Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts

Monday, 18 May 2015

Gradual Release

Lasting learning in school often involves the gradual release of responsibility which flows from:
Explicit instruction ---> teacher and student using new learning together ---> students using new learning together ---> student using new learning independently.


In the process of reflecting on my own classroom use of this process, I started thinking about social media. All kinds of people use social media and there is a wide range of fluency among users of each medium. How many users of social media have had the opportunity to be instructed with a gradual release of responsibility? What kind mistakes and miscommunications could be avoided with more gradual release?

I'm not suggesting that the "teacher" has to be a school teacher, but certainly school is a logical place for some basic citizenship and literacy training, and social media are undeniably part of both of those categories. Such instruction would need to include knowledge, skills/strategies, and attitudes/habits. Perhaps activities like a school hashtag or student/staff/volunteer/teacher shared use of a school social media account would be part of the learning and practice. What do you think?