The Integrated Classroom and the Role of the Educator
by Mike Woodside
Social media has changed the world. When an educator or trainer envisions how to create a unique and effective way to help people learn, social media has become a means to communicate and collaborate with ease. A solid social learning environment within an organization is created mostly by how effective that company uses social media sites to help create that environment.
For a company to provide an effective social learning environment, it is most important to understand each platform and how they can be used for communication and collaboration. The second most important strategy is to create a policy around social media use; every person needs to completely understand the expectations around proper and responsible use. Once those two have been determined, the organization can then move into implementation. The best strategy of an effective social learning environment is to give each person the ability to communicate, collaborate, and partner with ease and effectiveness that will engage and encourage them to continue to grow.
Social Learning through Social Media
Social Media is defined as websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking. When taking that definition and putting it into simple terms, it is collaborating with peers through an online network community – simple as that. It is an important component of social learning because of the collaboration and peer to peer interaction. As a teacher or trainer, it is important to be able to work with peers and learn from one another through several forms of communication.
As social media is used by organizations to further develop their employees, it is important to fully understand the different platforms and how effective each of those can be. It can help create a culture of inclusion and collaboration. Social media is an ever growing platform of communication. It is instantaneous and gives companies like ours the ability to reach people all over the world. The use of social media has grown exponentially. There is now a 1.5 billion-strong user force, potentially offering an economic value of more than $900 billion. Yet the organizational absorption of certain medium norms appears to be lagging. One of the key reasons for sluggish social strategies is the lack of understanding of basic elements of the medium that lends itself to appropriate usage and the avoidance of reputation loss (Shah, 2018).
Accountability to key to success in any aspect of life. Once a person is able to reflect on things that worked and ways to improve, they are fully able to make the necessary changes. As an organization grows, they must adopt a social media policy to ensure the responsible use by all employees and the organization themselves. Employees are always a reflection of that organization and must behave as if they are always being watched. A common misconception is that online posts can be deleted or only certain people will be able to read an article because it may be set to “private” but this is rarely the case. By adopting a social media policy, an organization give specific expectations and ground rules on proper usage. Before a company launches a social learning platform, it is important for all employees to be trained on proper use and what the expectation is for the platform. Typically, social learning sites are created to further develop or give employees the opportunity to collaborate with one another. The old saying stays true to online and personal reputations – perception is reality.
Benefits and Improvements
As an organization continues to use social media to further develop their employees, they are also creating new relationships within their team. When an employee is able to collaborate and brainstorm with another person, ideas become reality. This not only helps improve production but it also builds an engaged culture. When organizations use social media for professional development the right way, it can be the most effective training tool there is. A perfect example is video sources. These types of sources are just as important as using a picture or quote to illustrate a point. Video sources can be a great tool for trainers to help simplify or distinguish a difference in how something is done. It can also be used to show how important safety is to a company.
This video by SafetyCare gives a great example on how an online video might be best used for training employees of a company who consistently handle materials that could somehow injure a person if not handled correctly. The video enhances the learning process because the person watching the video is visually seeing a person in motion, completing the act while the trainer is explaining either what to or not to do. This visual gives the learner the ability to see and react the same way they were trained. This would not be as effective if that learner was reading from a book attempting to figure out what a step by step explanation might be intending.
Along with the improvements that social media has on a culture within a company, the biggest benefit of creating a social learning environment is that when used correctly, an organization can rely on social media to help train through collaboration because the team is so engaged in development that they use specific platforms to train one another. Now, along with the benefits, this raises some challenges as if there is a lot of collaboration, it is sometimes not what the organization deems to be appropriate or necessary.
The biggest challenge is how to ensure every person is going to use the platform provided responsibly and properly. The same mentality must stay true for recruiters as well. It is common practice for employers toscrutinize candidates pre- and post-interview and to inspect potential candidates through social media. According to Jobvite, 55% percent of recruiters have negatively reconsidered a candidate based on their social profile (Willow, 2018).
The strategy of creating a social learning environment as part of the overall training and development improves knowledge and relationships simply through collaboration and communication. The number 1 complaint in every company is that there is not enough communication. When a social learning environment is created and based on collaboration and communication, the team is then enthralled with ensuring its success. When you create a culture of communication and include a social learning environment, you are giving the reigns to the team to focus on team development and training.
Conclusion
Social learning has created new and innovative ways for organizations to grow and further develop their employees. It is no longer a training conference where a speaker speaks to an audience for three straight days. It is interactive. It is interesting. It is true learning by trainers who can be creative and develop skills through social media sites and platforms. Organizations created social learning strategies and policies based on what type of development and expectations they have for their employees. Strategies that create collaborative cultures where employees can learn from one another, develop techniques that can be adopted by managers, and communicate in ways that were not available. Communication and collaboration have become the new training technique adopted by organizations because it works and continuously encourages people to grow and develop.
References
SafetyCare (2010, August 11). Manual Handling Safety – Workplace Safety Materials Handling Training – Safetycare free preview [Video file]. Retrieved from YouTube website:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22SBe-jt6dg
Shah, N. R., & Jha, S. K. (2018). Exploring Organisational Understanding of Foundational
Pillars of Social Media: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Social Media Policies of
Technology Companies. Journal of Management Research (09725814), 18(4), 226– 245. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx direct=true&AuthType=shib&db=bth&AN=1329 68635&site=eds-live&scope=site
Willow, R. A. 1. willow004@gannon. ed., Tobin, D. tobin001@gannon. ed., Chong, W. Y. 1. chong002@knights. gannon. ed., Jeffery, A. jeffery003@knights. gannon. ed., & Strohmeyer, D. (2018). A Social Media Policy for Clinical Mental Health Counseling Programs. Journal of Counselor Preparation & Supervision, 11(2), 1–24. Retrieved from
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspxdirect=true&AuthType=shib&db=eue&AN=136572109&site=eds-live&scope=site
The Integrated Classroom and the Role of the Educator 