Considering the growing role social media technology is playing in K-12 education, I found Ravit Lichtenberg’s blog 10 Ways Social Media Will Change in 2010 to be insightful. Most edtechies realize 2009 was a pivotal year for social media technology and see its expanded use by everyday educators as a transformative development in K-12 education.
Lichtenberg believes social media technology is certainly here to stay. Not only is it connecting millions of people in a very unique way, but social media technology is being woven into the very fabric of our online experiences. In fact, Lichtenberg thinks it’s already
“impossible to separate social media from the online world. Facebook reached 350 million users last month — 70% of whom are outside the US — and it accounts for 25% of the Web’s traffic, according to Pew nearly one in five people on the web use Twitter or some other service to check status messages, and 94% of enterprises plan to maintain or increase their investment in enterprise social media tools. The social media conversation is no longer considered a Web 2.0 fad — it is taking place in homes, small businesses and corporate boardrooms, and extending its reach into the nonprofit, education and health sectors. From feeling excitement, novelty, bewilderment, and overwhelmed, a growing number of people now speak of social media as simply another channel or tactic.”
Most teachers are beginning to see the potential benefits Web 2.0 technology has for improving instruction in the classroom. The kids are anxiously waiting for the next learning transformation to take place, and with some anxiety teachers are wondering how to lead this technology-oriented revolution. What will the Web 2.0 classroom look like? What does the future hold for social media technology? What will being “connected” mean? What will the social Web experience be like during 2010? To help answer these questions, Lichtenberg identifies ten ways he thinks social media will change over the next year. Below I’ve highlighted three transformations I think will cause the most significant disruptions in education.
1. Social media will involve a personalized, cohesive online experience that will utilize the interoperable nature of Web 2.0 technology to connect our online and offline activities and technologies.
According to Lichtenberg, “By this time next year, social media will no longer be “social media” — it will be an integrated, unquestionable component of your online and offline experience. Last year we spoke of cross-platform integration across media sites. Open APIs and OpenID made that possible, and even LinkedIn announced last month that it too will finally open its APIs. 2010 will be about integration and a single, cohesive experience across platforms as well as across products and devices — Web, mobile, TV, and video — will become near-inseparable experiences.
Users will access content from any device or platform, co-create and mashup their photos, videos and text with traditional content while interacting with each other. Publishers will create new kinds of content for the connected world, and the last years’ lull in good entertainment will finally be lifted. This trend will cut across all of our activities — from playing games to shopping to emailing and texting — nothing will be lost; everything we do will be gathered and streamed together, allowing people to view their world of activities as if it were projected in front of them, open to change, review and input at any point in time from any device or online tool.”
2. Mobile technology will take center stage. According to Lichtenberg,
“Worldwide, the iPhone alone accounts for about 33% of mobile web traffic and IDC predicts the number of mobile web users will hit one billion by 2010. As the technological barriers come down, people will increasingly use their phones on-the-go to access social networks, search, read content and find location-based information. Our phones will be used as a central hub and beacon — enabling a slew of new capabilities and experiences.”
I think this part of the Web 2.0 transformation will have a significant impact on curriculum and instruction. The fact that most high school students, for example, are carrying around personal computers called smart phones will force classroom teachers to rethink how they teach.
3. Businesses will shape the next generation of social media. According to Lichtenberg,
“It was easy to forget that enterprises and large institutions are the originators of some of social media’s pillars: listservs, forums, intranets and collaboration tools. As social media became a public domain, enterprises have been cautious participants, predominantly in the product space, with few visionary leaders like Zappos, IBM and Dell. But cautionary they are no more. With a reported average of 25% increase in funds allocation toward social media activities, in 2010 we will see a surge in adoption of social media across product, services and solutions companies.
Having the need and the funds, enterprises will determine the next generation of social experiences. They will push enhancements that meet their needs, specifically around monitoring, automation, alignment with the sales cycle and integration with existing systems, expanding social “media” to encompass the ecosystem of social computing across solutions, and making them actionable for the company. Jive, blueKiwi, Remindo and Sharepoint support companies internally. Most recently, Salesforce.com released Chatter, designed to turn the corporation, and CRM, social. With its APIs opening later this year, “Chatter can become a new layer over its Force platform, already being used by 68,000 customers, enabling companies and developers to leverage the Salesforce infrastructure in a secure environment,” said Bruce Francis, VP corporate strategy Salesforce.com.”
As more an more teachers utilize social media technology, the demand for simplicity, uniformity, and cross platform integration will only increase. Open source software and independent social networking sites are great. But, teachers want to know how these different technologies can be integrated into a single, cohesive program. This is where enterprise will help.
The potential benefits for social media technology in 2010 are very exciting. As this technology continues to evolve in its traditional market– social networking, etc.– it will also begin moving into nontraditional markets, most importantly public education. As this technology begins disrupting the education market, teachers need to be ready for the transformation.
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