Social Media—A Space to Learn

Abstract

The Ministry of Education’s (MOE) third master plan for information and communication technology (ICT) in Education (2009–2014) has the vision to enrich and transform the learning environments of our students. The plan aims to allow students to develop competencies for self-directed and collaborative learning through the effective use of ICT as well as to become discerning and responsible ICT users (Ministry of Education, Singapore, 2013). As geography educators in schools, we have limited classroom interaction with our students. We have to conduct tests and sacrifice lesson time for camps, public holidays and school events. It is a challenge for geography educators to conduct inquiries in class, as he or she has to balance between covering the syllabus and engaging students in discussions. One way to overcome the challenge of time is through the use of ICT to engage students beyond the classroom space. By using social media like Facebook and Wordpress , geography educators and students now have an opportunity to continue their discussions beyond the classroom and develop competencies for self-directed learning. In addition to the use of ICT, there is a possibility of redefining the concept of a classroom as it can now be seen not only as a physical space limited by structural walls. Thus, ICT affordance allows geography educators to radically expand classroom space and time through immersive experience brought into the classroom through videos and extending learning beyond scheduled time. Moreover, the use of ICT has also redefined the concept of teaching as information dissemination to the cultivation of skills, values and attitudes for a lifelong process of learning. This chapter aims to explore how one geographer educator uses social media to engage her students and identify challenges that the use of ICT might bring. She has conducted a field inquiry on River Studies with students using Wordpress as a platform to share background reading, constructing knowledge and reflections (see http://seriesess4.wordpress.com/). She will share with readers the problems, pitfalls and possibilities that geographers using this method will encounter. An analysis of the reflections posted on the site by students will be used first to see if attitude and mindset point towards self-directed learning. A pretest and a posttest were conducted to evaluate student performance so as to examine the effectiveness of using ICT to engender deep learning.