10, 2016

What Connected Educators Do Differently: Chapter Three

Embrace the Three C's: Communication, Collaboration, and Community

After reading this chapter and stumbling over what I might write about, I finally just had to let it go for the night and know that I would come back to it today.  Although the chapter was inspiring, I didn't know where to go with it.  

Then as I was brushing my teeth I remembered how I watched the show The Middle this week.  The dad in the show has a business and doesn't have any form of social media and is clearly seen as an alien almost among his potential customers.  His son has to teach him about using Twitter.  His son who is still in college looking for an internship.  This caused me to think about the fact that learning about social media isn't an option for kids.  Knowing how to use the tools effectively will set students apart in many job markets.  We have the opportunity to model for students how to use social media properly.  

The other thing I thought about is how it's so easy now to belong to communities.  I see the signature "@" sign all over in the goofiest places...you can belong to a community of people who also get their coffee from Starbucks, play Play Station, shop at Whole Foods, and eat at McDonald's.  Ha, then let's think about how many celebrities you can follow...

If kids (and adults) feel so compelled to belong to community, then let's give them a community to really BELONG to.  And while we're at it, wouldn't it be awesome if we started seeing our students be thoughtful about the people and organizations they follow?  Are they passionate about community service?  Help them find other students out there who are as well and organizations that are about community service.  

I know this isn't a novel idea, but after reading this chapter and thinking about the real-life applications, I started to see Twitter and other social media not as a "fluff," but as a powerful force in our society.  Kids will naturally be drawn to it, but will not naturally know how to use it effectively or even responsibly.  By embracing it ourselves and letting kids see the passion behind our efforts (and the payoff in the end) we have the opportunity to be powerful models. 

3 comments:

  1. Great read! Twitter is so powerful at forming connections and giving people a sense of belonging. A professional baseball player tweeted at me one time and I felt like the guy was my best friend. You are exactly right when you say we need to help students know where to go to form these connections and make meaningful relationships to gain a sense of belonging!

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  2. I love your blog name by the way! :)

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  3. This was a great post Kari! You just had an ah-ha with social media, I think! :) You are spot on when talking about how we need to model the appropriate use of social media and show the power of it to our students. Let's get more people using it to make those connections you were talking about. Help them find "their" community or start one of their own. What a great reflection. Thanks for your thoughts!

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