Effective teaching in the age of Social Media: When you think you already know the answer
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Social media is easy to hate. I certainly do. I have seen some of the absolute worst behavior imaginable on multiple platforms. I have seen the emotional toll it takes on my students, and I have seen how hopelessly addicted they still are to it. I have seen the effect of someone receiving thousands of likes, and the inevitable spiral they take as the new posts don't receive the same attention. I have seen the eagerness to engage in online arguments, and I have watched relationships destroyed because of those arguments. Unfortunately, most online and social media arguments do not follow the framework of good argumentative writing. As a result, as Turner & Hicks (2017) point out, "Individuals often respond emotionally to what they read in social networks, posting, or reposting without critically analyzing the argument being made. (p.104). For example:
Obviously, this post will elicit a very emotional response, and for good reason. We are in the midst of dealing with mass shootings, many of which occur in schools. We have also seen social unrest as the result of people of color being disproportionately killed by police, even when unarmed. Even if , as in the case of Philando Castille, the victim clearly states that they are lawfully carrying a firearm, and present no risk, they are still killed. Obviously this post regarding new rules around teachers being armed in schools was specifically designed to elicit that type of response.
I am not here to argue the content of the post or its validity. The issue is that it leads to no further analysis of data, and immediately shuts down dialogue or investigation. This feeds into the confirmation bias that Turner &Hicks (2017) also discuss as an obstacle. All students, and even adults fall into the trap of confirmation bias, and social media only limits the inputs we receive that could even combat it. Derek Mueller explores this idea beautifully in a video I shared with my students every year since I discovered it.
As Zhou & Shen (2021) point out, this confirmation bias becomes more extreme through social media for exactly the reason of limiting your inputs to carefully curated social media feeds. In their study they found that research subjects views on climate change became even more polarized after exposure to inputs that aligned with their current views, as one would expect. It reminds me of a post that went viral some time ago.
While I applaud the empathy that this was intended to promote, the truth is that one of them is wrong, but neither of them has the information necessary to claim correctness. It is, in fact, either a 6 or a 9, the problem is neither person seems to know who created the image, so without additional details it's a bit of a Schrodinger's cat situation.
All of this validates and verifies our need to effectively teach our students how to engage in writing and receiving social media content. This is where I see Turner &Hicks (2017) MINDFUL practice coming in to play. Whether we like it or not, social media platforms, or some other variation of online content will continue to use information or misinformation in a way that does not necessarily serve the greater good. This will be a risk from here forward, and our students need the best from us to combat this. They deserve our best now, because we will need their best eventually.
References:
Turner, K. H., & Hicks, T. (2017). Argument in the real world: Teaching adolescents to read and write digital texts. Heinemann.
Zhou, Y., & Shen, L. (2021). Confirmation bias and the persistence of misinformation on climate change. Communication Research, 49(4), 500–523. https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502211028049
Stephen, Your last statement of "they deserve our best now, because we will need their best eventually" is so true! Especially with how technology just continues to increase today and immerse the younger population, we need them to recognize the responsibility they hold when using devices and posting to social media platforms. I am often shocked at some things that I see and read on social media, and sometimes don't even realize the emotional effect that the arguments can have on me. Like stated in Argument in the Real World, "often we don't recognize that the simple act of sharing information itself makes a claim, positioning us in certain ways" (Turner & Hicks, 2017, p.104). There is a need for us to show our students to effectively engage and argue on these platforms.
References: Turner, K. H., & Hicks, T. (2017). Argument in the Real World: Teaching adolescents to read and write digital texts. Heinemann.
Stephen, I love that video, and I am stealing it to share with my own students. It really does illustrate the idea of confirmation bias so well; as I went along with the people in the video, I realized I too was limiting myself to confirming what I thought was the rule rather than testing what could be false. That same type of thinking is pervasive online. I am specifically thinking of where Turner and Hicks (2017) note that "people share within like-minded communities, creating 'echo-chambers' that feed 'confirmation bias'" (p.105). When you combine that tendency to surround ourselves with those who are like-minded with the social media algorithms that feed us information that also confirm what we think, it is a dangerous thing. Social media algorithms also really strengthen that bias tremendously. Barnhart (2021) explains, "by default, social media algorithms take the reins of determining which content to deliver to you based on your behavior" (Section 2). I think in addition to teaching our students about confirmation bias, we need to delve also into the subject of these algorithms so that our students understand the additional impact of their behavior online as well.
References Barnhart, B. (2021). Everything you need to know about social media algorithms. Sprout Social. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-algorithms/
Turner, K.H., and Hicks, T. (2017). Teaching adolescents to read and write digital texts: Argument in the real world. Heinemann.
When I think about the difficulties of teaching now versus when I was a student, the greatest challenge is the availability of information. When I was a child, getting information was the difficult part of school. If I could explain, or demonstrate, or even just retell information, it meant that I had learned the skill of finding information, and processing it. This might take weeks of searching through a card catalog, microfiche, periodicals, and encyclopedias. If information was out there, it was almost assuredly good information because not everyone could become a publisher, editor, content creator (I'm not sure this title even existed then) like they can today. I graduated high school before Google existed, and if you had a burning question you needed answering you either called your smartest friend, or you called Foy Student Union at Auburn University because the folks operating that phone bank were required to give you an answer. I can still remember the sort of jingle we ca
When trying to figure out how to reach a broader audience, but with a specific message, it can sometimes be very difficult to accomplish within a shortened timeframe. Either you have to build an audience with broad topics, and eventually retain that audience for the detailed messaging, or create niche content that eventually gathers enough followers to make a larger impact. Check out this video to see how we can potentially increase our impact, while providing the best information available, in a timely manner all while engaging the audience in a way that they may never have been approached yet. While an educator may only focus specifically on fact-based arguments, knowing the audience may reveal other tactics as well. As Turner & Hicks (2017) point out, students "might also consider expanding the kinds of evidence they include, either with voice-overs or text, to bolster their argument. At the same time, though, we might consider the students' strong audience awareness;
Stephen,
ReplyDeleteYour last statement of "they deserve our best now, because we will need their best eventually" is so true! Especially with how technology just continues to increase today and immerse the younger population, we need them to recognize the responsibility they hold when using devices and posting to social media platforms. I am often shocked at some things that I see and read on social media, and sometimes don't even realize the emotional effect that the arguments can have on me. Like stated in Argument in the Real World, "often we don't recognize that the simple act of sharing information itself makes a claim, positioning us in certain ways" (Turner & Hicks, 2017, p.104). There is a need for us to show our students to effectively engage and argue on these platforms.
References:
Turner, K. H., & Hicks, T. (2017). Argument in the Real World: Teaching adolescents to read and write digital texts. Heinemann.
Stephen,
ReplyDeleteI love that video, and I am stealing it to share with my own students. It really does illustrate the idea of confirmation bias so well; as I went along with the people in the video, I realized I too was limiting myself to confirming what I thought was the rule rather than testing what could be false. That same type of thinking is pervasive online. I am specifically thinking of where Turner and Hicks (2017) note that "people share within like-minded communities, creating 'echo-chambers' that feed 'confirmation bias'" (p.105). When you combine that tendency to surround ourselves with those who are like-minded with the social media algorithms that feed us information that also confirm what we think, it is a dangerous thing. Social media algorithms also really strengthen that bias tremendously. Barnhart (2021) explains, "by default, social media algorithms take the reins of determining which content to deliver to you based on your behavior" (Section 2). I think in addition to teaching our students about confirmation bias, we need to delve also into the subject of these algorithms so that our students understand the additional impact of their behavior online as well.
References
Barnhart, B. (2021). Everything you need to know about social media algorithms. Sprout Social. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-algorithms/
Turner, K.H., and Hicks, T. (2017). Teaching adolescents to read and write digital texts: Argument in the real world. Heinemann.