www.gapingvoid.com for the image!

Social media is an important part of our education, communication, political and economic environments today.

I have seen the writing on the wall for a bit over 2 years and the writing is in neon paint!

The problem we are confronted with is academia really has not been listening, walking around without its hearing aids in if you need a picture painted.

Sure that is really a generalisation but it speaks to the fact that many education institutions have simply not been keeping up with the times.

But are we shooting ourselves in the foot if we embrace all this new tech stuff, the gen y environment?

I mean education on one hand is about pedagogy, theory, paradigms and good hard learned truths contained in textbooks.

Social media recasts not only what we learn but how we learn it and even interact with it!

But social media is new, evolving at a hyper speed, and just now making it into the textbooks, and as we read about it it is outdated!

For over 2 years I have been pushing my students to experiment, in an academic fashion, with social media.

Facebook, Vimeo, Twitter, YouTube,blogger,wordpress and the list is ever growing.

In the process I have applied social media tools from  class lessons to practical projects, some have worked and some have not.

Here are a few examples.

Global Media Ethics Roundtable

#menalab3

ZU60

And of course there are the ongoing in class projects that have fed my understanding of social media, both its creation and distribution.

But academic exercises are one thing I have also been using social media in the corporate world of UAE radio.

Nightline

Nightline podcasts

Nightline TV

And then there is this blog, my Vimeo videos of my classes and my Qik videos of events as well as attempts at Audioboo.

So what is my point?

I have not written a book on these experiences and becasue of that I have zero credibility as an expert or specialist when it comes to social media in the academic world. Maybe the corporate world for that matter!

Just today a colleague looked me in the eye and told me that what I do with social media does not count it is the IT people that have the real value!

Yesterday I met a colleague responsible for publication issues and this person talked about contracting a service to teach them about social media, a DIY service of sorts.

In both cases I thought I must be invisible, or what I have done with social media must be invisible! Nope it is a credibility issue!

Maybe the problem is we still live in the old paradigm world believing that professors are detached from the real world?

Social media changes everything are we ready for the change?

I am and have long been working at the rebranding of Me, clearly I have a way to go!

But if you have a couple of Twitter accounts, a Facebook page and maybe a Linkdin account how do you post and follow them all in an easy efficient way?

I think most people abandon social media tools or opt into just one simply because the management of multiple tools is too time consuming.

And if you are going from a desktop to a smartphone things can get worse!

If you have not been introduced to Hootesuite then you need to give it a look!

www.hootsuite.com

I mention it ONLY because it makes posting updates pretty easy and painless.

HootSuite saves me a lot of time in the office and on the phone.

So easy why did I wait so long to load the service?

To be very honest the use of new communication technology excites me!

I love the way Twitter, #jamesed_me, allows me to communicate links, materials and ideas to my students.

Facebook creates another forum for interaction, especially if the group is protected.

Livestream allows me to actually film and stream the content of my classes.

I know some students are using the tech tools I am throwing open to them and some are not.

But does the use of tech tools to open more lines of communication make the class any better?

I know I spend more time on the back channel with my students and I seem to get a sense, very fast, if they are keeping up or not, this can only be a good thing.

But if everyone in the class is not on twitter am I disadvantaging some students who fail to be part of the complete discussion?

I think we are in a transition phase.

There is still more buy in to be had with tech tools for communication and we need to figure out where the physical and cyber lines cross.

I am glad to be part of the process trying to figure that mix out.

MobileActive.org is a community of people and organizations using mobile phones for social impact. We are committed to increasing the effectiveness of NGOs around the world who recognize that the 3.5 billion mobile phones provide unprecedented opportunities for organizing, communications, and service and information delivery.

When was the last time you heard a person talk about using mobile apps for social good? Maybe what we are really talking about is innovation “from the edge”?

Mobile phones are not new but the application of the technology and sandwiching of this technology beyond low value storytelling could see the pushing of the next phase of the mobile revolution!

What we see happening is the mobile phone becoming the common denominator in the communication process.

But what is interesting is the amount of push for this “mobile revolution” from the developing world!

Africa is the 1st world of mobile phone social adaptation.

The west is the 3rd world when it comes to meaningful/real mobile phone social adaptation.

The west is show and Africa is go!

Business worldwide is knuckling down and CEOs seem to be running for cover.

We have a huge opportunity to educate, inform and spread ideas and the physical things that go along with them.

TWITTER, TWITPIC, FACEBOOK and PODOMATIC are increasingly becoming the center of my work, education, social reality.

What I find surprising is that these easy, free, global tools are not being more widely used to help the flow of ideas.

I suspect the problem from the perspective of large organizations is they simply have too many grey haired people trying to figure out how to enhance the pension fund!

Social networking seems to still be the island of the young and funny enough those who have a lot to lose, many are on the cutting block of Yahoo, Sony, Banks…

Now is the time to look at social networking and apply it there is a who new angle to enterprise waiting to be pushed forward.