Posts Tagged ‘social networking’

Are you skipping school?

March 17th, 2010

A few weeks ago, I was talking to a college professor who was bemoaning the lack of initiative by students.  If I understood correctly, his main point was that students today lacked the motivation to apply what they were being taught.  I’ve known and respected this professor for a long time, and I value his insights.  But at the same time, I couldn’t help but wonder if the Internet and social media were changing how young people learn and that the problem was an institutional and pedagogical problem, rather than student problem. 

The above conversation was still fresh in my mind this morning when I stumbled across a video production titled “Re-Imaging Learning in the 21st Century”  (thanks for sharing @kristinwolff).  A production of the MacArthur Foundation, the video described some of the key findings the foundation has discovered about education through their Digital Media and Learning Initiative. 

 

By nature, I’m attracted to anything that talks about “reimagining” the future, but I found value in how the video simplified the complex issues surrounding how technology has impacted learning. 

As the video highlights, the Digital Media and Learning Initiative seeks to build a new vision for education based on the following three core principles:

I particularly like this last principle - learning from networks rather than from institutions.  It’s how I learn today.  Rather than attend a place or institution to learn, I reach out to my network - particularly my online network. 

Twitter, Facebook, and the ReImagine Rural blog enable me to connect to people who: share valuable resources with me, help pick me up when I’m down, and offer insights on ideas and projects that I am passionate about.  It makes my lifelong learning more relevant, social, and interesting. 

Like everyone, I sometimes get bogged down in the grind of work, and I feel that I don’t have time to participate in my social networks.  What I’ve come to learn, however, is that it’s sort of like skipping school, and the quality of my work suffers. 

This realization has caused me to wonder: how many other rural community leaders are skipping school by not taking advantage of the opportunities created by networking?

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Posted in Community Development, Rural | Comments (0)

The Twittering Farmer

July 3rd, 2009

We often assume that Twitter is a “Gen Y thing” and that rural places haven’t gotten into the social media craze.  But a CNN article titled “Twittering from the tractor” provides a glimpse of how some Midwest Farmers are embracing technology. 

So what’s the value Twitter and other social networking tools offer farmers?  The article discusses some knowledge sharing applications currently being used by farmers, but I think the article captures the real value these technologies offer people in rural places with the following:

The biggest draw of smartphones and online social networks is that they provide human connections to people for whom farm life can be lonely, said Chuck Zimmerman, publisher of an agriculture news blog called agwired.com.

Yes, farmers are social creatures.  That’s why rural community cafés are often filled with farmers who come to town each morning for a cup of coffee.  I’m not sure that the majority of farmers are going to embrace this type of communication, but we’ll probably see more of it in the future. 

And let’s keep in mind, nobody tweets without broadband internet, and blackberries are a waste of money if the closest cell tower is 45 miles away.  Those are real issues limiting technology’s use in some rural communities.

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Posted in Agriculture, Community Development, Quality of Life, Rural | Comments (0)

Will Social Networking make “place” more important?

May 28th, 2009

Last week I raised the question; Will Gen Y, with their infatuation for on-line social networking tools, ruin how people develop a sense of belonging to a community?  Today, I’d like to share a story suggesting that social networking is actually contributing to an increased desire for local.

Titled “Demographic trends now favor downtown,” the article traces the growing demand for retail space in downtown settings and its connection to the “buy local” movement. 

 

Besides offering the economic causes driving people to the downtown setting, the article identifies how on-line computer activities contribute to the importance of place:

Humans are social beings, and all the time we spend at our computers makes us, if anything, even hungrier for real-world interactions. The Internet, paradoxically, is making place even more important. Marrying great online services with appealing real-world presence will be the secret to success for many a company. So pay attention to where you are and to where your community is going.

If we are hungry for face-to-face interaction, and if a sense of place will become more important for businesses, does it not suggest an opportunity for small rural communities?  After all, isn’t “being real” inherent in most small rural communities? 

But it also begs the question, what are we doing to take advantage of this growing sentiment?  If we are not thoughtful and willing to take action, this opportunity may slip through our fingers. 

Note:  Readers may also be interested in knowing that I discovered this article through the Main Street Mitchell and Beyond’s Facebook page .  It pays to be a part of a social network.

Photo Source:  Jordan MacDonald/Flickr (photo of facades in downtown Broken Arrow, OK)

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Posted in Economic Development, In the News, Rural | Comments (0)