Get out of MySpace
November 12, 2007 by liping
There is an interesting article titled “Students tell universities: Get out of MySpace!). The message is loud and clear: students do want to keep their social and academic life separated. This message really should serve as a wake-up call for those educators who are enthusiastic about tapping into the educational use of social networking website like Facebook or MySpace. Maybe they should hold on for a minute and ponder: is this what students want and need? I think the application and incooperation of social networking websites for educational purposes are very challenging and difficult, if not possible. Plus their impact on students’ learning might only be indirect – through strengthening the social connections within a group of learners.
On the other hand, studies are showing the increasing evidence that the adoption of technology in various context is more to do with people’s beliefs or epistemology instead of the technical issues, such as, technical competency or infrastructure. It was pointed out that students nowadays are quite sophisticated users of technology and use it extensively in their daily life. Yet often, they didn’t realize the educational value of certain technology. Then how to cultivate this awareness becomes a key issue.
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I read an interesting article titled “Understanding the Tools” (http://www.gardnercampbell.net/blog1/?p=547) and I think it is talking exactly about the issue you raised in your last bit about raising awareness of the students as they are using various information and communication gadgets.
Students nowadays are so famililar and veteran users of technology that they don’t really think about these ‘tools’ that much. In fact, they are just treating them as some ‘means’ to their ends. The awareness has to come from a little understanding of the genealogy and design of these technologies, that they are not just some ‘wonderful’ and ‘magical’ device that with a touch of your finger tip will release your favorite images, music or video or whatever. These tools have loaded cultural and political meanings and metaphors. And they must not be seen as some ‘neutral’ tools that serves only functional purposes, if awareness was to be raised.
I agree, technologies are not neutral tools at all. Your comment prompt me to think about students’ perceived affordance of tools, that is, how the technology can be used to achieve certain goal. How that perception was shaped and negotiated?
Yeah, and i remember the guy who wrote the article above said often times students are not really forward and critical in thinking about learning. they themselves are not necessarily ’student-centered’ as we’d hope. without the awareness, students will not be able to use and adopt technologies in ways that are truly meaningful to their learning.