How Social Media is Changing the Landscape...In General and In Education

Social media is changing everything and its crazy to fathom how far we have come. Prior to cell phones, we had to call people from home, leave voice mails and either wait for a returned call or check our answering machines when we got home. "Phone tag" was very prominent then. Now, with cell phones, not only can we call the person we need to reach from any location to any long distance destination, we can also facebook, email, tweet or blog them and choose to use our computer or cell phone. Wow!!

I was a little apprehensive about social media prior to this course. However, I am completely embracing it and really want to be an educator that plans lessons with what this generation of kids are doing. Incorporating facebook and other social networking sites, I believe, will make the students more reticent to engage and learn. Actually, last Friday I substitute taught a computer class and ended the period with the class doing a polleverywhere.com poll about how the spend their weekends. They absolutely loved it and many students said they wished they had this as a part of their lessons in the classroom and that they would pay attention more if they did. Note to personal self!!

Our landscape is constantly changing, as shown by Tim Burners-Lee's video about his constant vision for fresh ideas. Think about when the iphone first came out to where it is now. Apps have taken over! You can do everything from your phone having never to leave your home. Facebook began as a way for college students to connect and now connects people like those that grew up together and live on opposite ends of the country to keep in touch.

Lastly, I believe Social Media is also making us to be less patient. As I previously mentioned, waiting for a phone call and checking a voice mail were a normal occurrence. Now you can take your phone with you and have caller ID. Think about the times now when you keep calling someone and have missed calls. Doesn't that "phone tag" annoy you even a little? If you cant reach them do you choose to facebook them or text them, maybe right? Just something to think about.