We tend to see learning/ education as school buildings with teachers and students doing the same old same old ongoing for the last 100 years or so. (or longer). But like many conventional and deeply embedded practices in the US economy and government and institutions, just because we used to do it that way, does nothing to help us re-imagine how things might/ should/ could be done in today’s reality.
Social media platforms aggregate eyeballs, and impart content, in massive connectivity. Learning and Education are competing for those same eyeballs, and will of necessity adopt elements from today’s platforms to involve today’s students. What’s confusing matters is that social media platform content doesn’t look much at all like a school classroom with a teacher in control of the learning process.
But the underlying connectivity is the important takeaway…or as McLuhan preached, “The Media is the Message”. Peer-to-peer “teaching and learning” is very powerful, and retention rates peak for the content provider/ explainer, which clearly social media supports in a full variety of styles, which are still ongoing innovation.
Learning is ongoing using that media today; YouTube, for example, has video clips on everything under the sun that one might want to learn; and is constantly adding to and updating the content archive. And the content is presented in “winning ways” because the competition for views is so fierce.
Below is an Axios article on getting the most eyeballs on various platforms, and how it is done targeting different “users”, and it doesn’t really speak much about those who are not at the top of the platforms.
But they are there nonetheless. We might do well to recall that there are certain teachers who excel to the point of “stardom”, who make content come alive, and stoke enthusiasm way beyond what learning in schools typically does. It’s not a bridge too far to imagine a social media platform designed to promote access and involvement with same for massive aggregated eyeball, and peer-to-peer connectivity/ education as well.
How to hit the top on each social media platform