I’m glad that there is quite a lot of movement from educators interested in social media. For example, Alex Ragone over at edSocialMedia, in addition to all the usual suspects. Unfortunately, the academic world of research is lagging far behind the “real world”. This lag is a good and bad thing. Good because my dissertation, which will be on how high school students use social networking sites and its effects on their academic outcomes, will be a much needed study. Bad, because our scholarly knowledge is far behind what the true educators/innovators in on the front lines are experiencing everyday.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking real hard about why this “social media” thing matters to students. When you think about it, it’s a bit difficult to nail down a good reason for linking social media to education, but I’ll take a stab at a few. This video about the “networked student” offers a compelling framework. In short, the connectivism idea suggests that technological tools like social media help students embed themselves within a wider network of information and knowledge. Having greater access to this network of knowledge is likely a good thing. However, having greater access is not a new argument… the hope has been around since the Internet began. Maybe the influx of new online communities and social tools are helping us realize this dream now.

So having access to a greater network of resources is one impact of social media. Some others I can think of are: facilitating peer influence, developing community, and enabling emotional/intellectual support. Stay tuned for thoughts on these… and please suggest other justifications we could make more clear.