Social Media in Learning Processes

In Norway all students in Upper Secondary School have their own laptop to use in their learning processes. Furthermore, in most schools students have access to wireless internet anywhere and at all times. The situation forces us to plan and organize our lessons and learning processes in new ways. In this essay I will argue that we must accept social media and learn how to use them and reflect upon them in order to manage to make use of them pedagogically.

Important aspects to consider

It is important to make clear what prerequisites are necessary in order for digital tools and social media to become a success in learning processes at school. Here I want to point to two different aspects and then I will point to some examples of how to use social media. First of all, new studies show that the teacher has to be a skilled and clear manager in the classroom. At the same time we have to be able to adjust to a situation, where new methods will entail changes in the teacher role. Furthermore, the development in the Norwegian educational system is moving towards a much more learner oriented form of teaching than earlier. The pedagogical principles of this perspective on learning are that the students must be actively involved and cooperating with others in order for real learning to take place. In this respect digital tools and social media offer some great possibilities.   

Secondly, the teachers need the necessary qualification to be able to make use of digital tools and social media in a pedagogical manner. PC’s and access to the internet is a relatively new phenomenon and in many schools elsewhere it is still the future. To many teachers the PC functions as a disturbance and the students are only asked to use it to write very simple documents and upload assignments to the LMS. These teachers have yet to discover the vast number of possibilities that social media offer. Meanwhile, it is necessary that the teacher functions as an editor, who helps the students sort out learning material of high and low quality. Therefore, teachers must be highly qualified in using digital tools and navigate in a jungle of garbage and gold.

Blogs – an example

In my own lessons in “media and information” I am still exploring the different possibilities that social media offer. My students are for example using blogs, and they are encouraged to reflect upon media related themes of their own choosing. This is important of several reasons. First of all, reflection is a very individual process and I want the students to be as motivated as possible. Secondly, this is a way for me to gain some knowledge of what really interests my students within the field of media. This is knowledge I will be able to exploit in other regards in my teaching.

The students are also free to choose whether to cooperate with others or work alone on their blog. To some students writing is a private process, whereas others think of cooperation as an advantage. However, I do ask the students to share all their addresses with the others in class and to follow and comment on each other’s blogs. I also follow all the blogs and write comments regularly.

My pedagogical argument for using blogs as a tool for reflection in teaching is based on a socio-cultural theory of learning. The students gain knowledge and learn during the process of cooperating and exchanging view points with other students and teachers. Dialogue is central to this point of view, because it offers room for exchanging both knowledge and points of view.

This is also an excellent opportunity for the students to learn how to handle the role of being public persons as they are on the internet. They have to consider the fact that the information reaches a wide audience and what rules and ethics must be considered in the process. To most students this is fairly easy, whereas others need a little help in seeking the limits. One example is to explore the rules of publishing photos and information about other persons.

Not easy, but inevitable and necessary

It is by no means an easy task to incorporate social media into teaching today and it may seem frightening to some teachers. Yet, the modern school must adjust to the development in society locally as well as nationally and internationally. ICT has been a catalyzer in the process of globalization, which now demands that we educate our students to a completely different society as compared to 20 years ago. At the same time students come to school today with different precognitions and interests as compared to previously. This is crucial to the development of pedagogies and the planning of good lessons with greatest possible learning profit.