Social Media and Education – CNBloggerCon 2008 Guangzhou

Social Learning in Theory and Practice

Speaker: Jean Chow, aka. GoldRed

Learning and Educating Through Social Media: “Sustained-improvement process” through socialization of education 基于过程持续改进的社会化

Using social media in education to meet the changing needs in education:
Students become creative and expressive through social media
Promotes communication between educators and students

Successful case of social media in education:
In Zhejiang, primary school students are asked to write blog posts about their favorite places. They also use Haokanbu to share photos and write commentary.

Students’ reaction:
A lot of enthusiasm for their homework; they show initiative and creativity. They take their work seriously and respect their own work.

Teachers’ reaction:
Observed that students who did not use to be very expressive, became expressive through use of social media.
Evaluation of their work becomes dynamic, open, and more realistic. Teaching process becomes more coherent.

Using Google groups and Google code for teachers and students to communicate.
These online tools provide a platform for teachers to communicate within themselves, to give feedback on lesson plans, and also to get feedback from students about the assignments. Communication becomes multilateral and the teaching process can be critiqued every step along the way. This is what the speaker means by “sustained-improvement process” in education.