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| By James McLuckie |
When I say Facebook, what does it mean to you? Catching up with pals? Staying in touch with friends who moved to the other side of the world? Looking up people from school that used to send your heart all aflutter to see how much weight they’ve put on or how much hair they’ve lost?
Yes, Facebook provides the means to do all of that and it’s great entertainment. But did you know that many people use it to learn? To many, “learning” is the same as “education”, and in many people’s minds that means “school”. So why would we use a fun tool like Facebook to do something boring like go back to school?
Well, because Facebook, and other social media tools such as LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter, make it easy to learn. There’s a whole new world of information sharing, relationship building and knowledge building happening online right now, and these applications provide the means to do it.
I will give you an example. When I first dipped my toe into Twitter I was seriously unimpressed. The fact that I had to limit myself to 140 characters was, to my mind, an outrage. How dare this thing suggest that my big, beautiful thoughts could be condensed in such a crude fashion! But then I started to post questions there, ask for advice, seek out subject matter experts. Before long, my questions were being answered, advice was being offered and these experts in their fields started to become friends. People, potential and possibilities had opened up, and I was thrilled because I knew I could learn something new every minute if I wanted to.
All of the best learning happens when we don’t think “I am learning”. It happens when we communicate, explore, and ask questions. You see, learning is not school. Learning is engagement, motivation, excitement, development and, oh yes, it is fun. That’s why social tools are such great mechanisms for learning. They allow people to communicate and connect. Here’s an example:
Pauline updates her profile with “Loving that Ladyhawke single”. Keith replies, “Never heard of her. What’s she like?” Pauline describes her music as 80s pop with a modern twist but, meanwhile, Peter has gone onto YouTube, found the video for the single, and posted that on Pauline’s profile so that Keith (and everyone else) can hear and see Ladyhawke for themselves. Keith comes back and says, “Great track. If you like that, you’ll love this Empire of the Sun number.” And so it goes ...
Now replace “Ladyhawke” in that scenario with something to do with a film, book, sport, car, holiday, washing machine, piece of homework ... anything you are interested in. See how easy it is to share and interact about things that interest and inspire you? And exchanges like the one above happen every second.
That’s why I am so excited about the possibilities of social media tools. They’ve already made a valuable contribution to my life and, the great thing is, they are just getting started. If you need me, you can find me on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Oh, or I’ll be blogging.
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