I came into this class and was very unaware of how prominent social media activism is. I needed to look more into this to help me to better understand what it is and how it works. I found an article that gives tips on how to go beyond the hashtag.  This article breaks it down into 10 easy-to-follow steps and then breaks these steps down, even more, to help the reader understand what is meant by the step.

Now that I had a better understanding of what social activism was and how to go beyond the hashtag I needed to look into a variety of different social issues that have been promoted through a social media platform. Here is an article that is a guide to activism in the digital world. It starts by sharing a number of different social justice issues and how they were promoted through social media. It then outlines how social media can promote social justice issues and finally talks about social media strategies for nonprofit.

Originally I had thought and felt that there is a time and a place to be an activist and that maybe on social media is not the best place as your digital footprint follows you and what if you were misinformed, accidentally said something wrong, etc. now this is there for ever. I went to school at a time when we were told that you keep your private life private and that you need to be careful of what you share.

I convocated in 2006. To say that things in the tech world have change is an understatement. I have a better understanding of technology than my husband but my two boys are leaps and bounds ahead of me. I try to learn from them and am always open to learning new things as long as I can use them. Last weekend when my oldest and I were away for ball my cousin came to watch. (She is older and wiser than I am). She wanted to send a location pin to her husband so he would know exactly where we were. I had no idea how to do this and neither did she. We looked at her 12 year old son and he shook his head and said, “I already sent him one.” We then asked him to show us how to do this. (I love when the next generation gets to share their knowledge with me)

This week at school I had the privilege of having our Knowledge Keeper Lyndon Linklater come and set up a tipi with all the students in my school. The division that I work for purchased a tipi to be used between all of the schools in our division. (Holy Trinity Catholic School Division) This was not something that was done on Social Media (although we did share pictures after) but he taught our students about his culture and how although we have many similarities we are different and we need to celebrate our differences. This was an example of how the activism needed to be in person rather than over social media as it would not have been as impactful if we had our students watch a video. Six of our students were chosen to help set-up and take down the tipi. Part of a pole was given to each school in the division and all students that help with setting up the tipi will get to write their name on it. This is something that each of these students will remember for a long time. We had many members of the community asking questions about what was going on and in the future we plan on opening this up to the high school, care home and the daycare.

I know that I have fallen ‘victim’ in the past to thinking that I was doing something important that was helping a cause that I believed in on Social Media by doing this, that or the other but I didn’t do my research and in the aftermath have realized that sometimes what I had done was actually counterproductive. Since starting this course I am more aware of my presence on Social Media and what it can say about me.

Teaching the younger grades I find incorporating technology to be a bit of a challenge. I have found on my own and through my #eci831 classmates some good resources to use but know that I need to find a common ground and good balance for using these in my class. I am looking at ways to teach my students how to be good citizens and on technology use. This can be tricky as some parents don’t let their young ones on technology without them present.

I struggle with how to teach ‘Social Media Literacy’ within the classroom when I am teaching K-1. I think that I will start with these six ways and see if incorporating them in my class makes a difference. I believe that sometimes it is how we as the educators view Social Media and how comfortable we are with it.