"Connection In an Isolated Age"

I thought of this line a lot at SXSWEdu. It's from the musical RENT, specifically from the song "What You Own."

So what made me think of this? The answer is twofold:

1) People kept talking about how technology can both breed connection and isolation, depending on how you use it;

and

2) There were constant conversations about how we can help students own their learning.

So, in the "all connected" department, I put this together. And I realized that, in order to breed connection rather than isolation, teachers, too, need to own and embrace the technology, in students' and their own teaching.

Yesterday, Gerol shared a fascinating report about technology use among teens. We need to harness this. There is so much more we can do to build learning and community with these students, who can seem so isolated, enveloped in their own little cell-phone world.

Sure, there will be things that need to be done that come from "on high" but perhaps it is time for explicit connections to be made with these messages, rather than the oh-so-often heard "because I said so" type messages that I, and I am sure many others, are used to receiving from administrators.

Yesterday, Laura pointed out that Google+ is where she often finds her "kindred fish." These days, it is much easier for educators to find other kindred fish on platforms like Google + and Twitter. Can we use them to our benefit and our students' benefit even more?

That said, there are so many ways to build community in our classes. Technology can be a barrier to community, but, if used correctly, I believe it can maintain or even build community. Especially with platforms like Edmodo, Google Drive, and Canvas around and available. Using technology because you were told you "had to use technology" - for the sake of simply using technology, without a purpose - is harmful to that community.

How can we build communities with technology and not force students into technology isolation, or allow them to isolate themselves? How can we face the fear that technology sometimes brings with it? What can we do to help both students and ourselves own technology, teaching, and learning?