As someone who enjoys tech and fears being “the old teacher,” I try to stay up on what the students are using. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat were all around while I was in either high school or university, so they were easy to get on and use. As Discord rolled out, I grew up a gamer, and it was an easy transition to being to use that. TikTok was the social media platform I was reluctant to use, but when a student told me, “it is Vine on steroids,” I was in!

In a recent blog post, I talked about how my feelings towards social media like Facebook and Instagram have changed. As someone who works in a school, I feel as if I am always in the public eye. When I leave work, I want to be more private, and for that reason, I have faded out of posting on social media.

Social media can be a distraction in classrooms; I would like to talk about how TikTok could be a tool in a school. An instant challenge that is brought up frequently is the privacy of students in a school setting. Another obstacle is kids having the accounts, or getting them to sign up would be a no. I think the easy way around this is that most things are on YouTube. TikTok and Fortnite have encouraged students to dance and learn some fairly good moves! When looking at the Saskatchewan Curriculum, you can see that “dance” is a strand. Using YouTube to watch TikTok trends and having the students recreate them. This approach can help to make those outcomes enjoyable for students. Dance is a strand in the curriculum that middle years teachers have struggled to get engagement in. When this was attempted at our school, the students were not thinking of it as dance. They were just having fun. 

I’m curious if there are any ways you are utilizing social media in your school to engage more students in trickier outcomes?

As I think about what skill I would like to learn and share my journey, I have many ideas. I have four thoughts around this that I would like to share and get your opinion about. The most important thing for me when choosing is to enjoy learning it. There are many things out there that I have wanted to do, but time has always passed by, and I haven’t for some reason. I want to take this class/assignment as an opportunity to achieve one of these finally.

First: Photoshop “Realistify-ing”
I have minimal experience with Photoshop. I have messed around with a few things in the past 20 months throughout Covid. Nothing good at all, and just following tutorials. However, I ran across this Youtube Benny Productions. He takes drawings and turns them into a realistic type of creation on Photoshop. My first thought would be to have a student in my school draw a picture of a character, and I would try to “realistify” it. 

Benny Productions –> Photoshopping YOUR Drawings! | Realistified! S1E3

Second: Create a Videogame
As a millennial that grew up playing video games and still finds them as a way to unwind after stressful weeks, this has always been a dream. Create a video game. This past weekend I spent several hours running through tutorials and was able to get the main character to move with different animations. This is a more significant undertaking, but it is something that I enjoy learning about. This one involves several steps. I would need to learn how to use the program, the coding language, and creating sprites. When it comes to this, I would need to create a small goal to have a functional world that I could have an objective and complete it in the game. I still have to do some thinking around this, but I would love your thoughts!

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Third: Podcast
This thought is right in the title, a podcast. For this project, I would look to split some of the learning with another classmate Chris Brennan. After researching how much goes into a podcast, I thought it would be good to bring in a partner. 
–> A name
–> Topics for discussion
–> Planning
–> Scripts
–> Recording
–> Editing
–> Creating theme music
–> Adding music

Fourth: Visual Effects/Rendering Software
My fourth and final thought is difficult to describe because the program has various functions that I could explore. The easiest way to describe it without looking too much into it is to create something and add real-world materials and render it as if it was real. The free program I would use is Blender. I followed along with a tutorial for around 3 hours and created the very early resemblance of a doughnut. There are many other functions, as I said earlier, that I would explore. One function that would interest me is rendering a remodel for my house. This would take some exploration.

As I said at the beginning I am curious to know what your thoughts are. Would you please take a second to fill out a survey to help me decide? –> Survey

Thinking about how social media is so integrated in my life is mind boggling. I rely on it as a huge means of keeping up with distant friends and families life. I am able to watch people’s kids grow up from a distance. We communicate, share, and bond over many of the memes, videos, and content that can be found over several different platforms. Without social media many of the relationships I have today would’ve faded into the background, and many of them wouldn’t have started at all.

I grew up in the “Early Internet era”. I remember the first computer being set up in my house. It had a disc drive which I was told was a big deal because, “it could read stuff very fast”. Many of my early memories on the computer were playing minesweeper, pinball, and a disc game The Time Warp of Dr. Brain. These were not multiplayer games, but me and my 3 siblings at the time had fun taking turns.

I do remember when it all changed and I had an email created for me at my friends house, durstonian@hotmail.com. Her dad made it for me and showed me that I would be able to talk with my friend even when I was at home. Interested I went home, we downloaded MSN, and after several phone calls there it was I could talk to her on my computer. The following year when I went to summer camp people were exchanging MSN accounts to talk after we all left. It was the first time that people were staying in touch when we weren’t in the same city and I thought it was awesome!

Later in life this would be where friends and I would gather around to talk to other groups of friends and try to coordinate plans. We didn’t need the phone anymore because you pre set up these times at school and met online. Beyond MSN people were starting to get into Whyville. This was a platform that you could create a persona for yourself online which in my head was my first taste of social media. You were on the internet with a floating head that you tried to make look like yourself and were just on the internet connecting with friends and strangers.

The Rise of Web 2.0 would be the turning point in my love/hate relationship with social media. As a teenager I loved always being connected with my friends and see what they were up to online. Connecting with people and of course remembering their birthdays. It was addicting. I logged on frequently when it was on my computer. Then it moved to my phone and it felt like I was too connected. The negatives of viewing many people’s fantastic lives and feeling as if I was doing nothing. It was around the time of Facebook and Instagram that I started to get more self conscience with how I looked, what I had, and the experience I could afford.

As an adult in his late 20s I find myself avoiding social media. I use it to stay in contact with my distant friends and family. I have found myself more private on social media and not willing to share about pictures, or posts about myself. I also untag myself in posts and pictures that I actively try to avoid while out in my real life. I also distance myself from “keyboard heroes” that I know in real life. I do get tired of online personas and would rather a phone call then a direct message on a platform. The only social media that make me laugh is TikTok which I am on their anonmysly just to observe and not be interacted with. This could be a repercussion of having a job in the Education sector where we are held to higher standard both on and offline.

Positives that I do see and experience are on the communities that are built online. Many people feeling lonely can almost always find a community of people that are experiencing the same as them. There is also the communities of learning new skills are amazing. This has helped me in my DIY projects around the house, small business ownership, and my teaching career.

As social media continues to grow I know that it has many positives that can be accessed. There are also negatives that need to be taught to younger generations. The balance of being “too connected” and experience life. I see the ramifications of children being too connected daily and confusing it for experiencing life. My goal is to help educate the younger generation to have social media as a connection tool and not a substitution for interactions.