Will Social Media Empower Fisheries Students Via Learning Networks? By Don Orth

I raised this question in a recent article in Fisheries. I contend that social media can be used effectively to encourage student development and facilitate the utility of personal learning networks.  Students and others must join in and create the new networks to meet their needs.  I suggested that five pedagogies will benefit students greatly if they and their instructors choose to use them.  These are public writing, Twitter and infographics, digital storytelling, online communities, and electronic portfolios.   Educators must assist students in this quest for change.    Refer to the article for a complete discourse with scholarly references. {email me at Don_Orth@vt.edu, if you have access issues.}  

The key element for this to work is development of digital learning networks (aka communities of practice).  Online networks facilitate a “just-in-time” connection with experts. One recent example on Facebook (TM) comes from the All Fish Species Identification group.  With over 2,000 members who are respected fish experts or specialists with identification of many fish families, this is the “go to” group when you have a difficult fish to identify.  Photographer Irvin Calicut recently posted a photo of a heron with a fish and asked "What fish is this?"   Within two days the fish was identified by member, Grégoire Germeau -- the Grunting Toadfish Allenbatrachus grunniens.    This is only one of many online communities that are being formed every day.  

Heron with unidentified fish. Photo by Irvin Calicut

Students in Ichthyology class are archiving photos and drawings from their notebooks to the Ichthyology Class at VT site on Flickr.   As we transition into new fish groups, students follow others on Flickr and invite them to add photos to our photo pool.  Witness the addition of a Yellowtail Snapper Ocyurus chrysurus by a professional photographer.   The work of experts and novices come together on one network. 

Student work gets better over time and there is a record of their early efforts as well as improved sketches, annotations, and photos as the term progress.  Social media does not have to make students stupid. Social media is a venue for sharing results of deeper learning activities or exposing shallow learning.  As John Dewey wrote many years ago, “Education is a social process; education is growth; education is not preparation for life but is life itself.”  

Photos posted in Ichthyology Class atVT Flickr site.  A. closeup of Northern Hogsucker Hypentelium nigricans; B. Breeding tubercles of Bluehead Chub Nocomis leptocephalus; C. Cartilaginous ridge of Central Stoneroller Campostoma anomalum. Photos by D.J. Orth.

Learning can be fun.  I know students find it hilarious to watch me struggle to sketch a fish on the whiteboard.  Even funnier to listen to me translate some lessons as musical parodies, such as Learn Your Fishes Well  and others. Writer Anne Lamott wrote “Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. ... and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft.”  Students realize that the first “shitty” draft is expected.  However, if final essays are posted online on the Virginia Tech Ichthyology blog, then the students have a broader public audience for their writings and incentives to revise.  Students also reflect on their struggles during Ichthyology class and create digital stories.  These digital stories evolved out of practical processes for resolving issues, educating ourselves, and pursuing our goals, while combining traditional and emerging literacies.  A quick search of “On Becoming An Ichthyologist” on YouTube returns some online stories; here’s one.  Many traditional class assignments can be readily updated to use online tools, such as meme generators, infographics, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.  Memes are internal representations of knowledge that are culturally inherited through sharing and “fish memes” are a favorite assignment.
 

Example fish meme assists the student in remember new family name

We have a key role to play in training fisheries students in the communications of fisheries issues for multiple, diverse audiences in open-access media.  Our youngest college students are entirely different than 20th century students.  In fact a 10-year old, Henry Foster, wrote to Arkansas leaders with suggestions for the state fish of Arkansas, which led to #GARkansas on Twitter, and an online petition to make the Alligator Gar the official state fish of Arkansas.  

In summary, the answer to the question is "YES" -- Social media will empower students.  However, we all have be engaged to create authentic online learning networks.  To join the network, visit us at Virginia Tech Ichthyology.  

Reference

Orth, D.J.  2018.  Social media may empower fisheries students via learning networks.  Fisheries  DOI: 10.1002/fsh.10034