Our Blog: where do you stand?

Exploring Social Media in Schools

By: Marijean Jaggers | 12/12/2007

I participated in a panel discussion today at CATEC, the technical education center for the Charlottesville/Albemarle region in Virginia. CATEC Director Darah Bonham gathered to the table local bloggers, social networkers, podcasters and education administrators to open the discussion of how we integrate social media into secondary education curriculum. Darah recapped the meeting nicely in a post on the CATEC blog.

I imagine that conversations like these are taking place in school districts across the country as educators, along with every other industry, begin adapting the tools of social media (blogs, online video, MP3s, wikis, social networks, etc.) to meet their needs and goals. One goal of today's meeting was to identify the skills and tools that need to be taught to help our students enter the workforce well-equipped, confident and above all, employable.

While the group had varying ideas about how to get there, we all seemed in agreement that the core skills of good writing, informed reading, the ability to formulate sound judgement, well-developed research capability and problem-solving are the basis for successful use of social media tools, and a necessary base for any curriculum that includes them.

CATEC is interested in what educators, employers, parents and students think about the topic. Leave a comment on the CATEC blog and share your thoughts.

Posted in Social Media, Digital Communications