Accessing Generation Like in Your Classroom

I recent watched a documentary called "Generation Like" I was very intrigued. In short the documentary shows how companies use individuals search history and social media usage (liking, sharing, etc) to bring advertising to the user. The documentary then goes to show how individuals who create their social media content and become popular (get a lot of likes or followers) can turn their "likes" into currency. In some cases, like it or not, students self worth comes from the number of likes their posts get. One reason for this could be that, if they get enough likes/followers, companies start to take interest and will pay them to promote their products through their social media. Whether they have 15 minutes of fame (remember "Damn Daniel!") or long time Youtube superstar Pewdiepie (over 49 000 000 subscribers) people are making money now by having followers and getting "likes". 

Understanding that students are a part of "Generation Like" and a lot of their day to day satisfaction comes from "likes" or "subscribers", how can we harness this in the classroom? 

Well, let's think about/look at gamification (not game based learning) but true gamification, students earning experience points to level up through assignments and tests. What if you turned your classroom into a social media setting where students collected "likes" and "followers". What if your assessments weren't a mark or a scale but a number of "likes" or "shares" and students needed to collect a certain number of "likes" to achieve a certain mark or to achieve a benchmark with their ultimate goal is to become a social media star in the classroom. If you really wanted to step up your game and tie it into the reality of likes and social media, there could be other extrinsic rewards like "sponsorship" opportunities based on the number of "likes". Now this situation is a little contrived and may not have the motivation to learn/explore/share we would like, but something to think about nonetheless. I think engagement and motivation in learning are things that we, as educators, are always striving for, especially because we (in Canada) are tied to a curriculum that we must teach. However you, as an educator, harness that motivation, whether it be through gamification, harnessing the power of "likes" or just being an awesome and amazing person, we are teaching a generation of students who are, in the words of Much Music, #MadetoMake.