TechIntersect

This week I started working my summer job at Twin Valley Telecommunications. As a computer technology professor, I believe it is really important for teachers to get real world experience in their subjects to stay relevant in the classroom. It is my second summer of working there, and one of the things that impressed me last year that I had almost forgotten about is the snack bar.

Candy bars, soda pop, bottled waters, cookies, crackers, you name it- they probably have it. It makes a statement about the TVT company culture; they care about their employees and they want to encourage the people to work there to feel right at home.

What if when considering the very cool idea of a snack bar the leaders at TVT thought “We shouldn’t put snacks in the break room because if we do our employees will spend all day there munching on snacks instead of working“? Ridiculous, right? An employee who didn’t “get” that snacks are there to make people feel comfortable and welcome and spent the entire day in the break room gorging themselves on goodies would soon be sent packing.

What is so different about the thinking of a company (or school) who denies access to social media technologies such as Facebook, YouTube, and other popular social media sites for its employees at work? “If we allow our employees access to social media sites, they will spend the entire day doing that instead of working.”

In the book “World Wide Rave: Creating Triggers that Get Millions of People to Spread Your Ideas and Share Your Stories” David Meerman Scott writes that it is simply a matter of trust.

Hold employees to a measurable standard for performance on the job. But don’t try to ban a specific set of social media technologies.

Scott is absolutely correct in noting that companies do not usually try to control other minute-by-minute behaviors such as restroom visits, hallway chats with colleagues, or coffee breaks and it is foolish for them to try to limit or ban participation in social media because it is the single most powerful and cost-effective method of spreading ideas on the planet.

However social media frightens many corporate leaders because it is poorly understood and runs counter to conventional wisdom on how companies share information. Usually corporations are tight-lipped and information comes out in a trickle of well-crafted, professionally designed (read boring) press releases. To many, blogging and other social media represents a risk of embarassment or disclosure of confidential trade knowledge through unsanctioned outlets. However this perspective misses the entire point and potential of social media.

For an example of a company that does “get it” when it comes to social media, check out IBM’s Social Computing Guidelines. IBM is setting an example of innovation with its embrace of employee participation in social media. Instead of stifling them, it is actually encouraging employees to participate in the read/write web and become evangelists for the IBM brand.

This issue is all about trust. Schools don’t trust students or teachers to do the right thing. Companies don’t trust employees. but the problem lies not with the technology, but with with setting expectations and ensuring those expectations are met. When a company blocks access to social media, it is blocking access to its own future growth and when a school blocks access to social media it is blocking access to a student’s future growth.

I guess I can live with a private enterprise putting shackles on if it so chooses, but slowing students understanding unnecessarily is shameful. By blocking access to social media in school, we force students to participate in the read/write web elsewhere, and often without guidance or supervision. When left to their own devices without any guidance, social media for youth often becomes exactly what we fear for them in the first place- a pit of ignorance. If we open the gates at school, and have teachers thoughtfully guiding social media interactions, it can provide unique learning opportunities unlike any other.

I think the Love & Logic philosophy of Jim & Charles Fay has it right: give a kid a job you know they can do and then pray that they mess it up. When this happens we have what is known as a significant learning opportunity. When we ban social media from school, we are stealing from kids an ability to learn about regulating their own activities. Personally, I’d rather have kids learn about the consequences of wasting all of their time on Facebook at school than at their first job.

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