Social Media & the

Literature Teacher Geert Vandermeersche

Joachim Vlieghe

www.cultureeducation.ugent.be

www.cultureeducation.ugent.be

Overview Theoretical context

- Changing Expectations

- Literacy

- Social Reading

Social Media

- Exploration- Experiments in Teacher Education

Some Ideas…

- Conflicts in Literacy Education

Literature Education

Changing Expectations

Click each book to watch the related film fragment (on YouTube)

" Reading of fiction has been

so transformed that some

pessimists predict the death

of literature and reading,

while others (…) see

unprecedented

opportunities. How will the

internet, electronic

publishing, (…) cyberspace

reading clubs, bookstore

coffee shops, celebrity

author book tours (…) affect

the way we read and write

fiction in the future? "

Literacy

Film Fragment – Little Children (2006)

Literature as Company

We should see

literary works “not as

puzzles or even as

games but as

companions, friends -

or if that seems to

push the personal

metaphor too far, as

gifts from would-be

friends”

Standage defines social media

as “an environment in which

information was passed from

one person to another along

social connections, to create a

distributed discussion or

community.” Those informal

networks flourished for

centuries, before mass media

emerged to turn news into a

costly one-way conversation.

Our social interactions

“build upon habits and

conventions that date

back centuries”

Literacy Education& Conflict

Teachingto the

Test

Much of what teachers do

in the literature classroom

revolves around leading

large-group student

discussions of literary texts.

The aim is […] to help them

learn how to interact with

their peers in a

collaborative manner [...]

When students share their

individual private

responses, they learn to

build on each other’s

responses.

Teachingto the

Test

Unfortunately, teachers

often limit the extent to

which students can develop

their responses. [...] As a

result, there is no real

discussion between

students. [...] Much of

literature discussion is

characterized by the use of

closed “fact-check”

questions [...] There’s a

correct, predetermined

answer—so that students

are simply attempting to

read a teacher’s mind to

determine “what the teacher

wants.”

Teachingto the

Test

Film Fragment - Watch on YouTubeThe Wire, season 4 (2006)

Standardization

Teacher-centred

“Fact-check”

Lack of participation

Standardization

Teacher-centred

“Fact-check”

Lack of participation

" The capacities of

teachers are stretched

to the limit as they

endeavour to meet the

performance

benchmarks imposed on

them, while trying to

maintain an ethical

commitment to the

welfare of the young

people in their care "

Social MediaExploration

More…

Promotional Video by The Copia (2012) - Watch on YouTube

Social MediaExperiments in Teacher

Education

I. Social Reading

Virtual Library

“Because I am a frequent library visitor, I have a lot of material merely on loan. It is sometimes difficult to keep track of what I have already read and what I still hope to accomplish. A virtual inventory comes in handy in such a case.”

– Marsha –

Quality of

Content“The online recommendations or reactions, which I found on the site, are fairly

superficial and sometimes even ‘questionable’. I am thus not convinced

that I will avoid the ‘bad reads’ with Goodreads.” – Beth –

“The selection is, like in a library, too extensive. Goodreads’ recommendations are a good start,

but as a way to broaden your horizons, it quickly turns into a long and arduous search.” – Leonie –

“Reading is viewed as an isolated, lonely activity ... Thanks to Goodreads, reading becomes more tangible and defined, it gets a shape. You are reading book x or y, got stuck on a certain page, give the book an interim evaluation ... Reading is an utterance of identity, and a means to construct an identity. You are what you read, and you do want to show who you are, right?”

-Marsha-

Sharing &

Contributin

g

A network

of friends

“Indeed, you just have no clue who

places these comments online. Personally, that is why I still attach more im-

portance to a literary reviewer’sor a friend’s opinion than to 500

visitors of Goodreads.” – Linda –

II. Social

Media in

Education

“I see the role of the teacher as a cultural intermediary, who must introduce students to the complex world of culture, must guide and help them take their first steps in the enormous storehouse of culture which nowadays dominates the market.”

– Charles –

Selecting

Books(provision

)

“A big advantage is that literature classes and the possible assignments or reading reports the students make take place in a social context, in a real discussion.

As such, the feeling that students just have to fulfill assignments to get marks disappears, and the students’ products can really contribute to a discussion.”

– Charles –

Participatio

n

Protection

“I share the concerns of

many fellow-students

about the reviews’ quality

and their impact on pupils.

On the internet,

everyone’s opinion is

worth as much as anyone

else’s, no matter how

superficial. In an

educational context, it is

safer to create a separate

group where there can be

a discussion about a

specific topic, with the

input of students and

under the supervision and

editorship of the teacher.”

– Marsha –

Some Ideas …

Joachim.Vlieghe@UGent.beGeert.Vandermeersche@UGent.be