Matt Charleton

Today UBC played host to an intriguing day of discussions at EduCamp 2010, a conference on social media in education. A friend of mine, John Horn, a successful blogger and online steward in his own right invited me to attend the morning’s ‘Great Debate’ addressing the resolution that ‘social media tools sustain student involvement in formal higher education. The discussion touched on numerous important and pressing issues to the post-secondary educational landscape, which has been faced with an onslaught of social media technology. I had a fun time live-tweeting during the event, though I think some thought I was just answering texts!

The opposing arguments were not as strong as one might have hoped – playing devil’s advocate for such pervasive and important media would certainly be difficult. David Vogt, instructor of the Master of Educational Technology at UBC, boldly claimed that “social media is the bullet that kills formal higher education”; his counterpart Leah Macfadyen of Skylight (UBC Science) stated that “social media is the ‘great distractor’.” I do think this is very hyperbolic, if not outright incorrect – but I can see how some folks might feel that these technologies do turn traditional pedagogy on its head.

Through a series of four questions, aimed at such issues as funding allocation, applicability, anonymity, and privacy to debate aroused quite a few interesting points of view. While it’s fairly obvious that I must side in support of social media in education, as I myself conducted much of my university education using these technologies and have a personal and professional interest, I do acknowledge some of the points against the motion.

The idea of the cost associated with training and educating staff and students on how to utilize the technologies is one that is certainly important to address: education and regulation do cost money. Universities tend to dilute these development costs by creating technological systems that can evolve over time and have more lasting power than typical social media platforms (WebCT Vista, Blackboard); let’s face it, the social web is evolving at a clip that is tough to keep up with. However, these technologies are often too rigid and unwieldy and present many new problems.

The beauty of social media is its ability to be shaped and influenced by user participation. Basic platforms can be utilized to create complex and eloquent information systems and have already been widely adopted in educational circles. Wiki’s, blogs, professorial tweets – these are some of the many of the tools that enhance student experiences in today’s educational environment. We are all given a voice and we use this voice to engage in a dialogue. Top-down educational systems are quickly fading and in their place are new methodologies that put students and educators on level playing fields, engaging in a meaningful way: this is where learning is going.

However, as discussed in my previous entry, these technologies also present an inherent risk. With a public voice also comes public exposure. Institutions must educate their students (and employees) on how to utilize these media to enhance their experience and the experiences of others. Universities must employ codes of conduct and communication guidelines to support social media endeavours and mitigate risk, just as any other organization.

We are now only scraping the surface of learning how to learn; social media presents an unprecedented opportunity to engage with a new and unique generation of students that are primed and ready to join in the dialogue and stand formal higher education on its head.