Learning science with social media

[dhilipkumar]

Learning science with social media

One of the best sessions I attended at ScienceOnline 09 was one moderated by a group of high school students, who graciously explained to the audience how they use technology to learn, and how they feel about getting science news.

After finishing up moderating the session I co-chaired with Jonathan, we went our separate ways at the conference. I went to the conference with a mind to learn about various science outreach programs, and how scientists/engineers can share their knowledge with people from all different backgrounds and educational levels. Earlier this year, a survey found that a large fraction of US teens had an interest in, and felt prepared for, a career in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) field, yet many never followed this dream due to lack of a mentor (stay tuned to Ars for more on this in the upcoming weeks). Understanding how teens and young adults perceive and digest scientific knowledge is of key importance and thankfully, one of the next sessions was right up this alley.

The session was officially titled "Science online—middle/high school perspective," and it was moderated by Ms. Stacy Baker, a high school biology teacher at a private school in Maryland, and nine of her students. While the session began with Ms. Baker discussing how she has utilized web technologies such as Twitter and the social networking site Ning to facilitate communication among her and the students, it was really the kids themselves who made this session great.

The students openly discussed how they see and use new web based technologies to further their education. One of the big surprises was how they use Twitter to help studying. Personally, I have yet to really see the usefulness of Twitter, but I am so far behind in the online social networking race that this isn't really surprising—I only got a Facebook account this week! The students, however, opened my eyes to their ingenious way of leveraging Twitter as an open-ended class discussion www.itacumens.com.

Ms. Baker has set up a private Twitter group, populated only by the students in her class. Using this feed, they were able to communicate with each other while doing their homework or studying for an exam. When one person was confused on a topic, they could rely on the brain power of the remainder of their classmates to help them figure it out. Since the feed was overseen by their teacher, she could step in if no peer help was forthcoming and offer educational insights well past standard school hours—to me it seemed akin to a brilliant, 24 hour session of office hours, one where an immediate answer is not required.

The students also talked about their use of the site Ning.com, which is a sort of make-your-own social network site. This allowed the students and teachers to create a private place for the classroom to exist on-line. One recurring difficulty that Ms. Baker pointed out was that many schools simply block all social networking tools and sites on the school's network, which makes leveraging the technologies difficult. It seems the combination of a school willing to exercise restraint in its blocking policies and a teacher who is engaged allows for an extra dimension to be added to the classroom. It was mentioned that the site EdTechTalk was a useful resource for teachers who wanted to try and bring some of these technologies into their classrooms.

The students were asked both if they were interested in, and how they learned about, current scientific ideas and research. They all expressed their interest in learning about the cutting edge of what is happening in a variety of fields; however, they said that this information is often difficult to come by. In fact, if one doesn't have an institutional subscription to a variety of journals, this is definitely difficult. The student all said that if the research from the forefront of science is brought to their attention, then they will happily try to digest it.

When I asked the student panel how they felt about pursuing a career in a STEM field, and whether having someone by their side to answer general questions would help, they responded in the affirmative. It was easy to see that their teacher has inspired them to pursue education and science. As someone who was fortunate to have a quartet of high school teachers pushing and inspiring me, I understand how lucky these students were to have someone like Ms. Baker at the head of their class.


arstechnica.com