In teaching my second set of students in the Social Media conference, I encountered two unique situations.
The first was that another adult entered the classroom and told the students that they needed to put up their cell phones and pay attention. It took me a couple of seconds to respond, but then I looked over and said, “This is the social media conference. They are actually responding to a survey using their cell phones.” To which, she responded, “Oh.”
The second was when one of students made began to text in her purse and I said, “You know you can take that out of your purse. We are going to be using them all class.”
She looked at me with a confused expression and then literally said out loud, “I feel free.”
If adults are responding to Social Media by limiting access and students who are invited to use Social Media in the classroom are acting in a completely different way, then there’s a disconnect.
We’re missing each other.
We’re missing the point of Social Media, which is to connect to each other.