הכלי לחינוך, או החינוך לכלי?

The challenge I think, is to educationally consider the culture being recorded in these mediascapes, in such a way so as to ask let alone answer more than the obvious questions. The obvious (and pointless) questions are “how can we use these tools to do what we’re doing more effectively?” Questions like this miss the bigger issue. In depth engagement with social media seems to lead many educators to the question, “is what I am doing even relevant anymore? what is my new relationship to this culture – if it becomes dominant in my society?” Journalism has asked itself, the entertainment industry has asked itself, the retail sector has itself, the government arena is asking itself, why not the education sector? So far, too few of us are asking these questions, fewer still are exploring answers.

We (inside the institutions) need to go into social media and networked spaces to find out how it works and what our relationship to it might be. This means having an account on Wikipedia, Youtube, Slideshare, Twitter, uStream and Blogger or WordPress and engaging with the networks there and at least finding a synergy.

From a management perspective we should stop setting up internal systems that duplicate these cultural mediascapes, and sidetrack our engagement by catering to irrelevant institutional concerns. If the only reason you’re using a Learning Management System is to easily manage assessment and feedback, then you’re not asking a relevant question. If you haven’t stopped to think if an “ePortfilio” service isn’t already being offered in the “gift economy” market, then you’re not asking if there is even a need beyond our institutional assessment methods. Is there really any benefit to having an internal blogging system beyond brand awareness? Same for a social networking system, or a wiki etc? What do we gain by having our own small and inadequate versions of the wider space?