Week1: Reading Reflection

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    I used to be a public elementary school teacher. What students should learn was already documented in the curriculum, textbook, and my yearly plan in a reasonable manner. The only way I can use my creativity was 'how to deliver it', where, 'it' means a set knowledge that exists outside of the mind. 

    So I can say that I used to be a positivist. I understand the concept of other paradigms, of course, but it's just more convenient for me to believe that there is a correct answer somewhere in the world and we can also develop our own correct answer only if we have a shred of reasonable evidence to support it. I think that's why I was a bit disconcerted while reading the materials. What do we learn from social media? I read all the four papers but I felt none of it had a direct connection to education. It was more about communication, how people build connections in an online setting, and how amazing Web 2.0 is as a communication tool. Then what do they teach through social media? Or is it even okay to define a teacher in Web 2.0-based learning?

    From my experience of using social media, I know that learning can happen in social media even though it is not intentional. I can learn about a new conference event, what restaurant to visit in a city I'm planning to travel to, or a new album a K-pop idol group has recently released. But are those always desirable? I can also learn about a group of people doing drugs, gossip that I don't really care about but are too provocative to ignore, and show-offs the celebrities do which almost always result in feeling comparative deprivation. Do we need them in our lives?

    We do online search when we need information. That's why Web 2.0-based learning is not completely unintentional. It starts with a need to learn something new that we don't know yet. We are always told to search for reliability and doubt if it's from a credible source. Then why would people use social media for learning, where words are prone to be distorted and exaggerated?

    I doubt how Web 2.0-based learning or learning in social media can be beneficial for humans. I think that is what I will learn in this course.

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