This is the Moment: Legitimize Social Media in Education

It can not be denied. Social Media is now a part of everyday reality.

The situation in Iran demonstrates this beyond any of the articles TIME or NEWSWEEK will ever write.

Twitter's simple statement explaining that they would halt a scheduled maintenance this evening so as to not disrupt a means of communications for news within and without Iran demonstrates this beyond the pundifications of any of the loose cannons on cable news.

It's happened.

This weekend will go down in history in two ways. First, it will mark -- for better or worse depending on the outcome -- a fundamental shift in the way the people of Iran are able to express dissent with their government. Second, at least here in the United States, this weekend will mark the moment at which the mainstream media -- particularly cable news -- was overwhelmed by social media.

It can not be denied. We are all now living in a world of social media. You can't claim ignorance. You can't call it a 'trend'. Whether or not Twitter exists in five years is besides the point. What happened this weekend is that social media became -- in the most legitimate way -- the voice of the people.

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Now, what do we do as educators?

Well, I'd say that this moment both offers us an open door and compels us to act. The door that has been opened now allows us to cross the threshold of the legitimacy debate. No one who has followed the #IranElection feed can argue that social media is not a vital and legitimate media source; nor can they argue that social media is nothing more than the playground of the Internet. If anything, what that feed demonstrates is that social media is the closest thing to an active collaboration of global human thought and knowledge that exists or has ever existed in the the collected history of global humankind.

It compels us to act immediately as educators because our students can not afford to have their access to this Zeitgeist blocked by foolish laws and fearful bureaucrats.

The blocking debate ended this weekend.

Goodbye to the last vestiges of 20th century top-down media. Goodbye to the fear of what humans might produce given the opportunity to work collectively in thought and goodwill. Good morning, humankind.

So teachers, don't try to teach kids to live in a world that doesn't exist anymore. Rather, reach out and take hold of the possibilities social media offers. Anyone countering you doesn't deserve the authority their office holds.

This is the moment. Legitimize social media in education.