This headline Social networking ‘damaging school work’ say teachers and subsequent from the BBC spawned a few trickling tweets from me, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized I needed more room, some space to really get my thoughts down, because let’s be honest, it is a bit absurd, and it is exactly the paranoid anti-technology hoopla that makes our jobs so much more difficult. And just like it is every teacher’s job to stop bullying or stop and speak to kids who use homophobic insults as tools to cause pain, it is also our job to speak up when someone, especially an organization as “well-respected” as the BBC says something foolish.
Before I begin, let me state clearly that I do believe that everything, especially the things we love and defend need be used in moderation. As every good IB learner understands balance is the key to a happy and successful life. I am sure there are cases where kids have slacked on their homework because they were chatting on Fcebook, but that is no excuse for the BBC to start their article on Social Networking with words like obsession.
Many teachers believe pupils’ work is suffering because of an obsession with social networking, a survey suggests.
Two thirds of teachers questioned said children were rushing their homework and doing it badly so they could chat online.
The article goes on to make some pretty threadbare claims about what teachers surveyed “believe.”
Out of 500 UK teachers involved in the online survey by One Poll, three quarters said parents should limit the time their children spent online.
And 58% said spelling was suffering in the digital age.
A similar number said children’s handwriting was not as good as it should be because they were more used to keyboards and touchpads than pen and paper.
Half of those who took part said children’s “obsession” with social networking was affecting their ability to concentrate in class.
And one in four said they believed children with the poorest grades in school were those who did the most online social networking.
Did these teachers ever stop to think that maybe kids were losing their ability to concentrate in class, because their classes were dull, boring and irrelevant? Or that maybe handwriting is suffering, because we don’t really need it anymore? Pointing out hyperbolic paranoia and sloppy reporting, or is this just poll sharing, was not my intention for this post. I wanted to think about and discuss the mixed message we send our students:
- Collaboration is good. But don’t talk to your friends when you should be doing work by yourself.
- Communication is a key skill. But don’t talk to your friends when you should be listening obediently in class
- Community is important. But don’t talk to a network of people you know about anything that doesn’t have to do with school.
Why can’t we just admit that we are not “obsessed” with social networks? We are obsessed with being social. And who needs to be in touch with friends more than teenagers. This connection and socializing is who they are. It is who we were, accept I remember hanging out on the curb and the telephone. I didn’t have the opportunity to chat with friends and be able to socialize once school ended. These kids do, and we should learn how to use that, not fear it and block it.
Kids today are socializing in ways we never dreamed of. This shouldn’t scare us. We should learn from them. We should celebrate their love of being social and guide them in how to be able to switch from silly wasting time behavior, which has a place in teen age life, to a more productive use of these powerful tools. As I said in the beginning, of course there must be balance, but that is not how this article was presented. We were led to believe that kids are becoming idiot zombies addicted to mindlessly checking their Facebook feeds, while this may be true for some ( I am guilty), they are simply trying to find a place in the herd, socialize and build identity.
Yes, they are using new ways of doing it, and in new places- online, but we cannot bar them from going there; we must understand their needs and make sure they are safe and confident. So for the last time, parents, teachers schools, stop blaming social networks for strange obsessive social behavior in teenagers. That is their nature. Stop blaming their disinterest in your outdated teaching style and subject matter in the digital age and get with the times. Stop surveying teachers on what they “believe” social networks are doing to kids and ask the students themselves! If we want our kids to be effective communicators who can collaborate and work with others to build productive communities, why are we afraid to let them try?
What do you think?
Good points. I think right now we are all (myself included) enamored with social networking. It’s our newest, shiniest toy, and it has connected the corners of the world as they never have been. Let’s admit the internet is an extraordinarily powerful medium and all power comes at a price. Yes, we are social. We long for connection and social networking allows us to be connected and feel connected even when we are not. It’s the latter that really worries me.
As to how this affects student learning, we always have to cast the blame somewhere, don’t we? I’m pretty certain similar comments were made by teachers with the introduction of phonographs, radio, television, etc. Funny that many of these items eventually made their way into our curriculums until we moved on to a new, shinier tool for instructing. My bet is that the students passion for using social networking will lessen over time (right about the time schools everywhere adopt its use), but something else will come along for educators to blame so that we don’t have to admit we aren’t building a sense of community in our classrooms and connecting with those we are called to teach.
Interesting take Phillip. I was actually speaking with a group of middle high kids today at a conference and many of the said they are too busy doing homework to waste time on Facebook. Their words. So maybe it is fading already, but I doubt it. I think it will be sometime before we pull people apart after we are just getting comfortable becoming connected.
Jabiz,
I agree with almost everything you wrote, but I also think there is something you didn’t really discuss. You mentioned that you believe in balance and I think that is essentially what the article is suggesting we don’t have. I agree that the article is surprisingly sloppy and the fact that the poll was not only subjective as you point out, but taken by a group that is in direct competition with web-based learning and that is a huge red flag.
If I had a chance to rewrite the article to make it more honest and helpful, I would drop the poll, add one where kids are asked how much time they spend social networking.
Once we have that data (which is seemingly everywhere) we could then compare it previous generations. That is where the big problems actually arise. Kids will socialize as much as they can and they generally don’t like to challenge themselves with anything academic unless they are told to by an adult. We know this, so what has changed?
I think in the 1950s, kids would come home, do their homework, then rush out to play stickball or climb trees, or whatever with their friends. They would come home at dinner (usually a few minutes late because kids love to socialize) then be essentially cut off from friends until school the next morning. They would spend the time between dinner and bed with family, with TV, with more homework, with comic books, with toys.
In the 1980s, when I was that age, the kids would come home, maybe do their HW, go out to play and come home for dinner same as the previous example. But our generation would then get on the phone and talk to their friends for hours if they could. Concerned parents would not let them have phones in their rooms, so any socializing had to occur on the phone in the kitchen where the parents were visible. Parents could then tell the child to get off the phone and finish their HW. With the exception of the very permissive parents, most kids had firm limits to how much time they could spend on the phone on a week night.
Now though, the lid has been blown off. Kids are networking from the time they wake up until the time they go to bed. During school it is F2F socializing just like the old days, but their after-school life is very different thanks to social media. I know how distracting social media can be for me when I am planning a workshop or paying bills and compared to my 15 year old self, my mind is a tranquil pond right now.
I think the mistake that EdTech people make (especially the celeb edubloggers who aren’t around kids) is that we equate a 15 year olds’ networking activity to ours. EdTech people tend to be nerds and we like to learn things, we like to read, we like to watch documentaries and watch the news. Most kids (except the nerdy ones) don’t use social networks like this. They use it to be silly, to talk about how bored they are, flirt, talk about sports, talk about movies, how they want to buy something but don’t have the money, how much they hate their parents, their school, etc– just like we did when we were 15.
Sometimes we have a Utopian view that instead of filling out “evil” worksheets where they practice calculus, they should be connecting with kids around the world who are building rockets and learn math that way. The reality is quite different, quite mundane and much less educational even if you stretch and dilute the meaning of the word “educational”. It is very different from how we grew up in that their lives are more like what ours would be like if we didn’t come home after school at all. If we left school and then hung out and socialized until midnight, we probably would, but we couldn’t get away with it then. Today, thanks to social media, kids basically do just that.
Hey George,
Thanks for a great point. I think we are very much on the same page. I hope you know me well enough to know that although I use social media for my own learning, I am, or try to be critical with it’s use for my students. I understand the need for organic in a digital world and try to balance these opposing views. I say opposing because that is how they have been painted by both sides, but I truly do see a blended world where the digital and the organic work together to help build complex human beings. People who are confident and skilled to climb Kilimanjaro, write about it, create a short film and share it with a wide of an audience as possible. Technology is good for nothing if it cannot accentuate, reflect and complement a rich organic life.
So how do we get there? You are right to say that it is wrong of us to assume kids are using social media as we do, or as we want them to/ I say it is wrong to expect them to. I hope that we can understand how they are using it, instead of saying it is wrong and trying to keep them from it. I also agree that this notion of “global flat world” ideology can often times be contrived, but I do believe that these tools and the constant connections if anchored in meaningful self-expression can have profound effects on how kids grow up.
Yes, they are using these tools to mess around and be silly and that is fine, but if I know kids they also have a need o be heard and seen and respected on their terms. What if we show them how to be beyond silly on Facebook and encourage the poet in them, or the photographer, or the scientist? You name it.
I want to help young people use social media as a platform to express their organic lives, not to escape them. It is does have to be one or the other. That is what I wish people would understand.
Anyway, great comments thanks. As for taking away a phone, you know if parents are so concerned they can just as easily take away a laptop. But I remember when I was young I would sneak the phone under the covers so I could here my girlfriend fall asleep, sometime around midnight on good nights.
Beyond the shoddy journalism (used loosely) of the article itself, I think we should really question why teacher’s feel like social networks are to blame for a perceived lack of learning (whatever that means).
I contend that many people went into teaching because they are love the model of school. They went to school from the age of 5, moved on to university, and then into a job and have never left school. These folks thrive on the schedules, hierarchies, and rules of traditional school which haven’t fundamentally changed since they were in school. Because of this it’s little wonder they feel threatened when we talk about changing the model. Social networks are one of those disruptive technologies that could fundamentally change learning (and schools).
It must be because teachers don’t use Facebook right? The funny thing is that evidence, shared by an IT director of a well-known international school, showed that teachers were using Facebook way more than students during school hours. So it’s not because they don’t understand the technology or even the value of social connection, it’s that they fail to recognize how learning can go on for their students that they don’t control.
A lot of us think that we’re so important to the process of learning that our kids won’t learn a thing without us. Ever felt guilty for taking a sick day or even went in when you shouldn’t have for fear of getting behind? Behind what? If we think of our subject as merely information rather than a learning process, one day away can be devastating. Especially since you, the teacher, are the fountain of all information.
Who are we kidding. Let’s embrace the fact that learning can and does go on without us. We need to recognize that and get out of our student’s way. That’s not to say teachers can be replaced by social networks. Our job is critical, but it’s not to channel information. Our job is to ask the right questions, give encouragement, and shine light into dark corners during inquiry.
I always feel guilty for not being there. The irony is that if we are better connected than there rarely is a time when we are not “there” where ever that may be. But having said that, I still want to emphasize how important I feel that face to face time is with student especially middle school time.
I don’t feel guilty because I think they will fall behind, but more like we are a team and they need me.
Great point Jabiz… you said “WE are a team and they need me.” But, they also need each other if it’s a true team atmosphere. I’m not saying that great teachers having F2F contact with students can/should be replaced by interactions over networks. There is no substitute for that personal contact. But, personal contact can be extended over social networks. We all know how powerful it can be when you comment on a student’s online work. It can also be very powerful when they comment on yours. The problem for us is figuring out the balance that each of us can maintain comfortably.
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If social networks are really taking up too much time and attention from our students (which is a bunch of crap really) then the smart teacher would leverage that tool, don’t you think?
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