Every objection I see about social media and the internet “in education” is not about it’s educational use. It is about it’s social misuse. This does not equate a banning of social media in education to me at all; it decries, (profoundly,) how much we must educate students on the right use of it! This got past educators due to an “ostrich in the sand” mentality, a fear of it competing with the “sage on the stage”, (lecturing teacher in the front for the whole class,) and a plain ole missing of the proverbial boat on how useful it should be. Let us exercise a little 20/20 hindsight…
Picture a world entering social media and the WWW where educators said “Wow! This is really powerful; we should teach ourselves how to harness it and guide our children through it.” First, they learned how to secure data and kept this concept updated frequently and taught digital citizenship to all users. Second, they explored the possibilities with students finding out what could be done to research more fluently; publish more impact-fully; keep content discussions ongoing outside the classroom; help learning become more enjoyable; assess actual learning more regularly; go paperless; increase information for parents; enable data-driven decisions; reach more home-bound students; create OER’s to share with the world; share culturally with other classes; adopt causes advocating to a global audience; collaborate with other teachers; help students collaborate more; develop lesson plans with sources all included; increase student ownership of their learning; etc…
BUT: someone might bully, (this happens in school and needs our attention anyway); a stranger might come along, (all the more reason to expand our stranger-danger education); and our students are creating a digital footprint that could stick with them through college and careers, (so we shouldn’t be involved in what that looks like???)
Sigh…
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dlwhitemich 
Wow, I can imagine a person saying this and having to take a break to catch their breath; you feel really passionate about this topic, as you should. I agree that educators should find the good in the use of social media as a way to educate students and you’ve listed so many great things that can be done with technology and social media in education, but some of the things that people have a problem with, regarding it’s use, are legitimate problems that can be avoided by limiting the use of social media. For instance, cyber bullying is something that happens with the use of social media, but if educators can eliminate this, then the only thing we’ll have to tackle is regular bullying, and that’s easy if students and teachers report it and try to stop it from happening; it’s not that easy with cyber bullying because that can include so many different people from different locations. Another thing is what about those students whose family can’t afford a computer or don’t have the internet at home? Sure, we can tell them to go to the library or stay late after school to get work done, but if they can’t afford internet do you think they’re family can afford to have a car? It’s not fair to them to miss out on online assignments because they can’t afford things like the internet. The regular way is sufficient for everyone. People make excuses about it, but it works, a teacher in front of her class, class group work, all that stuff works.
Good post.
Cierra,
Check out this Washington Post Live video on the digital divide, or lack of access to the internet. It cites a disparity of only 15% which includes elderly people who will not adopt it and adults who would like to, but haven’t got anyone to come alongside them to learn. Our students do.
It also shows that lack of internet is almost non-existent in urban areas, so, for schools, this only truly affects rural areas. Even then, if you put students into small groups on a BYOD campus, they can use data plans. I think you are talking about, maybe, one “left out” student in any given class who can certainly be included through good classroom mgmt. and group-work. http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/business/technology/pew-15-percent-of-americans-dont-use-the-internet/2013/11/06/172a067c-4698-11e3-bf0c-cebf37c6f484_video.html?tid=pm_business_vid
Beyond the divide; I must very sincerely address your concerns. Schools have most of our nation’s students more hours that even their own family and friends. Since cyber-bullying is a problem, schools need to be open to the environment of the internet to guide and ameliorate this issue. What better way than to model positive use of these tools on the web than to have it be a part of education? Is it really harder? Maybe in an initial learning curve. Do your students with in-person bully issues really report it as much as you would like, so that you can handle with them? I don’t think so; but online harassment creates it’s own traceable record and there is no he-said, she-said judgment call to make.
You are right that I am passionate about this. It is where our students are and we must meet them there. Thank you so much for allowing me to try to shift your thinking about it! As a future administrator who can help shape the culture of an entire district, you are someone I would especially love to reach!
Debra
Debra, I really enjoyed reading your post! I think you hit the nail on the head as far as all the objections. I really enjoyed your response to all the negative objections to technology in education. I believe an education system that truly embraced technology and ALL that it has to offer would be more successful at reaching students of all abilities. I also believe that much of the negative views of technology and incorporating them into the education field stem from the negative media that surrounds technology. Too many people only bring up the 5% negative and forget about the 95% positive that goes along with it. Great post!
What an honor to hear that from you! Thank you!