I’d say it’s essential reading for anyone who wants to both understand the importance of integrating social media technologies with education, but also the fundamental requirement of a paradigm shift in how the learning process is approached, or as you call it, “a new learning ecology.”

Many of these thoughts are exactly inline with a concept I’m developing, which at the moment I’m calling “metathinking.” (http://emergentbydesign.com/2009/11/15/a-metathinking-manifesto/) In essence, it’s calling for “a new thinking ecology”, so your paper will actually be helpful as I develop my ideas.

I’m definitely going to include this paper on an upcoming blog post I’m writing, which will be a list of resources for educators to understand the importance of social media and a guide to which tools to use and how/why.

I did jot down a few notes of things that stuck out for me from the paper, and I’ll just share those:

- “…we know that simply having access to information and tools does not necessarily mean that the access will result in teaching and learning outcomes.

That’s an argument the naysayers are quick to use as a reason NOT to integrate social media, so I think it’s important and intelligent that it was acknowledged as a challenge right up front.

- “One might assume that schools inherently are learning organizations, but as we know, they are often structured in ways that inhibit collaboration and innovation.”

It’s impressive that, as educators, you acknowledged this fact. It’s frightening to think of the implications of what will happen when “collaboration and innovation” are recognized as some of the most essential 21st century skills for students to learn in able to be able to function in the knowledge economy, and the schools aren’t facilitating it.

- “destabilization of information and knowledge is a critical factor within the contemporary learning environment”

Another crucial point, and one that institutions are generally resisting. Handing over information is like handing over power.

- “no one person possessess all the skills and knowledge needed to function within the new ecology”

This ties in nicely with my thoughts that social networks are actually a collectively intelligent entity, and each of us is a node in that net. Because of the increase in the flow of information in our lives, we need to chew on ideas with our networks, which are extensions of our own brains. On Twitter, we post a link to something we’re reading, and it gets retweeted and talked about. Conversations happen around the information, in real time.

- “teachers empower students to rely on the ubiquitous availability of technology to search and acquire information, critically evaluate information, creatively synthesize information, and generate innovative ideas and products as well as craft solutions to problems”

- “teachers must have highly-developed capacities for faciliatation, improvisation, coaching, and consultation.”

- “….a paradigm shift from knowledge as didactically transferable content to knowledge as socially processed and constructed.”

All three of these statement highlight the role of “teacher as curator”, an emerging trend in the evolving role of educators in an information economy.

- “performance-based assessment is sometimes characterized as evaluating work in real life”

This statement was very powerful for me, and totally caused a snowcrash. I’m going to spend some time exploring the new connection.

I really enjoyed the diagram of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy as well, which was drawn as a pyramid where the fundamental skill of “remember”was replaced with “create”.

Over all, I think it was a great outline of the challenges we’re facing, along with a solid set of strategies to implement in order to face them.

Thank you for sharing it!

I think the issue that Emily raises through danah’s talk points to the importance of good PD models for teachers, in addition to teachers being intentional about developing an informed approach to integrating new literacies, emerging technologies, and social media into the classroom. They have to be literate about social media themselves, and they have to help students develop critical media literacy with regard to the tools they are using inside and outside of school.

The following link is to a paper I co-authored with colleagues earlier this year entitled, Toward a New Learning Ecology: Teaching and Learning in 1:1 Environments: http://bit.ly/4Ci3WE. Given the conversation above, you and your readers might find it interesting. I’d definitely be interested in your thoughts, and those of your readers. Thanks!

Here’s one of the relevant sections. (The whole talk is a good read though!):

“Social network sites are not like email where it doesn’t matter if you’re on Hotmail or Yahoo. Teens who use MySpace can’t communicate with those on Facebook and vice-versa. So if you don’t participate, you’re written out of the story. This means that divisions are re-inforced. Forget all of the rhetoric about how the Internet is the great equalizer – it’s the great reproducer of inequality.

More importantly, I’ve listened as many of you have talked about doing things on Facebook because “everyone” is on Facebook. What about those who aren’t? What happens to students who enter this university only ever having known MySpace? Are there differences in skills that need to be taken into account? What about familiarity and networks? What happens at school when everyone has been using Facebook for years except you?

More problematically, I’ve heard many of you talk about using Facebook directly in the classroom. And I’ve heard you talk about recruiting through Facebook. What kinds of assumptions are you making? Are you aware of these issues?

Understanding this issue is more complicated than I can express in a 45 minute talk but I encourage all of you to check out my writings on this topic because I think it’s a pretty significant issue that many of you aren’t accounting for. (See Chapter 5 of my dissertation at http://www.danah.org/papers/TakenOutOfContext.pdf). “