I found the videos by Dr. Alec Couros and Michael very interesting, I learnt quite a lot. I knew that media and social network service were becoming bigger and bigger with time, but I never realized that it was to that extent. Definitely it is becoming a culture, everybody is giving themselves to that. I have always thought that social media were a hindrance to real relationships (one could have two thousands friends on Facebook but only maybe fifty real friends) but watching Alec’s video I realized that even back in the day people were always on their newspapers. So nothing much has changed, just the form of it. It is also interesting to see the advancement humans have made in the area of technology and social media, I was laughing at the part (in Alec’s video) that showed phones in the eighties because I remember my parents using things like that.
As a teacher it will be important to at least know the basics of these social networks, that way we can easily understand our students and the world they live in. By understanding some of the basics we could also prevent things such as sexting, students being harassed or hacked… In my classes as an university student I have seen a split between university teachers, some believe that technology and social media are important in a school (elementary or secondary) while others believe that it robs the kids from learning life skills. Personally I’m in between, I am for social media to an extent (group projects, homeworks, a kid is sick and therefore cannot show up but thanks to social media they can still be part…) but also I would like them to learn other skills.
Very edifying videos I would say, I am curious to see where we would be in five or ten years. I will be teaching by now, I wonder which realities will be present then.
Divin M. 