A social media course at a Kelowna high school is attracting a lot of attention from students and teachers alike.
Digital Media 11 is meant to teach students about the power and pitfalls of social media.
It is a ministry approved course that comes with ‘prescribed learning outcomes,’ but the teaching approach is anything but conventional.
“To focus solely on social media as a subject matter is, I think, pretty unique,” says school principle Leanne Zorn. “We are really trying to promote digital citizenship and literacy…because kids are using the technology already anyway. We are just trying to harness it.”
“It is not a traditional ‘stand-and-deliver’ classroom,” says Carolyn Durley who teaches the course at the Okanagan Mission Secondary. “I am not standing and lecturing to them about social media. They are learning as they are doing it.”
While the curriculum is still a work in progress, students are learning about how to maintain their brand on Twitter and other mainstream social networks. They are also learning how to use fringe social media sites like Tumblr, Google+ and Pinterest.
Freya Kellet is a Grade 10 student. She saw the class being offered as an extra-curricular option and signed up.
“We think it is the first of its kind. We don’t know of any other social media classes anywhere else,” says Kellet.
“It is really fun. It’s been the best experience.”
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The class is in its first year and is an experimental project for the school district.
For Durley’s students, one of their first projects was to create a viral video.
The class chose to do a Gangnam Style parody.
“It is really popular on social media, and all the students were talking about, so we thought it was something that would take off with the students,” says Kellet.
The video was shown at the student assembly last week, and Durley says the whole school was cheering.
“It got everybody really excited in a way that I have not seen in eight years that I have been at the school.”
Their video already has over 30,000 views, and it continues to pick up steam online.
Kellet says projects like these have completely changed her perspective on school.
It’s meant to be fun. [The teacher] is also kind of new to it herself, so we are all learning it together.”
Durley says she’s been using social media in her classroom for a couple of years and found it to be transformative.
“I found it really connected me and my students in a new way.”
But with stories of cyberbullying surfacing more and more, they also talk about the dark side of social media.
“I think sometimes social media gets a bad rep,” says Durely. “We see the bad examples, but it can also have a lot of positive impacts.”
The course started with just six students in September, but there are now over 30 people who want to join the class.
“My guess is we are going to be beating kids away with a stick because of the popularity of it,” laughs Zorn. “This was the initial start… but the doors have now been opened and we will have lots of kids that will want to get involved in it.”
The majority of students in the class are in grade 11 and 12. But there are some kids, like Kellet, who are still in grade 10.
“We now have the ability to grow and use their knowledge and leadership for next year and the year afterwards,” says school principle Leanne Zorn. “I really see it growing and becoming a tradition.”
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