Back to School: Social and Video Media in Education Offer a Snapshot of Future Tools

Posted on Jun 10, 2012 in Social Video, Views You Can Use | 0 comments

Editor’s Note: Bryan Kaminsky is a recent college grad with a degree in Communications. His goal is a career in Education and he is a certified elementary and middle school teacher working as a substitute in search of a full-time opportunity. Meanwhile, I asked him to teach us about the role video and social media play in today’s and tomorrow’s classrooms. Please enjoy, comment on and share Bryan’s post and click here to contact him directly. Thanks! – Larry Thomas 

By Bryan Kaminsky

What does the future of business communications look like?

The answer isn’t down the hall in your conference room or the next AE’s cubicle. It’s at school.

That’s because today’s students are tomorrow’s hires—and the tools they use both in school and in their daily lives are the tools your future employees and clients will be using.

So, exactly what does social and video media look like in today’s classroom? Luckily for you, I know firsthand. Here’s my take:

YouTube Is Everywhere

In the past decade, the use of social and media technology in education has expanded. In the past, a teacher may have used a tape recorder or CD player for students to experience a sample of music or speech, or a film on VHS to view a film adaptation or documentary related to the coursework.

Although these are still used sometimes, there are more tools educators are using now that people in business at large—and veteran communications or marketing professionals more specifically—had better learn to master.

With video media Web sites such as YouTube, showing a scene from a speech or documentary becomes as easy as typing a few words and being a few clicks away, and more teachers are implementing this to visually aid in their lessons.  

With the development of high definition video and digital restoration to film, it seems more likely that video media will be used more in the classroom to illustrate class lessons.

Online Forums, Blogs and Wikis Are Increasingly the Norm

In college, some professors use online forums for students to discuss the course work on and ask questions; some even require a certain number of posts per topic. Additionally, in college and some secondary institutions, professors often require contributions to semester or unit blogs and wikis to provoke more thought on the lesson content.

While I was a student in college, I had to write blogs for three courses. Similarly, I had to use online forums for four classes—and my classmates and I had to create and contribute to a class wiki in another. More than half the professors used at least one online video in the curriculum as well in courses specific to my major.

Website Creation and Hosting Is De Rigueur

In my studies in educational pedagogy and teaching methods, there was a course devoted to implementing technology in the classroom. This class covered the media mentioned above, as well as some school-specific technology like overhead projectors and SMART Boards. The class also covered website creation.

One of our assignments was to use a hosting website to create a unit plan. The professor asked for video media and links to other sites for students to do further research and reading to be included.  This assignment was given for future educators to think about how to implement technology into future class units and lessons, since newer technology allowed for more varied instruction approaches.

More teachers and school districts are using websites for missed assignments to be posted. They are also used to post and provide worksheets or PDF files for reading assignments. Supplemental class material is also posted to websites, and often includes images and video. Some of the sites even offer a section for the sharing of pictures and videos of class events or trips—which is about as “social media” as it gets.

In the twenty-first century, social and technological media has grown more common in education and continues to grow with the development of new technology.  If you’re not sure what’s next in tech and social media—including which tools you and your teams can use to be more effective and collaborative online—then just ask a student. They don’t call us digital natives for nothing!

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About the Author: Bryan is a recent graduate of Ramapo College of New Jersey with a degree in Communications. He also has teaching certifications in elementary education and middle school language arts. While at Ramapo Bryan was a columnist and copy editor of the school newspaper and also hosted a weekly radio show that was simulcast on the internet.  Click Here to read more about him and his style of teaching.