Incorporating Social Media into the Classroom

Sorry for the bombardment of posts. I've been sick and bed ridden and today was the first day in a while that I was able to actually think straight. So lucky for you guys I've decided to post all 4 weeks of posts in one day!

Something that I've been thinking about is what the classroom of the future will look like?

With more professors moving from only textbooks and incorporating online media. The classrooms are no longer limited to students within the physical space; it has moved to an expanding space my little cousin likes to call "the internets." Social media has allowed the classroom to do just that, become more social. Professors are getting tips and feedback from other professors speaking/teaching through cellphone videos, YouTube, Vimeo, Twit Vids, Facebook videos.

Information instead of being limited to a single source is being presented in a way that is shared, explored, talked about and built upon at such fast rates. And people are left with a "richer" experience that gives them more knowledge at a faster rate and a keen interest for learning.

Here is a powerpoint presentation from Drs. Corinne Weisenberger that displays some of these ideas.

Social Media in the Classroom

View more presentations from Corinne Weisgerber.

The classroom has to be much more that writing papers or taking tests. It has to allow students with the opportunity to start establishing connections, to network, to gain tips/tricks from employers; and social media is giving thousands of students the opportunity to do that.

I think that classroom of the future will be full of computers. The students will have to log into a system just like elms but it would work more like Twitter. The classroom will have a large projector in front of the class (just like the one in ours) with a pre-recorded interactive videos of the lesson plan and from industry insiders/employees, etc (the video will ask questions and the responses from the students will be sort of like a tweet). That was the students will be able to discuss questions among themselves, internet resources, other students using social media, instead of just searching from the response from the professor.

Also students who are afraid of speaking in class have a bit of anonymity because the name they've created for the school system page (similar to our post names on the blog) won't disclose who's speaking/or saying what to the class (only the professor would know). I believe this may promote more discussion from more students in the class.

Of course a professor would be there, but I guess he/she would just be monitoring things. :)

How do you guys imagine the classroom of the future?