Farrah, Michael, Social Media, and Educational Implications…

By now, you most likely know of the unfortunate and tragic deaths of both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.

What you may not know is the absolute tornado of information that poured into the internet almost moments after each event happened. If you are a regular user of Twitter, you’ll know that the sidebar trending topics both surged with key words like cancer, cardiac arrest, the names of both stars, etc.

While both stories are sad, and I certainly am sympathetic for both families, it’s hard to ignore the amazing things that have happened today and how these connective technologies are having an impact on everyone and the implications for their use in an educational setting.

I found out about Farrah initially from Twitter earlier in the day. I moved from Twitter immediately to CNN.com, and then confirmed the information at MSNBC.com and FoxNews.com. I rarely just take things at face value anymore, and wanted corroboration from a trusted source before I made up my mind about what happened.

Later in the day, I had CNN and MSNBC on in my living room when the first reports came across Twitter and Facebook about Michael Jackson. TMZ.com had reported Michael initially dead, but the other news outlets, including the big 3 mentioned above and Reuters were not confirming.

I sent out my first tweet to see what the response would be:

As information came in over Twitter faster than it seemed to be coming into the major news services, it was hard to deny that confirmation of his death was imminent.

I wondered on Facebook if the information had been confirmed:

I also noted that the trending topic around him had been misspelled.

It wasn’t long before confirmation did indeed come, first from the LA Times, then FoxNews and MSNBC and finally, CNN. Since the news was confirmed, it’s been a nonstop flow of information, from MTV’s video retrospective, to CNN’s review of his life, even to ESPN’s angle of his Superbowl performance.

The reason that I believe that all of this has huge educational significance is the speed with which information was traveling back and forth, and the incredible conversation I was able to have with literally dozens of people over the course of just half an hour. We helped each other find information, shared links, thought critically about what information we were receiving, and drew conclusions as a group.

I think this says a lot about search literacy and critically thinking with web tools. I connected with my network, collaborated around finding answers to an issue, and came to a collegial conclusion as this all unfolded.

Today, Facebook and Twitter became my main sources for not only information, but also for determining if that information was factual, should be amended or discarded, or was worth exploring further before drawing conclusions.

This is the power of the Internet. This is the power of connectivity and Web 2.0. Isn’t this how we want our students to use technology?

An Amendment:

After I posted this yesterday, a few people on Twitter and Facebook, including our friend Bill, pointed out that there was a mountain of misinformation also being reported in social media and in the regular news outlets.

This is what search literacy is all about.  We must learn and teach to filter out the most probable information by confirming sources and connecting the pieces until we can arrive at a plausible conclusion.  Tweets and Facebook updates we're chock full of people asking for confirmation, digging for additional information, and unfortunately also dessiminated wrong information, such as the death of Jeff Goldblum. ( Link to Mashable's Post on this incident. ) 

Bill pointed out that depending on who is in your network, the story you got could have been vastly different from what others might see.  I agree with that, but also think it's an opportunity, in the light of this morning and a continuing feed of information from traditional and modern sources of information, to examine how we receive what we read and determine how we are going to use that information.

This is a huge teachable moment.

HUGE.

_

Teachers, Students, and Facebook

I’m finding it harder and harder to believe that a teacher/student connection on Facebook is that bad of a thing. I’ve read several articles/blogs recently promoting one position or another, such as THIS ONE or THIS ONE, and I’m still wondering if, overall, connections are a GOOD thing.

I spend a lot of time talking with teachers about making professional connections and inevitably, talk of Facebook and befriending students comes up. It’s no secret to anyone in my network that a good fraction of my “friends” are students I’ve taught in the past. I’ve even “friended” some of their parents.

I’m more of a constructivist and like to see what unfolds when things are allowed to happen. I understand the concerns that other teachers and administrators have with networking through sites like Facebook, but I also understand that ignoring that network is ignoring a mountain of possibilities for professional development and teaching about appropriate internet usage.

Does befriending students mean that I am their “friend” in the normal sense of the word?

No.

I can still be a professional while understanding that this connection is a preservation of communities I've built over the years—I get to continue conversations and have opportunities that extend beyond the classroom interaction. For instance, because I’m networking with previous students, I have the opportunity to continue to teach them when they post things like phone numbers, addresses, pictures of their cars w/ a license plate, etc. It gives me a chance to remind them that EVERYONE can see what they are posting and they may want to reconsider what they’ve got on their pages, especially if they are looking for a job or trying to get into a particular college. Additionally, the chat feature has often times given me the opportunity to do homework or research help.

(As an aside…how many of our students have actually been TAUGHT about appropriate internet usage and are of the “anything goes” mindset? Or perhaps they are of the “anonymous internet” mindset and believe that what they do online is somehow a secret…)

My Facebook network is comprised of Family, Friends, previous students, colleagues, acquaintances from High School and College, and professional contacts. I don’t post anything that I wouldn’t mind ending up being on the front page of the newspaper. In fact, in all of my online activities, I try to maintain a professional tone, or at least try to refrain from references that could be misconstrued. I like being able to network with this group of people—not only to find out what is going on with them, but also to build a Professional Learning Network of users that have similar interests to mine.

The times really are a-changing. We can’t expect that what was considered right or wrong in the past is still considered the same way. This is what being a global community means. If we, as teachers, administrators, staff developers, etc. are really interested in best practices, shouldn’t we be interested in embracing the tools that we know students are using?

It’s okay to set boundaries for usage, or make decisions about whether or not you “befriend” anyone, but I don’t think it’s okay for folks to just put a blanket kibosh on something that has a lot of potential for changing the way people, not just kids, are educated.