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.
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