Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

11.27.09 | Social media expert danah boyd delivered a keynote address earlier this month at the American Association of School Librarians’ 14th National Conference in Charlotte, N.C.

Prior to the address, boyd sat down with School Library Journal to answer a few questions about social media and youth. The result is a very succinct interview that provides an overview of some of the most often-discussed issues surrounding the use of social media in the classroom and at home.

On the subject of how to convince schools to incorporate social media in the curriculum, boyd, a social media researcher at Microsoft Research New England and a fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, says it requires “accepting that social media is a part of kids’ lives and stop blocking it.”

Curriculum is often thought of in “formalistic” ways, while there’s a great deal of “informal learning” that goes on in social media that we don’t take into account, says boyd. (Read more about informal learning.)

One of the first changes schools can make is to incorporate Wikipedia in the classroom, because of the role it plays in getting students to think about the content creation process.

Watch the interview below, and read about the conference and its focus on 21st century learning at School Library Journal.