If education is to change, perhaps we need to be the agents that set the change in motion. How do we incorporate social media into our classrooms? We know that social media is being used in businesses all over the world; however, many school districts have banned their use in school. Changes in these types of policies must occur if we are going to prepare our students for the future world of work.
In July 2009 Social Media Club launched a new project to bring education and professional communities together to develop social media curriculum in our schools. Even though the project is designed for higher education, all levels of education will benefit from their work. According to Chris Heuer, they plan to “co-create a combination of mentoring programs, internships, professional development opportunities and a repository of Creative Commons licensed Social Media curriculum.” Located at http://socialmediaclub.pbworks.com/Directory-of-Social-Media-Teachers you will find a list of colleges and universities where social media is currently being taught. Starting October 1 they plan to offer a free Social Media webinar/ teleclass. Their ultimate goal is to formally connect local social media club chapters to universities so that changes in policies can begin.
Another new resource is the Social Media Classroom and Collaboratory located at http://socialmediaclassroom.com/index.php/. It is a free and open source web service providing teachers and learners with “integrated forum, blog, wiki, chat, social bookmarking, RSS, microblogging, widgets, and video commenting tools” along with curricular materials, resource repositories and an online community of practitioners. It was initiated by Howard Rheingold and is funded by the MacArthur Foundation. The wiki is hosted at https://www.socialtext.net/medialiteracy.
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