How Virtual Classrooms Impact Education

Learning has taken on an altogether new meaning and approach with virtual classrooms or, as I often call it, distance education in real-time avatar. Skype, Youtube, Schooltube and a plethora of other learning tools today is helping classrooms move towards creating a global education community.

How?

Consider this- a school in the United States that is learning about say, Mahatma Gandhi, logs onto Skype in the Classroom and connects to a class in Mumbai that is studying about the freedom struggle. Not only are they exposed to information that is perhaps more authentic, both the students and the teacher can pose their questions to their learning partners here in India and receive immediate response.

You can also connect through sites such as Classle.net to share and engage students in group activities just as on Facebook or Twitter, providing a safe virtual environment for children to learn.

Virtual classrooms such as this can help create a web of educational interconnectedness that can only make the students smarter.

Why?

Because students participating in a virtual classroom not only increase observational power and acute understanding of things, they are motivated to actively seek out information online then hunting through a big fat encyclopedia. It makes learning fun. Period.

A virtual classroom doesn’t take away from the effectiveness of the physical classroom. If anything, it only makes it more fun and adds to the lecture. Play a pre-recorded video of the day’s session. Pause the video if a student has a question and get back to session without losing enthusiasm or your train of thought. You can then use the rest of the class time for activity, worksheets or exercises relating to the subject.

I wish…

That schools here in India upgrade their systems to include virtual education. We don’t have the concept of a field trip in this country. It’s too much money spent and too much responsibility for the teacher. Which is why virtual field trips can do really well here. Imagine the entire fifth grade of a school in Pune visiting the Niagara Falls without budging from their seats. It certainly would make subjects like Geography a little more engaging, don’t you think?

                                                                     

Digital Learning- Youtube in Classrooms

Growing up in the 90’s, there weren’t a lot of audio visual aids in schools to supplement learning. Educational videos played on the VCR were restricted to nursery rhymes and basic counting.

Cut to the present- Youtube makes a grand entry into classrooms giving students access to a plethora of information from around the world.
Take Youtube Edu for instance. It hosts hundreds of videos from several universities that include lectures, research and speeches by world famous personalities. Often online lectures are part of the university coursework and one can gain access to such material from leading institutions like Stanford, MIT or the Indian Institute of Technology.

Teachers too seem to find it a great way to further explain a subject. Youtube for Schools draws material from Youtube Edu, giving access to school teachers to create educational playlists. Children can watch these videos minus the distraction of cartoons, music or adult content unsuitable for their age. Teachers can also save plenty of search time on Youtube Teachers where educational videos are segregated according to subject and grade levels. By streamlining what children can view online, it provides a safe and vibrant learning atmosphere.

One may record a math or science lecture and upload it on Youtube for the students to review at a later time. If you’re learning about say the ancient Harappa or Greek civilization, a video can help explain better than a textbook. Even those who may not otherwise fare well have been found to respond better to audio visual content and do better than before. You could also prescribe videos for students to watch at home and use the time in school to answer doubts and questions. Whether it’s Show and Tell, class presentations or even guest lectures- Youtube is a creative, fun way to learn. And best of all, it’s free.

I wonder though how feasible this movement would be in India where basic infrastructure needs to catch up let alone internet access in every class. Although a few select schools might be taking baby steps towards a digitized classroom, do you think such a model would work well in the Indian context?

How social media can educate the educators?

A recent report by the government of India education ministry on how the teachers in primary school need to go back to school to continue their education. This was true particularly in subjects such as sciences and mathematics where there have been frequent advances and the teachers have not been able to keep up.

I believe that continuing education series is important for all professionals, whether they are doctors, architects or even teachers. But how can one design a system that achieves the dual purposes of not having to disrupt the normal schedule of a teacher at the same time help him keep up with the advances in his professions?
Social networks could have the answer to that.

In my previous post I have discussed how a group of physicians from France had formed a group on Google Plus to discuss cases and promote education among the peer group by mutual learning. Every week they met using the closed group and sometime even connected face to face using the hangout application. A similar exercise was conducted by the Physicians from Spain to prepare for US MLE examinations.
Now for the educators this is what I believe would work. A bunch of educators for a closed group on Google Plus. The educator’s would forma logical cohort say high school physics teachers. They can use this network to share new teaching methodologies or sharing the latest advances.

All it requires is a mobile device which can run applications for social networks. That way the movement can spread even to semi urban and rural area teachers.

So I want to know your opinion can Social Media be used to educate the educators? If yes then what model would work best? What are the challenges and how can they be overcome. I would welcome your views on the same.

Why collaborative education model needs social networks?

Recently in a stunning announcement Atos, the European consulting firm announced that they would be moving away from corporate emails. So in the next three years Atos would officially sunset its email clients across its global locations.

I do remember my days as a B-school student where most of my time was spent mailing reports and research reports across my study group. I remember that I did almost 20-30 mails a day to the same set of people.

Collaborative efforts like research do require a lot of information exchange among members of the group. As this exchange is in the form of huge documents e-mail was the chosen form of transfer. But those were the days before the advent of social networks.

Connecting - Young Users via Social Media V/s
Older users via Email

Today our Toastmasters club uses Facebook extensively to transfer documents like training materials and members list across the club. All a member has to do is to log into the Facebook page of the club to access all materials.

Again these documents are regularly updated with the latest training material and any additions there of. A similar approach is developing across research organizations who prefer to use their internal social network tools to good effect.

But I personally feel that we have not not even scratched the surface. I would like to hear from you, as to how things have changed in the research and collaboration field due to advent of social media?

Social Media Education - A thought!

Last week Wednesday we had our first Twitter chat on “Is Education ready to embrace Social Media” and I must confess I was quite amazed with the kind of response that we received. Honestly I was under the impression that this idea would face a lot of inertia and that people from the Academic world would not be willing to accept this change.

But the actual reality was at exact 180degrees. People really want to use Social Media as an easily & readily available Learning Management or a Content Management tool. But then I was stuck on what’s stopping them. Now this was a billion dollar question, and just like any billion dollar question this had a simple logical answer but a complex execution algorithm (talk of complexity of simplicity).

What I learnt during the Twitter Chat (FYI - look for hash-tag #TSP_EduForum, it’s an acronym for TheSocialPeople Education Forum) is that there seems like there is general agreement among social media users/evangelists/consultants that education is crucial. However social media education can be quite vast and can pretty much mean anything. It's like trying to teach someone to be a mechanic in a few days or even a few hours, there's a lot to learn. The challenge is keeping the learning community up-to-date on those latest tools/tactics/strategies.

As you know social media is a very dynamic in nature and what you learn today might change tomorrow. So if we keep seeing new tools/techniques/strategies emerging almost daily, how to we create and administer social media training programs? My answer, focus on the core of social media principles or global best practices. Here are the main topics I would consider (I'm going to leave a few out because I'm more interested in what you have to say):

1. High level Social Media Strategy (This I feel is the most important and vital topic. Wrong strategy and you or your idea is doomed.
2. Identification of the right social media tools/platforms that suites your need
3. How to identify existing social media communities (or create new ones if needed)
4. Social Media measurement or metrics.
5. Understanding how to monitor social media and respond to sentiments shared by users\
6. Benefits/value of social media and risks of social media with effect exit mechanism, just in case.
7. Resources needed to succeed in social media
8. Case studies/examples/results of social media campaigns

So here I have listed 8 high level topics that make up a part of what I consider the Social Media Education core. Instead of focusing social media education efforts on details (that will change quickly) I think it would be much more valuable to focus on applications that are relatively constant to rephrase this more scientifically, strategize and use media that is evolving rather than mutating. I would also strongly advice that the herculean tasks of planning and strategizing details can be left to the experts who are implementing the actual strategy or to the consultants that are advising the company.

Do you agree with me? What other topics would you add to the Social Media Education Core?

For those of you who would like be a part of our Twitter Chat, it happens every Wednesday at 10AM Indian Standard Time. Don't forget to hash-tag - #TSP_EduForum.

Can Social Media find a place in the Classroom? (Research)

Growing number of Educators say a “Yes” – says a research!

The post, “Can Social Media ever have an Academic Purpose”, is one of the most consistently viewed article on this blog. Similarly, “Why the Education sector is keen to adopt Social Media?”, resulted in the 2nd most trafficked day here this month. While Facebook and Twitter are both hugely popular Internet tools, I still find myself a little surprised by the popularity of these posts, considering the academic perspective of we - TheSocialPeople. Upon a general research online amongst the Academic community, I learnt that many teachers, even those at online universities, are hesitant to use such popular tools, given their inherent risk of exposing students to inappropriate content.

Of course these are two very different types of tools, but they both have their place in the social networking sphere. Facebook’s place is at the top of the heap (as of this writing it is the second most popular site on the Internet, right behind Google), while Twitter defined the genre of “micro blogging” (but much of its use is also in a social networking context).

It appears that Twitter is more widely used in the classroom, based on the volume of articles on this topic that I have come across during my online research. One obvious reason for this difference is that Facebook is limited to ages 13 and over, while Twitter has no age restrictions. Facebook is also more likely to be restricted on school networks. Perhaps if teachers were more aware of how a Facebook page and profiles can be configured to provide an appropriate level of privacy for course work, they (and school administrators) might be more open to considering its use (more on that below). Of course, there are also other educational scenarios that lend themselves more readily to a tool like Facebook, such as online universities and online courses.

Here are a few of the examples of Facebook playing a productive role in the classroom that I have come across. I will be doing a detailed case study about the use of popular social networking applications in the classroom and will discuss examples like these, and others that I learn about on this blog in the coming months:

·         Professor Gideon Burton’s work with Facebook: I first learned about Professor Burton during a random search on Facebook on “Social Media Education” where I ended up on a profile of a student where she commented, 

“In my British Literary History course last winter semester, my professor created a class Facebook group which we all joined.  We’d finish our reading for class and then get online and write a paragraph about what we’d read, focusing our comments on the specific course aims that my professor had created for the class.  We would then go to class where my professor would note the ways in which we’d covered the material well and he’d teach anything we missed as well as anything else he wanted us to know.” 

This was definitely a lovely insight on how a simple initiative and lead to an effective collaborative learning environment. It really justifies my statement I always habitually quote in context to this – “A tool is after all just a tool, the real person to blame is the person who chooses to use it or abuse it.

Click here to visit a Facebook discussion group for one of Professor Burton’s Early British Lit classes.

·         University of South Florida teacher uses Facebook in class: I recently came across this article about USF graduate student Alessandro Cesarano, who teaches a Beginning Spanish class, and uses Facebook for homework assignments and class discussions in lieu of Blackboard. Cesarano is seen quoting that he likes the Facebook page better than Blackboard because students have more access to authentic cultural material, and so it saves him a lot of time that otherwise he had to invest to train people on how to use the Learning tool.

·         Facebook has recently launched a “Groups at [University Name]” feature as an initiative to promote a highly collaborative learning environment amongst the Educational Institutions. This article explains on how this feature works and also disproves a lot of accusations on Facebook that it is a major distraction in the pursuit of a Learning tool. Honestly I am really excited to look at this feature to be rolled out to more schools and other communities.

Below is the snap shot of my comment that I couldn’t help put up on the trail and it’s corresponding comment:

On the whole the prospect of Social Media and Education eventually going hand-in-hand is no longer a matter of choice. From the data that I see, IT IS THE FUTURE. It’s just the matter of time that people start accepting it. So the real question here is not whether Social Media can/cannot be an ideal learning platform; I guess a choice on this is already made globally and the real question is on “HOW to make Social Media an ideal learning platform. I would be writing on this in my blog in the near future. 


To conclude - like any great idea even this one (Social Media collaborating with Education) has to go through all the 3 laws of Newton – Inertia, Momentum & Friction!

I’m really excited to see the day when Learning becomes Social in every way, global networking will be the essence of learning rather than limiting it to 4 walls, projects & assignment would be done & rated globally and over all to the day when there'll no illiteracy on the face of this planet.

[InfoGraphic] Social Media in Education Sector as of Today!!

Can Social Media ever have an Academic Purpose?

I still remember the days back when I was in school & the teacher would pass out handouts & fliers  These fliers contained information on school events, fundraisers and other important events. Then came the internet in the late 90’s. It was wholeheartedly adopted by Academic institutions and it changed the way they communicate. Search Engine friendly websites and online knowledge database came into being thanks to Google. Exam results, grades and other important announcements were shared on the websites or via emails or via SMS.

Today we’re in the world of web2.0 where the World Wide Web has gone beyond just content sharing. It has now become personal by enabling collaboration and networking. With powerful Social Networking Sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Orkut that enable Sharing of videos & content, publishing of research, knowledge sharing and community discussion, It is my belief that Social Media is an ideal platform for Education Sector to adopt.

To further justify this belief, a simple fact that while I am writing this article there are about 9.2 million Facebook users that are between the age group of 13-23 years which makes it the largest group on Facebook that dominates about 40% of total users.

I guess this simple statistic with the fact that the Social Media Landscape today is all equipped to serve as a powerful tool for collaboration and what could soon become the greatest educational instrument ever created.

Problems with Technology in The Education System

When I first started reading into the problems educational institutes have had with technology in the past, much of it seemed to revolve around the misuse of technological tools by the teachers, the students or the administration.

For example, academic administrators fear that by having computers in the classroom, students will be tempted to play games, instant message with their friends, or even look at pornography instead of paying attention to the instructions that are being given in the classroom.

While these fears may sound a little absurd to someone like me who knows how to use these new technological tools appropriately, the fears and concerns expressed above are founded in reality.

That being said, most (if not all) of these cases were created because of an error made by a person – not a machine! The tools are not the problem. The people are the problem.

How Social Media Should Be Used For Education and Community Outreach?

That being said, I think social media, the Internet and technology in general is giving schools an incredible opportunity to communicate with their parents, teachers, and students in a way that has never been done in the past.

The fact of the matter is, the way we communicate and interact with the people around us is becoming ever more transparent. The worlds between work and play are colliding. The lines between business and personal are being crossed and the way things were done in the past won’t be possible in the future – unless, of course, you disconnect yourself from the grid entirely.

If our education system is ever going to catch up with the rest of society and jump on board the Web 2.0 bandwagon, we’ve got to change the way we think about technology in our classrooms and in our community. We can no longer view the Internet as something for the home, because it isn’t!

I honestly believe that if these new online technologies were used appropriately in the classroom, students could learn more on the Internet in a matter of weeks than they could learn in a traditional classroom in a matter of years. The trick to this progression in thinking and learning, however, is an appropriate use and understanding of how the Internet and the new social medial tools are meant to be used.

Why the Education sector is keen to adopt Social Media?

(Image source: edweek.org)
According to a recent Gartner report, Education seems to be a early adopter of social media. In fact it stands second to only media in the social media adoption. The findings are not surprising considering that most people below the age of 25 are very active on social media.

In the UK many school children are said to discussing their homework assignments on Facebook. Facebook is actually very popular across age groups but sees the highest activity in the 15-30 age group. many educational institutions have taken advantage of this trend and are heavily connecting with prospective students through their pages.

Harvard University for example has more than 1 million likes on their page on Facebook. They also are present on other social networks including You tube, twitter, Google +, Flick, Stumpleupon and Four Square.
One actually take a virtual tour of Harvard through an app which can be used on any smart phone.

In Spain many medical students are using Facebook to discuss medical cases. They have actually formed a closed group in which cases are uploaded along with diagnostic charts and radio graphs and cases discussed. This group is actually helping the students to prepare for examinations like the US MLE.

Many self help channels on You Tube have also been created. One such channel that I subscribe to is the David Lloyd Tennis school. They have excellent videos on important aspects of tennis like Serve and volley and I use them constant to improve aspects of my game.

I would like to hear your views, What else can be achieved through social media? Can the quality of education be improved by using social networks? How can consulting firms help in educators developing their social media blue print? I would like to hear your views on this topic.