Creativity Resurrected: Social Media in Education
At a recent conference in the desert known as Las Vegas, I was fortunate enough to hear the words of a fantastic mind and brilliant speaker, Sir Ken Robinson. I have to admit, keynote speakers are sometimes my least favorite part of any gathering. As a “Gen Y” I much prefer a dialogue and interactivity over sitting still and listening only. However, Sir Ken had me hooked from moment one. His bio and TED talks should show you why.
During his moments on stage, Sir Ken elaborated beautifully on some of his ideas regarding education in America. No surprise here: he’s concerned that the system is failing. One of the points during his talk was that education often inadvertently squashes creativity, a critical element of humanity that has helped us survive and reinvent ourselves throughout history. As an educator myself, this was cause for pause. How can I be a part of education’s shift back to cultivating innovative thinking, doing, and being? Turning inward, I reflected on characteristics of creative climates I have experienced thus far. Two traits emerged: highly collaborative and boundary-less. Thinking as an educator, I added a caveat: needs to operate on a “low to no” budget. So, I need to create opportunities to collaborate, without boundaries, at almost no cost. Well, it should come as no surprise that my mind went immediately to social media. Let’s break down that sentence and put some social in it.
1.) Opportunities to collaborate…
Google+ Hangouts are a fantastic example of social media providing ways to collaborate.
Where in social media are there such spaces? Plenty. Immediately, I think of Google+ Hangouts for synchronous video conversations with screen sharing capabilities, Twitter tweetchats to gather people in a live discussion, LinkedIn & Facebook groups for asynchronous conversations, and even a co-authored blog (this one is fine example if I do say so myself).
2.) … without boundaries…
Social media is famous for being boundary-less. I can think of numerous examples myself, but here’s a quick story outside of higher ed that I really just love, first for the connection made and second for the topic: Greek culture (and food). A friend was recently telling me about a Greek Festival she was helping plan locally in New Jersey. One of her big pushes was to get this festival on social media, namely Twitter. ”How much could a Greek Festival say about itself on Twitter?” you wonder. Well, 3 Greek Sisters from Canada found the festival quite interesting, and, with a recently published Greek cookbook they’re hoping to sell in the American market, they found the festival on Twitter and are now flying in for the event to give live cooking demos. Believe it.
Here’s the official Twitter bio from the Twitter homepage of the Opa Greek Festival.
And here are the tweets from the 3 Greek Sisters talking about their upcoming events, including a stop at the Opa Greek Festival. The connection was made all via Twitter.
3.) …at almost no cost.
Google+ Hangouts? Free. LinkedIn groups? Free. Facebook groups? Free. Twitter tweetchats? Free. I could go on, but you’re getting the picture.
To me, it’s clear. Social media has the power to resurrect creativity in education, higher education, and really everywhere. How are you harnessing its power in your life and work? Give us goosebumps and tell us in the comments.
By Kevin
Great post Kevin! I too was fortunate to listen to Sir Ken Robinson’s words at the 2012 NACE conference. His words provided great insight into higher education and its current situation. How does our univesity harness the power of social media? Well, we’re currently exploring the option of creating a Pintrest page for our students that will allow them to demonstrate their “qualifications” for career services purposes, while simulataneously allowing them to connect (and like you said ), colloborate with others across the country for professional development and employment opportunities. We’ve also extended workshops virtually so that students can attend on their schedule. We hope these iniatives will help students as they move in, through, and out of college. Again, great post! I”m looking forward to hearing other creative ideas.
Thanks for your comment, Michael! Glad you enjoyed this post and Sir Ken’s talk as well. I’d love to know how your virtual workshops are working for students, as I am considering platforms for doing the same thing myself. Let’s get connected on LinkedIn or Twitter and keep the conversation moving there.
Again, thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts. We look forward to hearing more great ideas from you and all of our readers.
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As always, excellent post! Sir Ken’s talk was very thought-provoking! I feel fortunate to be able to be creative in my work everyday–whether in my career or through my many volunteer efforts! Thanks for mentioning the example of my parish’s Greek Festival and our use of social media! We have a link to your blog in our’s as well. ~Eva
Thanks for the link back, Eva. Great story and great work from you, so, very easy to feature something outstanding like this in a post. Loved your blog entry and I’m really trying to make it to the Greek Festival. Baklava awaits!
“Great post” from me too Kevin! Plus a big thanks for helping a newbie like me with your posts…
I see Greeks are social in New Jersey, but here, in Greece, social media in Education seem quite new, as universities are now starting to use Facebook and Twitter to post their updates. Hopefully creativity will be resurrected soon here too…
Thanks for your comment, Ioanna! Glad you enjoyed this read. Here’s hoping social media can bring great things to the Greek education system. Would love to hear more of your perspective on the blog – it’s always fascinating to know how different countries are embracing social in their work. So, what I’m saying is, please comment more in the future!
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