In today’s technology climate, with social networking in its myriad forms, the name of the game is sharing. But when does sharing in the name of generosity cross the line into oversharing?
As an educator and academic, I enjoy posting links to interesting, cutting edge articles on my Facebook page. I subscribe to dozens of blogs and Google alerts, and I often share the latest news in music, education, and music education with my social network. As an avid reader, I relish letting my various networks know about books that I have read that I feel are particularly insightful (most recently, educational historian and policymaker Diane Ravitch’s new book) or fiction that blows me away (see my regular posts on Goodreads). This kind of sharing strikes me as generosity. I want my networks to know about meaningful, interesting, insightful information or publications that I have encountered.
This blog is another way that I share. In it, I write about things that have been on my mind, and the topics range quite a bit. Some of the posts are academic in nature, while others are more reflective. I don’t really have a sense of the audience for this blog, though I do receive some feedback from people I’ve never met. So I use the blog as a forum to write about things that are on my mind, in various categories.
[By the way, I have been asked to contribute to the Boston Conservatory website beginning this fall as a regular blogger. That forum will give me the opportunity to write about what is going on in the Music Education Department and in the Boston Conservatory Program for Students on the Autism Spectrum. I am excited about this new blog opportunity – I will post here to let folks know when it begins.]
And, of course, my status updates and other posts on Facebook (I have not yet succumbed to Twitter, though I am thinking about it) are yet another way of sharing. For me, that form of sharing is definitely sanitized. My Facebook friends list includes friends from all areas and times of my life, professional contacts, colleagues, students, and former students. I make sure to post only those updates and pieces of content that are appropriate for such a wide audience. The very first thing that is on my mind may not be what I post in a status update. First I stop and think – would it be appropriate for everyone in my friends list to know that this is on my mind at this moment? – and if the answer is no, I go to the second thing that is on my mind, and sometimes even to the third.
Recently, Andrew Garcia, a Facebook friend of mine, who happens to be a professional contact, was interviewed about social media and teaching. In the interview, he talks about this culture of sharing – the fact that social media make it possible for us to share information with a wide range of people in new ways. What a wonderful set of tools for educators at all levels! Create web-based bookmarks on various topics for your students to use as resources. Broadcast important web-based information to your class with just a few clicks. Teach your students to create their own web pages, wikis, podcasts, online portfolios, and other vehicles for sharing their work and their learning processes with each other and with you.
This is the positive side of the sharing culture. But it has its negative side, as well, and that is where I become concerned.
First, how well do we consider the source when we share? There is no truth-tester for the internet. There is a great deal of unreliable information and material online. How can we teach students to evaluate critically the information that they receive from any source? How can we help them to become discerning consumers of information? Our students – hell, all of us – may need to develop new skill sets to make sense of our information encounters.
And then there’s the issue of documenting sources. Because social media make it possible for people to share information so quickly and so freely, we often do so without crediting the source of the information. And this can cross the line into plagiarism. What new frameworks do we need to help our students to use to think carefully about documenting the sources of the information that they share?
Finally, and we’ve all seen instances of this, sometimes inappropriate material/posts are shared publicly on social networking sites. In today’s world, this can be costly in many ways. We have all heard stories about times when online posts have interfered with someone’s professional life, either in a job interview situation or in some other way. This is where we need to do a better job teaching people a sense of boundaries for their sharing. How do we help people use social networking sites appropriately, and how can we make sure that people define what is appropriate in ways that will not be harmful to themselves or others?
So while social media create tremendous possibilities for us in a number of ways, they also create new ways of thinking about information, sharing, and responsibility. And this may be the next challenge for educators. And the next opportunity for us to think creatively about the new skills and ways of thinking that we need to develop in the 21st century.
