Learning from Strangers Online

by | Dec 22, 2019 | #socialLEADia, Promoting Collaborative Learning Cultures

Very often we talk about “Stranger Danger” when we talk with kids about being online. That person you are talking to can be a 40 year old pedophile disguised as a young gamer. Stranger danger is one of the things that has parents and teachers in a panic and why Districts are so worried about allowing teachers and students to connect using social media. And of course, we do need to make sure our kids are aware of revealing too much personal information and what to be wary of.

But here’s the thing. I can honestly say that the strangers I have met online have become some of my dearest friends. Strangers online have also challenged me to think differently by providing an entirely different perspective. In Social LEADia, I have shared that when students are connected to the “right strangers” using a critical and educated lens, they will learn what appropriate and positive connections look like. We also need to remember that by the time students leave high school, connecting with strangers is of value and it’s called networking!

Very recently I posted about this very topic but this past week has been all about learning with and from strangers so I felt the need to write about it. The Our Global Classroom (OGC) Holiday exchange on Flipgrid created by Bronwyn Joyce was the impetus for me to connect our students to a school in Abu Dhabi. One of the things that has drawn me to the OGC group of awesome educators is the philosophy that our students are better off when we can learn from each other using the tech we have at our fingertips. We all try to find as many opportunities to connect our students to others in the world to learn from them. This week, my friend Rachelle Dene Poth also connected me to a classroom and teacher in Israel.

Our students at first didn’t know what to do. Some students asked questions. They had learned about Hanukah in their World Religions class and even prepared a meal, but they had researched facts about the cultural and religious celebrations on the Internet. This is what we always do, isn’t it? When we want to learn something, we go online. But today, we can use our tech-driven powers to learn from primary sources–actual students or teachers anywhere around the world. We chose Padlet for these connections because in both cases time zones prevented us from connecting in real time. Our high school students really enjoyed connecting with the younger students. The teacher from Israel used WhatsApp videos to upload which I found surprising but effective. We plan to continue the collaboration after the break because the kids enjoyed it, but mostly because we only really began to get to know each other.

Connecting kids to experts is something that Adam Hill tried as part of his i-Time (like genius hour) projects. He realized that he did not have the expertise to mentor all of his students in the various areas he had chosen, so he called upon his Twitter PLN to connect them and was able to connect 27 out of 28 kids.

His students had to indicate their question and what they were looking for in a mentor. Notice the range of responses Adam got from people all over the world and what an incredible example he is setting for his young students.

Social media can be so very positive and powerful if we show kids how to leverage it to learn! In the new year, think about one way you can connect your students to other students in the world to amplify your curriculum and show them what they CAN do instead of always focusing on what they CAN’T!

Be sure to catch my conversation with Adam for the Social LEADia podcast here. I am excited for further collaborations with Adam in the future.

You can listen to my other podcasts here. They are never longer than 15 minutes and are my way of continuing the conversations I started in Social LEADia where I celebrate and share awesome on and offline.