Week 3

We had guest speakers from Japan and China in today's session in ETEC647.  It was really interesting to hear the perspective of students living in the most technologically advanced societies in the world.

During our conversations with Ayako, Chiho, and Jin, it became very noticeable that both societies, although very advanced in mobile phones and technology, were very resistant to the wave of new social media that has taken off in the US and other parts of the world.  It could be a cultural thing, but the overall impression was that the educational system in Japan and China viewed social media to be a purely pleasure based movement that should only be reserved for personal use during free time.  It is not utilized with education in schools at all, other than connecting with students in other locations and holding meetings. 

Jin mentioned that in China, social media is viewed as "working less" as opposed to traditional methods.  These societies, whether it'd be cultural/political/governmental reasons are slow on the social media uptake, but yet, I find it fascinating that although there seems to be no desire to join in on the emerging technologies in education movement, these societies are yet looked upon on as the front runners in education and scores. 

I personally think the reason why social media is huge in American society is because it is a society that continually strives for convenience.  Japanese and Chinese view 'struggle' and 'inconvenience' as necessities that one must endure.  They must take long train rides to school because that's what is done.  They must read from textbooks, attend classes to get a degree and make sacrifices to make it work because that's how it's always done and what is expected.  Maybe this leads to discipline.  But on the other hand, the traditional methods leaves out the students who are left behind in the system because they just can't conform to what is expected of their society or they can't take the train ride to the school.  What happens to them?  The girls mentioned there is next to no online distance learning.  What if someone is disabled in some way?  How would social media in education be used to help them in these types of societies? 

Very interesting conversation with the girls and the reasons why educational social media is not accepted in Japan and China were too deep for just a couple of hours.  We have had conversations with students from Nova Scotia to Japan and China.  It would be interesting to have more conversations with students from Europe and developing countries, if possible, to gain more perspectives outside of the US on social media.