As far as educational technology goes, TikTok may not be the first tool that comes to mind. Yet this social media platform has become the focal point of investigation over the past two weeks as my teammates and I embark on a new learning adventure for LRNT 526, Inquiry into Contemporary Issues in Learning Technologies. This app is of interest to our group because of its popularity among youth, surpassing one billion downloads in 2019, with 40% of its users under 24 years of age (Beutell, 2020). As a team, we will engage in TikTok as users, to better understand its intricacies for our final learning event. My role within the team is to assess impacts of TikTok, for example, its algorithm, the biopsychosocial model of social media, and cognitive consequences.
TikTok, by its very nature, is in constant flux. It has the capacity to be different things for different people. It can encourage, magnify, and confuse discussions around content and issues (Hautea et al., 2021). Permeated within its features are self-idolizing rhetoric and click-bait microvideo parameters. It is intentionally geared toward impressionable adolescent minds (Rodgers et al., 2020), and its impacts are many.
Curious to uncover more, we delved into the specifics. TikTok proves itself to be an increasingly high-yielding tool, offering a platform for multimodal use. It is a communal enterprise (Rempel, 2020), relying on creators for content that can be repurposed or remixed. Teachers have taken to TikTok to make connections, seek student engagement, and foster creativity (Jaeger, 2021). For example, a popular hashtag trending for education is #LearnOnTikTok, where educators reach their students through lessons and activities, which can be done privately with or without an account. This in mind, we wondered about TikTok’s ethical implications, eventually extending our questions to solutions that could address concerns such as TikTok’s algorithmic digital profiling (Mahaffey, 2021), which led to curiosity around digital adverse event detection (Purushothaman et al., 2022).
There are many content creators and trending hashtags on TikTok, but one that caught my eye two years ago at an Assembly of First Nations Education Summit was @NotoriousCree and #NativeTikTok. Through #NativeTikTok and #Indigenous, Indigenous content creators such as James Jones, also known as @NotoriousCree, have used the platform to create awareness, tackle stereotypes, and uplift Indigenous voices. For these reasons, I have chosen to dig deeper into the educational content provided by Indigenous content creators for my individual learning project. Through critical inquiry, I intend to extend my group’s guiding question, Can TikTok be used educationally? to affirm that #NativeTikTok and #Indigenous have demonstrated that education is happening on TikTok, it just may not be happening in the colonial context we all know too well. My question, therefore, with respect to Indigenous TikTok is, Can TikTok be a viable tool for learning about Indigeneity?
In the right hands, within the right parameters, TikTok’s potential is endless. Alternatively, it can be problematized by its lack of regulations, unfiltered content, and ethical implications (Beutell, 2020). We recognize the scope for our topic is extensive and have worked to narrow it down to pillars that will hopefully lay the foundation for a great project. What are your thoughts?
References
Beutell, J. M. (2020, January). Children’s rights and social media: An analysis of TikTok’s Terms of Service through the lens of a young user. [Paper Presentation]. University of Illinois Global Education Symposium 2019, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. http://hdl.handle.net/2142/106069
Hautea, S., Parks, P., Takahashi, B., & Zeng, J. (2021). Showing they care (or don’t): Affective publics and ambivalent climate activism on TikTok. Social Media + Society, 7. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051211012344
Jaeger, G. (September 1, 2021). From nuisance to learning platform – how teachers are transforming TikTok into an edtech tool. Spaces. https://spacesedu.com/en/tiktok-as-a-teaching-tool/
Mahaffey, C. (2021). TikTok, May I? A Call for Virtue Ethics in Adolescent Online Privacy Practices. [Doctoral Dissertation, Texas Tech University]. Texas Tech University. https://hdl.handle.net/2346/87858
Purushothaman, V., McMann, T., Nali, M., Li, Z., Cuomo, R., & Mackey, T. K. (2022). Content analysis of nicotine poisoning (nic sick) videos on tiktok: retrospective observational infodemiology study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(3), 34050. https://doi.org/10.2196/34050
Rempel, S. (Dec 4, 2020). TikTok for news: Why there’s a place for journalism on the app. J-Source. https://j-source.ca/tiktok-for-news-why-theres-a-place-for-journalism-on-the-app/
Rodgers, R.F., Slater, A., Gordon, C.S., McLean, S.A., Jarman, H.K., & Paxton, S.J. (2020). A biopsychosocial model of social media use and body image concerns, disordered eating, and muscle-building behaviors among adolescent girls and boys. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 49, 399–409. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-01190-0
April 24, 2022 at 12:32 am
Angela, your topic of using TikTok as a viable tool for learning about Indigeneity is very relevant to the focus of our course. Both examining its potential and problematizing it should lead to a richer understanding of not only Tik Tok in itself, but also in how (as you note) this relates to a colonial context. I look forward to seeing what your study turns up.
April 25, 2022 at 9:37 am
Hi Angela,
Your topics and interest are always a peace of mind to read as you often take on the Indigenous views that we share a similar passion for. I think TikTok has offered a voice for so many in the last few years, many friends in the North use it to promote culture and offer cultural awareness on various levels. The voices are stronger when the audience numbers increase and this technology definately illustrates popularity and a global audience. I haven’t used TikTok personally, but daily I find the TikTok pull stronger the more I see the Indigenous community is strong. Thank you for bringing forward the Indigenous lens on this topic.
– Myrna
April 26, 2022 at 6:40 pm
Thank you, Myrna. I am grateful for your comment, and for your input. The more I dig in, the more I realize the potential for TikTok and for future TikTok-like applications for Indigeneity. Selwyn (2010) speaks of obstacles impeding technological progress, of overcoming these obstacles, and I am happy to share that my research is growing to support TikTok as a viable tool for disrupting the status quo. If you are interested, I can share an article by Cote-Meek & Moeke-Pickering (2020), entitled Decolonizing and Indigenizing Education in Canada, in which they advocate for thinking “outside of the colonial box” (268), where “social media disrupts the dominant colonial and patriarchy voice, their worldview and control” (270). To me, this is it. This is worth investigating!
Thank you again,
Angela
April 26, 2022 at 6:58 pm
Thank you, Irwin.
I am very excited as I continue to learn about impacts of TikTok. For example, how it is considered a learning nugget (Linke, 2022); how it disrupts what is considered acceptable educational practice through examples of its use in educational contexts (Putri, 2021); and where hashtags can mobilize activism (Cote-Meek & Moeke-Pickering, 2020). It’s been a great experience so far!
Angela
Cote-Meek, S., & Moeke-Pickering, T. (2020). Decolonizing and indigenizing education in canada. Canadian Scholars.
Linke, K. (2022). Casual Learning within TikTok. Journal of International Business Research and Marketing, 7(3), 7-13.
Putri, R. P. (2021, September). Tiktok as an Online Learning Media During a Pandemic. In 6th International Conference on Education & Social Sciences (ICESS 2021) (pp. 282-287). Atlantis Press. https://www.atlantis-press.com/article/125961172.pdf
May 17, 2022 at 1:39 pm
Hi Angela,
I would definitely be interested in the article you mention, thank you. I need more practice myself as I find at times I am also stuck in the box that I was taught in for a portion of my classroom education and I have to remind myself of the alternatives and its amazing to know there are others like us out there, I see it every day the positive steps in the directions we are headed and researching definitely will support gut feelings. – Thank you.