A meeting today reminded me of the chasm surrounding general understanding of what is going on in the new media world of our youth. Here we are with teachers still ‘learning’ how to do basic things, while the kids have stampeded right on into the 21st century.
Tipping Point Labs has some interesting insights into Tumblr, Twitter and The Tweeters,Tumblrists and Technogeeks using them. Tumblr is seen as being a more sophisticated version of Twitter with much more room for valuable content and interaction between users.
Now I don’t know about you – but these are old tools of trade for me and many of those in my personal learning network. Definitly not tools of trade for the majority of those I work with and interact with on a daily basis.
I dropped by the Facebook profile of my very sociable teenage niece. What I saw was a breadcrumb trail to some new shifts in what her friendship groups were up to. Seems the kids are starting to ’swarm’ to places like twitter and tumblr. Facebook, Myspace, Beebo and MSN are no longer enough.
This backs up the odd comments I got at school today from some random kids – “you’re not on twitter are you miss?”
I exchanged a few messages with her – and then she actually discovered who I was!
She described my presence as ‘awkward’ – naturally! I promptly bid my farewells and assured her that I would not ‘follow’ her on Twitter.
Have you checked out lately what your students are doing online?
Judy,
I am one of the teachers you were referring to who is still learning how to do the basic things! I am taking an on-line technology course at the moment, and am blogging for the first time in response to your blog. Hooray! I have yet to Skype, Twitter, or use Tumblr…I’m taking baby steps! I’m a reading teacher for kindergarten, first, and second graders and am always amazed at my students’ computer skills and what they are capable of doing. I learn from them! As you said, by the time I learn what they know, they’ll be onto something newer and better. Such is life in 2009!
Fantastic – the idea is for us to learn together! Share what we can, and enjoy the experience
Let’s all ‘get in the know’!
What are students doing online and is it preparing them for important civic responsibilities that might be in their “online” futures?
“Us Now” is a video freely available at: http://www.joiningthedots.tv/main.aspx?content=761772201985
It inspires me to want to do everything possible to educate the next generation to be ready and able to use the potential of citizen participation to its fullest!
Thanks so much for referring to my article about Tumblr. Did you give Tumblr a shot? I’d be interested in knowing what you thought. Thanks.
I think the issue is the desire of ’systems’ to morally co-opt teachers into getting online and not providing effective workplace training over a long period of time … personally I dons’ on you professionally – or rather unprofessionally like they suddenly turned super-spy.
I smile at the situation you describe, and expect we may have more of this friction at the intersection of our online spaces,
I have to say I get a bit riled by attitudes expressed in the cartoon and hear people say and nod at this concept alot- the Fear of Our Googled Past — http://cogdogblog.com/2009/03/27/fear-of-googled-past/ If you flip around the conventional wisdom (?) of “someone may google your past” it says we should only represent ourselves online as some perfect [false] ideal of ourselves- no visible faults, like we are all thin, blond, trim, and smart.
If an employer dredges back an old blog post or silly photo from years ago, and gives it the same weight as all the work I have done there– well I’d not want to work for them. And it leaves no room to create a history of ourselves that grows and improves.
Sorry, this bubbled to a rant, but I think its time to stop being afraid of being public.
Indeed! We should be allowed to do a bit of growing up! But also, employers have always looked at peoples civic commitment, presentation, and achievements. The online realms have to count for something! and inappropriate social behaviours shouldn’t be dismissed.