Assignment #4 - Social Media Observation & Reflection of Experience in New Media Space

Directions: 

You will experiment with social media in order to expand their pedagogical “repertoire of practices” (Gutierrez & Rogoff, 2003). You will begin by selecting a social media space in which to develop their own participatory practices—some possibilities include Twitter, Instagram, Snap Chat, YouTube, Tumblr, Facebook, and others. After selecting a social media space, with an eye toward the way that its use may suggest new ways of reading, writing, and becoming, students will begin their participatory practices through observation and “legitimate peripheral participation” (Lave & Wenger, 1991).

Requirements:

1. You should spend at least 7 days observing the unique cultural practices of the space—for example, the cultural practices of Twitter are different than Snap Chat (e.g., use of hashtags, intertextual links to other spaces, and one-way following structure in Twitter vs image and video-based stories that “live” within Snap Chat).
2. You will write a 300-500 word observation of 3-5 dominant cultural practices, and reflective analysis/reflective analysis about the process of participating (e.g., observing) in this space. It's not enough just to describe your feelings about this experience, but that you should offer explicit educational implications about the reasons (or possible reasons) for integrating social media into formal/informal learning practices. 

OPTION 2: OUTLINE OR SOMETHING FOR FINAL PROJECT