William Cope
Abylai Aidarov
Lavine LimaMultimodal Literacies MOOC’s Updates
Locale Difference
In this assignment I would like to dwell on the locale difference -- urban vs rural to discuss multimodal literacy in terms of using social media for educational purposes.
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-for-education/
https://elearningindustry.com/social-media-in-education-improve-learning
Relying on the experience of my country (Ukraine), I can say that students who live in remote rural areas don't usually utilize the merits of social media in the education to the fullest. It can be caused by the financial status of the family or simply by the absence of Internet connection.
Social media is sometimes underestimated in education environment as they are simply viewed as an entertainment platfoms. But I totally disgree with it.
Firstly, social media are good platfoms to communicate internationally, which is extremely important for EFL students. Secondly, they are a decent resource of data collection for research work. Thirdly, they provide a lot of systems of self-education, distance learning, Finally, carreer oriented social media are perfect tool for networking, career search, creating portfolio etc.
Thus, students of rural as well as urban areas should exploit social media to develop their ITC skills, creativity, communciation skills,ditigal as well as media literacies.
I couldn't agree more @Uliana Tykha. Here in Brazil happens the same with the students from rural spaces. Not only they have less access to internet, but also when they get to have a smartphone and create a social media account they don't see how much that can bring to them in terms of learning english. I think it's up to the teachers to work with this broader view, that they can meet other people, other cultures, improve their classroom learning and even become fluent. It is a matter of teaching values - changing their mindsets, their attitudes towards the social media and local difference - than the techniques themselves.