Educating With Social Media: Policy and Practice in British Columbia

• In Event: Investigations of Wikis for Collaboration and Knowledge Building

Abstract

Two parallel studies examined the use of social media in K-12 learning contexts. Focus groups of elementary and secondary students and teachers were conducted and coherences in the ways participants use social media resources to support teaching and learning were sought. A case study of a school district’s development of social media policy with the support of a post-secondary specialist in social media was also studied. Complexity thinking was used as a transdisciplinary perspective that calls the researcher to pay attention to interactions across several levels of complexity – the learner, the classroom, the culture – i.e. policy and practice. The results will inform pedagogical, curricular and policy related decisions by stakeholders in K-12 education with regard to social media.

Authors

• Rachel F. Moll, Vancouver Island University

• Julia Hengstler, Vancouver Island University