Have you ever wondered why your students take stealthy (well not really...) selfies and photos during your class? It is a crazy popular messenger app called Snapchat. A little yellow button with a ghost on it that allows its users to send 10 second picture and video messages to their friends. The messages self destruct after opening. How exciting is that? My mom and I were having a conversation and she asked the question that a lot of people are asking, "What is the point?" I will tell you one thing, this app is POPULAR. Facebook offered them 3 billion dollars to buy them like they did Instagram, but they said...no! Someone telling Facebook no? Crazy considering they monopolize the social media world. I turned to YouTuber Casey Neistat and his video, "Snapchat Murders Facebook," to get some answers. According to Neistat, other social media sites have not integrated videos well. Snapchat is the only platform that allows seamless video sharing. Neistat believes that people are interested in the ephemeral. Snapchat allows people to see things as they happen and then they disappear. Just like real life. This app gives the impression of in the moments, raw & real insight to the NOW. Just like Neistat's video on Instagram, this video focuses on the 'Snapstory' function of this app. This section strings together pictures and videos together to create a story. These stories only last for 24 hours and have the ability to mimic your real life. Bloggers and pseudo-celebrities (hello Kylie Jenner) give their fans access to their day to day lives through these Snapstories. It is a whole new level of connection through our phones and tablets, something that feels real in a world of likes and filters.
Snapchat is a language our students speak. I don't think teachers should be snapping their students; there is a level of realness that does not need to breach the student-teacher relationship. However, there may be some cool ways to use this app in your classroom. I used snapchat the other day to demonstrate the writing assignment my students are doing to scaffold their narratives. I am having them write snapshots. Snapshots---Snapchats. Obvisously, my students made the connections instantly. Their narratives are like their snapstories. These snapshots are like the snapchats that make up the story. If you haven't used Snapchat this might sound confusing. I recommend watching Neistat's video so you can get a visual of what I am talking about. And in case you were wondering, yes. My mom does have a snapchat account. Neistat, C. (2014 October 2). Snapchat Murders Facebook [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/kKSr6h5-fCU
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Laszlo Bock seemed to also place stock on challenging yourself. He brought up the idea of people changing majors in college because the original was too hard. Bock says companies want to see you have "grit." People, at companies like Google, want to hire people who are not afraid of challenge and can persevere. My two cents? If you love the subject you are studying then stick with it! If you hate it and regret studying it because you legitimately hate the field, then dump it! Life is too short to waste your educational investment. Another tip Bock had for job seekers was to make your though process explicit during your interview. Bock likes "logical, structured-thinking beings." In most situations, interviewees give a positive attribute and state a story demonstrating it. Bock suggests taking it further by explaining how the story demonstrates it and how that attribute creates value.
Friedman, T (2014, April 19). How to Get a Job at Google, Part 2. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-google-part-2.html
Just about everyone can agree that Google knows what they are doing. There was a whole movie about getting hired as an intern there (and no this post is not about that movie but I totally recommend it. Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson? How could you go wrong?).So what does the Senior VP of People Operations look for when he's hiring for Google? Luckily for us, Thomas Friedman over at the NY Times asked Laszlo Bock. Bock realizes that most people assume that Google places the most stock in someone's expertise but that is actually not the case! There are 5 attributes they look for at Google: cognitive ability (i.e your ability to learn and relearn), humility, ownership, leadership and lastly, expertise. I found it interesting that Bock didn't put stock into a college education as the be all. He believes that persons ability to be an asset at Google does not directly correlate to where they graduated college. College induced stress is prevalent among my students. Highschoolers place so much pressure on themselves to get into colleges they assume make them more valuable or successful. I agree that they type of education does not make you valuable but what you are able to do with it shows more. The skills that Bock outlines are all things that we can incorporate into our classrooms. Take for example humility. Do your students know when they should step up as leader, as well as step down to let other people take over? Google wants to see,“a big ego and small ego in the same person at the same time.” I think humility is such a valuable life skill to teach our students. So many of our high achievers are so afraid of failure, they fail to see the benefit from the learning experience.
Friedman, Thomas L. "How to Get a Job at Google." The New York Times. The New York Times, 22 Feb. 2014. Web. 27 Sept. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-google.html?_r=1>.
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AuthorDevout book worm. Archives
May 2016
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