Social Media Heads to Graduate School
Back in September we noted the gradual recognition within higher education of the merits of social media. At that time, based on the potential for social networking to revolutionize teaching and learning, we suggested that the moment had arrived for teacher preparation programs to consider providing all teachers some fundamental training in social networking tools.
While social networking may be able to help transform education, the use of such media to enhance the business world is already in full swing. Whether it be to establish their online brand, market services, or communicate with clients and corporate partners, businesses are now utilizing the likes of Facebook and Twitter as part of their everyday operation.
Given that development, it has become clear that universities would have to further acknowledge the importance of social media as legitimate area of inquiry. One college in the UK appears to have done just that – this fall Birmingham City University will offer a graduate level program that focuses on social media as a business tool.
However, not too surprisingly, the idea of a graduate program that entails the study of Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter has not been met with universal acceptance.
Flickr photo courtesy of C4Chaos.
5 comments
It’s a positive step. Hopefully, it is underlying principles behind the current, popular social networking sites that will be taught to trainee teachers not just the sites themselves. Otherwise, when twitter and facebook fade from view and others take their place education will not be equipped to recognise what it is that drives their popularity and tap into that.
Does anyone know anything about how teachers will be taught about this?
It’s unfortunate that most of the course material will probably be irrelevant by the time these people graduate. A course in Social Media seems like an oxymoron anyways. You really just have to jump in there and mix it up with people.
Great points about considering the role of social media in education. I am developing a course on Web Strategies for Health Education with focuses on how to evaluate and use Web technologies effectively.
The notion that elementary students in (what our nation considers to be) “failing schools” have the ability and knowledge to teach their classroom instructors how to use and navigate through social media is quite interesting. If this is the technology necessary for our students to succeed in today’s society, then it is our responsibility to provide them with the best understanding possible. If business bound students need to use Facebook and Twitter to communicate, then teaching them how to lick a stamp and write their name is cursive seems irrelevant.
I am currently enrolled in a graduate course studying blogs, wikis, and other “new” online communication sources. It is a fantastic experience for both young and old teachers.
The social media stuff is really moving too fast to catch it –but schools and teachers need to make an effort. I think we should get together and suggest how–because it is not immediately obvious given the world of things students need to know. I think this all points to authentic instruction–what would happen for example if we gave students a real world problem that could be solved only by using social media technologies?
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