Posted on Wednesday, 27th January 2010 by Moncrief
Teaching Weapon: SMS Text
The American Superpower has created a brand new weapon, SMS text. To my knowledge, this was not created from a Pentagon design, but rather the ever-emerging evolution of social media. Ever since Neil Papworth, an engineer with Airwide Solutions sent a simple text message, “Merry Christmas” on December 3, 1992—this weapon of TEXT messaging has been refined. Over the past week, the American Superpower has leveraged this weapon to raise millions of dollars for our brothers and sisters in Haiti.
You see, the individual becomes a collective power through new media. We saw this power in the 2008 Presidential election and we can see it in the Red Cross text message donation campaign. It is a mechanism to connect and impact “the crowd” without ever assembling. If CROWDSOURCING, as the keynote speaker experiment that ISTE performed for their 2010 Conference in Denver works, how could the power of this medium be a tool in education?
Sure, education can use it to text announcements and updates on school closings. On a rare-snow day in North Carolina, might I receive a text message rather than a call from the Science teacher who has me on in the “Phone Tree list?” Absolutely! However, these solutions are just the beginning!
The real power is in students molding my teaching by the feedback they provide to me. Can that feedback happen in seconds and have less than 140 characters? Sure! There are tons of tools to do this (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc) and many educators are beginning to do this. However, are we creating these “crowds” of Learners with our students?
Twenty years ago, a teacher might put a suggestion box in their room and periodically get a pulse to drive instruction. Ten years ago, a school district might analyze a parent/student survey sent home on a bubble sheet to influence their strategic plan. Five years ago, students might email an expert to get a quote for a research paper. One year ago, my students posted and answered technical questions through a Discussion Board. Two months ago, I began subscribing to these discussion boards so that it was sent via email to my mobile device. One week ago, I wished that I could reply faster to my students question at 3 am in the morning. One day ago, I answered the 3 am question. Tomorrow, I hope that I can text that student right back.
Immediacy, is an element of the “crowd source”—Can it be worth 140 characters? Could texting make our students “smarter” and more productive? It may just be a weapon that we need to point in our direction.
Posted in 21st Century Education, Technology in Education
Comments (2)
February 4th, 2010 at 8:22 am
Nice blog. I got a lot of great info. I’ve been keeping an eye on this technology for awhile. It’s interesting how it keeps changing, yet some of the core components stay the same. Have you seen much change since Google made their latest acquisition in the domain?
February 6th, 2010 at 9:58 am
Certainly Google is a major player! I think that the largest issue is competition in educational resources. The divide between the corporate and education world is falling down. This brings a greater sense of community to the table. For years, these partnerships (between Corporate America and Education) have been “we support eachother.” Now, with this divide coming to and end, I believe that you are going to see a relevancy in our educational materials that is connected with current trends. I imagine that NASA would be able to update a science curriculum with a touch of a button when a new discovery is made. A relevant curriculum?