Saturday, April 10, 2010
Social Media and History
As I sit here working on some homework for my class that I am taking, I have Twitter and Facebook both on in the background. Seeing the updates pop up in the background it reminds me of how much these tools have changed the way that we live now. Information comes across these sites almost instantly as they happen, and spreads across the world so that by the time they hit the nightly news they are old and people have moved on to the next thing. For example, when I woke up this morning and logged on the first posts I started to see were about the plane crash in which it was feared that the Polish President, Lech Kaczynski along with his family and top military leaders had been killed. As the events unfolded pictures and videos of people going to the capital and mourning began to surface, and updates on others that were killed, along with what may have gone wrong started to appear. This is history as it happens, and something that you can never again get is the true raw emotions and reactions that the world has as an event happens. Future writings will leave out certain facts, or twist an event to affirm what the author believes happened, and how it affected Poland as a nation. What cannot be twisted whether they prove to be correct of not is a person’s real-time reaction to an event such as this. Imagine what it would have been like if people would have been there and able to use social media to twitter about the Gettysburg Address as it happened, or were able to post pictures to their facebook wall of Paul Revere’s famous ride. What would the initial reaction of the people of that time be? It is something that we will never know about these historical events, however as we become a more connected society and world the chance to see and learn from each other becomes a more valuable tool. So this makes me wonder in an age where students and people are learning in an instant, why is it that so many teachers still will not embrace this technology?
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In circumstances where my boys attend school, the technology is not embraced because the technology is not available to the student. Budget cuts needed to be made and the art, muscic and computer classes were the first on the chopping block. Now the younger teachers seem to integrate technology whenever they can but the older teachers do not integrate it all.
ReplyDeleteYou make a very valuable point that society has a whole had embraced the idea of "real time" updates on news events happening around our globe but yet in some educational settings it has not been welcomed into the pedagogy of teaching. Some teachers and historians are embracing the idea of social media and tweeting as individuals from America's past. I believe at one point there was someone tweeting as Ben Franklin about the writing of the declaration of independence....
ReplyDeleteI just think back to Sept 11. I was meeting with my teaching cohort and none of us had any idea what was going on. Many of us did not have our cellphones with us and if we did, they were not on. We were not using a computer and history was happening right then. I got into my car and was looking for a CD because all that was on was talk radio. If I didn't stop and listen, I could have been oblivious to what was going on for another hour before I made it home.
ReplyDeleteWith that having been said, some teachers are afraid of being replaced or fear that they will look "dumb" to others because they cannot master a new form of technology. Adults have the same fear as students, but they can be more stubborn about it. I'm always nervous to tackle a new piece of tech, but I know I've got many years ahead of me to learn it. Some figure they are going to be gone in less than five years, so what's the point of learning a new trick?
I think many different teachers will have their reasons, but fear and laziness are the two that seem most prevalent.
Interesting thoughts Greg. For me though, the inclusion of tech and web-based tools in social studies has made it far more interesting to teach history and help students see the purpose in learning about history. Our current 4th grade social studies book was published circa 1994 (yikes). The way I look at it, what is the point of a primary resource that is 6-7 years older than my students. All the information in the texts, plus scads more can be found on the internet and presented in ways that are much more user friendly.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that teachers aren't embracing it out of fear and lack of understanding of how and why these tools are useful. And they really aren't being challenged to use them. They are asked to focus on preparing kids for a test. No higher level thinking being encouraged there.
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