The Social Media Disconnect in Education

Superintendent and Professor, PJ Caposey, has been dropping several one-liners that are really causing me to think and consider current circumstances from new perspectives. He made this statement as it pertains to the use of social media in the classroom, "Kids are leaving the world they are a part of at 8 a.m. and reentering it at 3 p.m., but are disconnected while they are at school." From my reflection on his statement, I feel a pressing need to do my part in making the lives of my students in and out of school more congruent. Social media persists as a daunting and pervasive tool for academic purposes, and yet without it a gregarious void forms between the educator and the educated. I certainly don't have the answers figured out just yet, but I believe that I need to begin by familiarizing myself what social media sites my students are accessing, then explore those sites and begin to use them in some capacity either to interact with students and/or for posting/discussing class assignments. It's a somewhat uncomfortable and audacious suggestion, and yet it's also critical and overdue.

It's interesting because even before Caposey offered this perspective, I had been internally wrestling with our archaic educational practices in our modern day reality. Bricks and mortar and textbooks hardly seem sufficient for unleashing the educational prowess of our students, and yet we adhere to old habits, in part because they die hard and in part because we know no other way. The time has far past come to revolutionize the academic environment, and I often fantasize about The Patch Adams of schools...I'd like to believe that not only is there a way to completely overhaul our educational infrastructure, but that I might be one of the minds at the helm of it.