A Response to Shirky's Take on Social Media

Tonight in my graduate class on Social Networking, we watched Clay Shirky's video on How Social Media Can Make History. After watching the video it really made me step back and think about how social media has changed over the past twenty years. Moreover, it made me think of how much social media will change in the next twenty years. As a middle school teacher, students are not allowed to have their cell phones turned on during school hours. I foresee the future of approaching this issue differently. With so many students having "smart phones" I think that teachers and administrators should embrace this technology and let students use it in the classroom. Students could be able to use their phones as clickers and use applications like Groupme in the classroom and even out of the classroom as students work on assignments, etc. It's a mobile chat room and the teacher can have the ability to introduce critical thinking questions that will expand learning. Overall, social media should be embraced in education and we need to incorporate the resources that are available to us now rather than trying to depress the inevitable.