Week 12 Blog #1: On Collaborative Learning Through Social Media

I feel one of the ongoing issues in higher education that we face today is the attempted individualistic, divided nature of work. The idea of "my work" comes before the thought of "our work". In life, nothing can be done without using the foundational precedents that are already in place. When we craft a research paper, we use sources. When we solve a physics or statistics problem, we utilize the earlier formulas and theories derived by those in the field. When we seek to create a product, we take bits and pieces of the prior art that came before our finished product. Yet from the beginning of our academic careers, we're taught to be individualistic, to showcase our thoughts and ideas as wholly independent from the thoughts and ideas of others.

One of the reasons I enjoyed this class was the fact that Professor Lavian attempted to break through this form of learning that had been instilled in our minds for so long. When comparing my earlier work in the semester to the blog posts and YouTube videos I produce now, I credit my improvement to collaborative nature of this class through social media. The beauty and value of social media exists in its ability for individuals to clearly convey their opinions and thoughts in an engaging matter. I don't know if this applies to all in the class, but for me, I took the comments I received on both my blog posts and YouTube videos quite seriously. How I convey my thoughts and how others perceive the quality of this ability are two components I truly sought to understand through this social media activity. I would take all the feedback from my peers, whether it concerned the volume of my speech in the videos or my inability to properly go more in depth on my opinion concerning certain components of my posts, and attempt to structure my work more so to their liking and opinions.

I found the value of learning through social media to be astounding because of for the first time, I could quickly find out how to improve not only the learning experience of others, but the learning experience of my own self. The succinct, concise nature of social media keeps individuals engaged and really helps make points clear in a manner that differs from the traditional, obtuse form of learning we have become so accustomed to throughout the years. My opinions, thoughts, and ideas were influenced by my peers and I really felt that social media connected all of us in a way that it took the larger concepts that we were studying and broke it down to the point where we could all collaboratively form a pool of ideas and pick and match what ideas best fit along with our ideologies. It would be wonderful if a greater number of professors utilized this form of learning as for the first time, I felt I could ask my peers to see their own opinions and meld these thoughts with my own to create stronger arguments. In classes where concepts can be tricky and sometimes not as clear to understand, I think this form of collaborative learning through social media really helps breaking down obtuse concepts and allowing for students to thrive not as individuals, but as a group. But the way to truly make this a constructive concept requires students to truly buy into this initiative. In this class, I know as a group we were all fortunate enough to see so many students focused and engaged in their blogs and videos that really assisted everyone in terms of their learning. That is how this initiative can succeed. When students provide constructive, critical commentary that provides debates, that causes disagreements, and brings to light new ideas others had not come up with before is how collaborative learning through social media can succeed. Right now we have the tools, but as students and lecturers, we have to truly buy in to make these tools work.