Education needs fewer rockstars, and more rockstar ideas
Nov 06
Mack Collier’s ‘Social media needs fewer rockstars, and more rockstar ideas‘ makes some really interesting points about how, in his world of social media, ideas are often valued on the basis of how prominent (in terms of followers/subscribers etc) the author is the online community – the so-called ‘rock-star’ effect. This makes the threshold too high for getting new ideas from new folks out into the effective thought- and collaboration space online.
This is not only a concern in the world of social media but also in the world of online education.The online education echo-chamber has preoccupied and frustrated me from time to time over the years. Edublogging celebrity even drove me to poetry a while back.
When I first seriously started using Twitter almost 1000 tweets ago, I thought it would be the antidote to the ‘rock star’ effect. For me, it wasn’t primarily about following people. It was about following conversations. You were afforded a glimpse into conversations that people were having with folks that you weren’t following, building a learning network organically as the conversations turned to areas of interest. Then Twitter changed the default behaviour of the technology so that you could not see the conversations that your followers were having with others outside your network. Twitter became a ‘fishbowl’ for me at that moment.
The only real way to further build the network is to throw numbers of people into your bowl in the hope of building conversations. I must say at this point that I am incredibly happy with the drip-feed of ideas, humour and experience that my small fishbowl of 200 followers provides. However, I wonder how easy it would be for say, a bevy of Northamptonshire teachers, new to Twitter, to get their ideas heard or to get an effective following that would allow them to make use of the rock-star audience techniques of calling for responses for stuff they are doing in the classroom.
I have always waxed lyrical about the beauty of potentially-global, online collaboration and communication, enjoying its benefits in my classrooms and schools. It is brilliant to connect with like-minded individuals from around the world, at a Teach-Meet, or on a Sunday evening video conference. How though do you take those principles and apply and implement them across a county or region? My bluff has been called after all these years in my new job! How do you bottle the scatter-gun of enthusiasm and collaboration from around the country/world and make it happen in your immediate locality? How do you ensure that regions are producing people and ideas that are feeding in the online educational ecosystem, widening and embedding the principles of TeachMeet or ETRU throughout the local level?
Recognising that this is the $ 64000 question, I of course do not have the answer but I’m sure Mack Collier’s advice is part of the solution:
Listen closely to new ideas from new voices, and magnify both when you hear them. So many of us complain about the ‘fishbowl’ mentality in the social media space. A great way to counter that is to bring new voices with fresh takes into this space. Introduce your network to someone they might not have heard of previously. Yes we all know who the ‘rockstars’ in this space are, so show us who’s next. - Mack Collier
Taking Mack’s advice on board I’ve wiped my blog subscriptions clean (yet again) and am on the look out for ideas from people I haven’t read before and also from disciplines outside education. My twitter fishbowl will keep me ‘ticking over’ educationally while I make a foray into new areas to see what ideas and conversations they offer up. Perhaps I will find the answer to my $64000 question. I’ll be sure to let you know who I meet along the way. If there are any edu-rock stars out there with a rock-star solution, I’ll download your next album 
Stick with me…
I remember a story where someone is pulled over for speeding and says to the policeman, “Everybody was speeding – why’d you pick on me?”
The policeman replied, “You ever been fishing?” and, when the driver nodded a ‘yes’, the policeman adds, “…and did you ever catch all the fish?”
If you dump all the people you’ve been following, aren’t you reducing your chances of catching hold of something useful. Surely, by following people you’ve found helpful before, you’re got more chance than simply picking random, fresh fish who’ve never come up with anything before?
A bit like the policeman in the story. Watch a known spot for speeding motorists and catch them one at a time. Follow proven ideas people and you’ve got a good chance off picking something up. At the same time, maybe aim to follow X amount of new people per week?
Thanks for your comment. I think the issue for me is not about abandoning people I have followed. Rather it is about being open to new ideas and breaking out of the echo chamber that confines and defines my thinking at least, over time. Ideas and action people that have been helpful in the past will no doubt feature in my ongoing network relationships.
However, ‘fresh fish’ don’t need to be randomly picked but are crucial for sustainability. The same skills that have served to build my network in the past will be applied in new areas. Twitter will keep me superficially abreast of important ideas in the meantime.
I’m just like the policeman in the story. I’m simply taking the tried and tested principle to other known spots to catch some new motorists.
Your web-presence is impressive by the way. Thanks for stopping by
Hi Peter,
A few short years ago it was easy to follow most of the edubloggers in the UK, certainly in 2004 I remember being in a group of 4 folk and we reckoned we had three quarters of the scots edubloggers (there was an american present). Now there is too much content being produced to keep up with even given the efficiencies of RSS. So we need to filter and twitter is part of the filter, following links from trusted individuals to posts from folk we don’t normally read.
I don’t think the rockstar effect can be avoided, but some of the stars are stars because of great ideas and practise some because of a good publicity/networking engine.
Last year I would have had no problem in encouraging to fellow practitioners to jump into this soup of idea sharing. Now I am less sure:
First as the blogosphere develops there is a widening gap between the adopters and non-adopters, I am meeting a fair number of teachers who find email problematic while the teachmeeters sprint through an increasing large cloud f web 2 applications.
Second there is a workload implication, to get a reasonable value from online collaboration you need to put in many hours over ‘normal’ cpd.
I am not sure where this leaves me but I’ll be interested to see how you take this forward in your new role.
Hey Peter, thanks for the mention! I also think another reason why it’s a good idea to listen to new voices is because people that are just starting to blog and enter into this space may purposely TRY to come up with new and different viewpoints/ideas, simply to STAND OUT from the echo chamber. And besides that, they are entering this space with ‘fresh eyes’. I haven’t known what it’s like to be ‘new’ to social media in years, but for someone that’s just discovering this space, they will have opinions and viewpoints that I could probably never dream of.
Always a good idea to bring in new water from outside the fishbowl.
John, you articulate the angst I am feeling in my new role perfectly. Being a teacher at the chalkface was easy. I just thought about myself and my pupils and got on with the innovative stuff. When you have a brief for developing others with the extremes and ranges of adoption that you describe, it’s a totally different kettle of fish. I’m starting simple and building bit by bit – more easy listening artist than rock star
Hi Mack,
Thanks for stopping by! I definitely want to be open to the new voices and ideas. It is definitely healthy for the fishbowl