We Can't Teach Our Way Out of This: Reimagining Social Media Pedagogy as Social Change

• In Event: Technology, Instruction, Cognition and Learning SIG: Relationships Among Technology, Instruction, Cognition, and Learning

Abstract

The dominant paradigm within education involves a metaphor of educational technology that can
be described as deterministic and utopian. Current pedagogies and metaphors rooted in
cognitivist and constructivist conceptions of learning are limited by their emphasis of individual
learning, not social transformation. Moreover, educational research and pedagogy that embraces
social media for its collaborative, interactive, and connected possibilities still relies on metaphors
of learning that are ill-suited for a complex world. We propose a metaphor that views social
media as participatory is more than rebranding the centrality of tools or process-- it is a shift in
the purpose of education toward individual, social, and societal transformation in which our
languages, literacies, and identities are dependent on mutual interaction.

Authors

• Benjamin William Gleason, Iowa State University

• Marie K. Heath, Loyola University Maryland