Sometimes seams are a good thing

Klopfer, Osterweil, Groff, and Haas all urge educators to "try out" social networking as a curricular tool, but I love the fact that they stress the importance of using technology not as purely a motivational tool but rather as leverage for instruction.  They also state that there are educators who implement excellent, innovative instruction without technology. We have to remember that good teaching is all about communication and concept.  If you don't have those, you're instruction will fall flat regardless of whether or not you have a flashy gadget.

I don't agree with the assertion that we must strive to make the academic and social worlds more seamless.  As I stated in my last post, this can be a dangerous statement when one thinks about how casual social networking is.  We don't want to render academic language obsolete. Remember, code switching between academic and social language is a skill.  There is a reason why we define settings as either formal or informal.

All this being said, I do agree that even social networking tools can be used to heighten the academic experience.  Here are some good examples I've seen...

Teachers with facebook pages.  This concept still makes me feel nervous, but our 8th grade math teacher does an exceptional job using facebook to communicate with students and parents who also, not surprisingly, have facebook.  She posts homework, tutorial videos, pictures of exemplary student work, and  invites students to quizzes and exams (yay, fun!)  Her profile pic also undergoes weekly changes.  She's a new famous female mathematician each week.  Her students do have a high homeowrk turnout.  Can this be solely attributed to the facebook page?  No, but it certainly doesn't work.  Kids know how to work facebook.  They're on there every night anyways, so why not swing by and see what the math teacher has to say?

I also agree that  have their place in academia.  This class has inspired me to start a college prep blog for my 8th graders.  We post written comments and video blogs to document the college exploration process.  As anticipated, this project has increased motivation and also encouraged discussion amongst my students. It is important to me that these students build upon the ideas of each other.  This blog helps them see themselves as active creators of knowledge rather than passive recipients of the ideas of others.  I like it.

In regards to the gaming, however..I'm not convinced.  I feel that the arguments for gaming as a catalyst for the development of "new cognitive abilities" are weak.  They seem like euphemisms to describe someone with a low attention span.  Maybe I'm being a grinch, but I have worked at a school that dedicated a year to trying to prove the benefits of synthesizing gaming and academics simply so that we could be seen as hip and fresh.  The game our school adopted was Dimension M, a shoot-up-the- aliens game that supposedly utilizes math skills.  I realized quickly that the game was worthless unless you pretaught or reviewed mathematical concepts traditionally before letting the kids loose.  Otherwise they just guessed.  For our enrichment students, it was motivating because they could apply previously used concepts.  For our struggling mathematicians, the game was simply frustrating.

Also, don't forget: students are being held subject to standardized tests that are still presented within a very two dimensional, flat, tradtional format.  Unfortunately this means that presenting concepts in a two dimensional mode is still important- at least within struggling public schools.

So, in short..evolution, not revolution.  I like that.  By no means should be totally remodel the academic realm.  At least not without doing our research first.