Social Media, the Internet, and Schools...

My Personal and Organizational leadership class (Grad student in Native American Leadership at SEOSU) tasked me with discussing an issue or situation where “a decision” had to be made and what leadership it took to bring about this change. It got me thinking about the tremendous impact social media and the internet has had on how we do school. I’ve lamented before, my generation began school with Big Chief tablets and ended with laptops and wireless devices. Students today have wireless devices and are internet fluent before they enter school. Our digital native student population does things alot differently because of this.

There is definite and valid concern for such a radical alteration to how we do school but if we are going to remain relevant we have to be recognized in the culture as relevant. We cannot expect what we have always done to work for these situations.

I came to the realization I didn't want to stop learning, and it has been an interesting journey that has helped me personally and professionally, in a number of ways.

I like looking for the positives, and one of the things I have found is social media in general, and twitter in particular has made me a better writer. Let me explain, brevity is the currency of twitter. You have to care about each letter, not just each word. It is the epitome of Edgar Allen Poe’s rules for a short story. Everything has to count.

If you haven’t noticed I have the immeasurable gift of saying (or typing) words. I’m from the school of thought that if you only used 4 words when you could’ve used 10, you just weren’t trying hard enough. Having a good focus when I am writing is critical. Otherwise there are worlds of rabbit holes I can go down (just ask anyone who has to listens to my stories…). Keeping focused on a singular message or few main points allows me for more specific investigation and analysis. I’ve often found myself prior to sitting down to write, perusing a number of people I follow on twitter to get into the mental minimalist mindset I have to have in order to focus.

My experience on twitter has created an even more accepting nature to cultural and linguistic change. For instance, I am a real big fan of this. But I still have an “accent” when it comes to this new language. To this day I still cannot abbreviate in text and email communications. Terms like LOL, BRB, IDK, LMAO, ROFL are weird and awkward to me. And they make my teeth hurt. And because of this there was a period of time I all but embraced my digital death. I remember xanga.com MySpace.com (yeah its still around, I was surprised too) and of course, Facebook. I was mostly done after that. The decision was mostly out of comfort and laziness. I didn’t want to learn anything new.

However, as I waded back into the cultural and social/restorative justice issues, as part of my academic and professional career, it all but demanded I grow with the times. If I wanted to know what issues were happening with social movements across the country I was not going to get any information from my TV or any mainstream media outlet. Egypt is one of several countries that have shown the power of effective social media usage. And we have seen it in social movements within this country. I’ve jumped into Twitter. If you haven’t as a teacher you should, if only for the #oklaed encouragement. I’ve even been know to send back an LOL every now and then (it is still painful, but characters count).

                                

#BlackLivesMatter has changed the focus of discussion and has brought about awareness, reconciliation, and healing opportunities. Our own #oklaed helps connect teachers across the state with ideas, plans, and encouragement. Whether it is rallying for causes or provoking revolution, the ability to connect, communicate, and act via social media makes those movements mobile, efficient, and almost omnipresent. And we are fools if we voluntarily sit out these chances at engagement. It means we have to get out of our comfort zone and try new things. We make the kids do it every day, shouldn’t we do it too? Finding the comfortable discomfort zone is key.

These are chances we have to do good things. We should take as much advantage as possible. And of course if you’re curious you can follow me on Twitter @MrWilliamsRm110.

Where I think we should start...

While I am not long on solutions I do have ideas that could create activity and lead to solutions. My political nature has been hinted at in earlier posts. I do not pretend to be an expert in any way but I have seen what can and cannot work. Unfortunately, the easy stuff (complaining, name-calling, blaming, etc…), aside from sometimes making our egos feel a bit better, ultimately produce few results.

In order to produce effective change we have to do more. Voting isn’t enough anymore. Thomas Jefferson spoke of what he envisioned as the “office of citizen”. Here are some of his quotes on the subject. As teachers and members of our communities we have a responsibility to do this and to teach this. Regardless of the discipline, our goal as teachers should be to facilitate this growth within our students.

Some of this is a complete re-hash and I totally understand that. Teachers have been organizing and fighting for their students and their profession decades before I was born. I do have some deep roots in the culture as you can see from the photos.

       

I have to say I rocked that yellow poncho with my mother and thousands of other teachers, students, parents, principals, and community leaders, as we marched at the state capitol for the passage of HB 1017. The remnants of that political era are all but gone. The problems we intended to fix are still around, and in many cases worse.

For much wiser commentary on the fiscal, administrative, and legislative side of these issues I will ALWAYS defer to those who understand it much better than I. I would be remiss if I didn’t direct any readers of this towards their counsel as well. Between Rob Miller, Rick Cobb and Claudia Swisher, The matters are very well covered and I cannot thank them enough for their work.

As for the ideas, well, I’ve always got some of those. I want to propose something. As teachers, parents, and citizens, the legislators in Oklahoma City are our servants. Their responsibility is to ensure our state government is operating, and the people of Oklahoma are served by their government. This is not an easy order, and I do not want to pretend their job is simple. But there are times it seems like they forget we are a part of their constituency. This is somewhat our fault as we have become complacent and are just “too busy” to pay attention. We have to re-engage and remind those that have forgotten what our profession means to this state and its future.

It begins with simple actions. Everyone in the state of Oklahoma can go here, type in your address and find your State Legislator. You have two, get to know about them, then get to know them. They have emails, postal addresses and phone numbers. Use them. Get to know them personally and professionally. Don’t ambush them in an attempt to create a “gotcha” moment, take the time to make time. Show them how important this is by making an appointment or sending a personal communication. This isn’t easy, but it’s what we are going to have to do.

This can’t just be teachers either. Parents, students, grandparents, neighbors, business leaders (they want smart employees, I would think) can all help out here. We have engaged students and parents. Let’s get them involved. Ask them for their help. This is something they all can do and it is remarkably simple.

If you have a personal relationship with any of your state legislators, please make them aware of how personal and important education is. We are not a lobby that can influence with money but we can with numbers. I know many of us have already done this, but we have to keep at it.  

We have to make an effort with everyone, never underestimate the power of personal stories and relationships.  Session starts in a month or so, take a few minutes to start the process. This is one thing WE ALL can do, so let’s take the opportunity and make some new friends…