Why teachers should be on social media

In the book The Future of the Curriculum: School Knowledge in the Digital Age (Free PDF Download), author Ben Williamson talks of the need for curricular reform that’s a result of

“new and constantly changing technologies, accompanied by complex, long waves of social and technological change in the economic, political, and cultural dimensions of existence.”

Yet, we seem to be forming curriculum for long durations, even when we are aware that it will require reform. The days of traditional centralised curriculum sent down for relay, by teachers, have long outlived their time. Students have more options, perhaps more interesting options to consume, than the content-centric curriculum. Our every day is characterised by more connectedness, fierce engagement and distributed activities. These times have a significant impact on the role of the teacher; it is changing fast and we need to support teachers to take charge. Else, we face the risk of a clueless generation in society tomorrow; a gross mismatch of what’s needed and what’s available. Education has to outrun, not keep pace, with technological and social innovation.

Surely, a practical educational policy, supportive physical and human infrastructure, and other reforms will help, but these will necessarily be slow implementations due to the very nature of the institutions responsible for them. In the chain of education delivery, the teacher is the most flexible and adaptable link, and thankfully, it’s at the open end of the chain. There has to be sharp focus on enabling this link. And while institutional interventions must (and may) do this, teachers need to get a head start.

Join social networks

There are many reasons why teachers must be engaged in social networks, here are the five simplest ones:

1. To be aware and informed

It is an unfortunate feature of our educational system that teachers are reduced to being only a delivery vehicle of the curriculum without providing any means for the teacher to contextualise the curriculum. Very few teachers attend trade fairs, small-duration awareness courses, seminars, and exhibitions that are related to their disciplines. That’s where participation and engagement in social networks comes in. You have access to the information, facts, and opinions regarding events around the world. If we are to consider

“teachers as creative curriculum actors rather than merely its relays,”

we will need teachers to build a comprehensive knowledge of their own understanding of their world. Engagement with experts, organisations, think-tanks, and their peers is invaluable, if teachers are to participate actively in executing the curriculum.

2. To interact with teachers worldwide

Are problems best understood by those who are facing them and are they best resolved by those who have overcome them? Peer-interaction is one of the best means for teachers to discuss, debate, engage on the issues that they face. This community is well-suited to help organise and discover solutions that are not prescriptive, but participative. While curricula, syllabi, and teaching methods may differ around the world, teachers worldwide face issues that are common in concept and similar in nature. Engagement with other teachers provides for a friendly, informal, and non-authoritarian discourse and an exchange of ideas. Ideas, which are usually better than canned answers.

3. To understand students better

It is no more a secret that students are more exposed to the world around them than their teachers. India has the largest percentage of 15-24 year-old population within the BRICS nations. This exposure happens through consumption of mass media and interactions in social media. Boundaries of this interaction are blurred and go across conventional lines. What students are consuming, creating and sharing is critical information for teachers to help contextualise what happens in the classroom. And though it is not a bad idea, this does not necessarily imply a direct engagement with students on social media. An insight into how your students (or young people in general) see and respond to the world outside the confines of a classroom is an invaluable pedagogical component for a teacher and helps set a creative and collaborative stage in the classroom.

4. To voice themselves

In the larger context of issues related to the curriculum mentioned above, teachers need to be heard. What teachers have to say, about and beyond the curriculum, is a voice that society needs to hear and respond to. Sitting in a remote village, a brilliant idea or an important problem is unheard because of the lack of a medium to convey it. The world may be under the assumption that schools need books, perhaps they need lab equipment? Unreliable delivery of a message was a factor of the traditional medium. That’s not the case today. Social media is easy to use, accessible and affordable. More importantly, direct and independent.

5. To participate and contribute

As the teacher’s role moves away from plain dissemination to creative contribution, the best way for teachers to let others know about it is through social media. Some abstraction is useful in policy-making. Who better than a teacher to describe the ground realities? Participation in discussions on policy issues, contribution of best-practices (or just plain experiences for other to build on), helping parents do their part better in out-of-class situations, are just a few of the ways how teachers can reclaim their rightful place in the education ecosystem. 

A small end-note for teachers still sceptical of social networks. Facebook and Twitter are only two examples of social networks. Their popularity and their general use, unfortunately has made them synonymous with social media. The good uses of these two networks are little known. Also, there are many interesting, topical and relevant social networks that can be a teacher’s very good friend.

The author, in FOTC, says, “The curriculum of the future is not “out there” waiting to be discovered, but must be imagined and constructed.” This rediscovery, reimagination, and reconstruction has to be done by the teachers, in their classroom for that set of students. 

Discoveries and inventions in science and technology, new interpretations and understanding in arts and humanities, and crises and upheavals in society and culture place a demand on an active and dynamic curriculum. Teachers will have to lead in managing this demand and we will have to support them.

The author is an education and technology consultant and founder of eVeltio. He works with schools and teachers to help improve performance and develop creative classrooms.