Should we teach social media in the classroom? Fall 2018
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Is Social Media Relevant? Take the Quiz
Before we talk social media, let's talk about the relevance of social media by taking a quiz. Which of the following is most likely to be true?
- ☐ Should we teach letter-writing in the classroom? Kids need to write letters and mail them. But what if they become pen pals with strangers and share private information with them? What if their letter gets lost in the mail and the wrong person opens it? Are we opening up a whole dangerous world to our students once they mail letters to others? Surely students will send thousands of letters through the mail in their lifetime.
- ☐ Should we teach email in the classroom? Kids need to email other people and should know how to title a subject. But what if they email someone bad? What if they accidentally send it to the wrong person? What will we do? And are we opening up a whole dangerous world to our students once they email others? Surely students will send thousands of emails in their lifetime.
- ☐ Should we teach (dare we say it) social media in the classroom? I mean, they don't have to learn microblogging on Twitter -- you can do that in Edmodo, right? You can have a private blog or put them on Kidblogs or Edublogs instead of letting them post long status updates on Facebook, right? Are we opening up a whole dangerous world to our students once they are writing online and posting comments to each other? Surely students will post thousands of status updates, pictures, and blogs in their lifetime.
The Social Media Answer
- ☑ There's one form of writing that can arguably get someone fired, hired or forced to retire faster than any other form of writing. (If you don't believe me, read "How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco's Life" in the New York Times.)
- ☑ There's one form that will most likely be read by college admissions offices and teams of student "stalkers" hired to vet students before they receive scholarships.
- ☑ There's one form that will prevent some people from running for political office and get others elected.
One form of writing is that powerful.
If you guessed social media, you're right.
One positive aspect I see when using social media, is that it gives students different opportunities to learn about all forms of social media. It’s so crazy how you can discuss with others around the world, and it’s a powerful tool to use in the classroom. Technology is constantly growing and never ending, so teaching the students the correct way to use these tools is very important. I can’t say social media has any negative aspects when using in the classroom, but rather a concern for personal use of social media. As we discussed in previous class discussion, cyberbullying is a problem. It is very important for the teacher to first discuss how to use social media correctly before bringing it into the classroom. Another negative is that lot of students do not have access to social media. How do we teach those who don’t? I believe twitter will continue to be a trend to gather information from students replacing the normal exit slip. I also believe blog post, and Facebook, will continue to grow and be used in classrooms. Like I said previously, technology is constantly growing, so why not use those to teach students?
One positive I see is teaching students how to be responsible with social media. It determines a lot when it comes to their future job or university. A negative of social media in the classroom is the likelihood of students using it for inappropriate activities or to distract them from the lessons in the classroom. However, I think this can be controlled for the most part by using fake versions of social media sites or teaching it offline first like the sticky note activity mentioned. I see social media sites like twitter and instagram continuing to be a popular way to share information. Twitter more so for teachers and instagram for students to share what they have created. I could see social media being used in the reverse classroom format frequently.
The Social Media Myth
The myth about social media in the classroom is that if you use it, kids will be Tweeting, Facebooking and Snapchatting while you're trying to teach. We still have to focus on the task at hand. Don't mistake social media forsocializing. They're different -- just as kids talking as they work in groups or talking while hanging out are different.
You don't even have to bring the most popular social media sites into your classroom. You can use Fakebook or FakeTweet as students work on this form of conversation. Edublogs, Kidblog, Edmodo, and more will let you use social media competencies and writing techniques. Some teachers are even doing "tweets" on post-it notes as exit tickets. You can use mainstream social media, too.
12 Ways Teachers are Using Social Media in the Classroom Right Now
- Tweet or post status updates as a class. Teacher Karen Lirenman lets students propose nuggets of learning that are posted for parents to read.
- Write blog posts about what students are learning. Teacher Kevin Jarrettblogs reflections about his Elementary STEM lab for parents to read each week.
- Let your students write for the world. Linda Yollis' students reflect about learning and classroom happenings.
- Connect to other classrooms through social media. Joli Barker is fearlessly connecting her classroom through a variety of media.
- Use Facebook to get feedback for your students' online science fair projects. Teacher Jamie Ewing is doing this now, as he shared recently.
- Use YouTube for your students to host a show or a podcast. Don Wettrick's students hosted the Focus Show online and now share their work on a podcast.
- Create Twitter accounts for a special interest projects. My studentMorgan spent two years testing and researching the best apps for kids with autism (with the help of three "recruits"), and her work just won her an NCWIT Award for the State of Georgia.
- Ask questions to engage your students in authentic learning. Tom Barrett did this when his class studied probability by asking about the weather in various locations.
- Communicate with other classrooms. The Global Read Aloud, Global Classroom Project and Physics of the Future are three examples of how teachers use social media to connect their students as they collaborate and communicate.
- Create projects with other teachers. (Full disclosure: I co-created Physics of the Future with Aaron Maurer, a fellow educator I first met on Twitter.)
- Share your learning with the world. My students are creating anEncyclopedia of Learning Games with Dr. Lee Graham's grad students at the University of Alaska Southeast. The educators are testing the games, and the students are testing them, too.
- Further a cause that you care about. Mrs. Stadler's classes are working to save the rhinos in South Africa, and Angela Maiers has thousands of kids choosing to matter.
It's in the Standards
If you're going to ignore social media in the classroom, then throw out theISTE Standards for Students and stop pretending that you're 21st century. Stop pretending that you're helping low-income children overcome the digital divide if you aren't going to teach them how to communicate online.
Social media is here. It's just another resource and doesn't have to be a distraction from learning objectives. Social media is another tool that you can use to make your classroom more engaging, relevant and culturally diverse.
General Document Comments 0
The positive aspects of social media practice/use in the classroom include the chance for students to become familiar with different types of social media accounts (e.g., Twitter versus SnapChat versus Facebook, etc…) and how/when to use them appropriately. This is the 21st century, and as such, social media accounts have become so popular that even current US President Trump posts on his social media account (Twitter) rather frequently. The negatives, in my opinion, is that 1) checking social media accounts can be rather “habit-forming” (i.e., addictive), and 2) everyone’s/anyone’s opinion could be posted on any social media account. Both the first and second negative aspects I mentioned should be taught in addition to the technology standards- technology can be “addictive” and so can social media posts and responses from other people. Also, finding out if/who responded to your social media post (i.e., did anyone click “like?” on my new profile picture yet???); the responses and opinions of others could have a negative impact on some student’s self-esteem (e.g., differing opinions, or just plain rude comments by other social media users). In the privacy of their own homes, students may have access to more/other social media accounts (parents should partake in this conversation as well…), and need to understand when to take a break from social media accounts and when to ignore another person’s response/comment. We need to teach students: your attention is valuable, so do not waste one second of it on anyone who is intentionally hurtful, like bullies, on social media- because they just want your attention (don’t give it to them :)
Trends that I predict and believe will continue include the negative trends as mentioned previously…but if we teach students to prepare themselves with these expectations of social media posts- sometimes you will not always get the response/retweet, etc…you want, and you are STILL important- do NOT let social media accounts dictate how you feel about yourself. Sometimes there are bullies on social media accounts (ignore them…yay!). I am hoping the trend of “reacting without giving a reaction” to certain posts that are offensive (whether it is simply someone’s ill-formed opinion or is something that no one really “needs” to know about) will increase.
For example: on snapchat a couple of days ago, a celebrity snap chat about one of the Kardashian sisters: SNAPCHAT HEADLINE- Kardashian Sibling (one of the younger two sisters) Looks Superb in BLUE LATEX DRESS (?!?!)- I literally burst out laughing after seeing this…and rather than posting on facebook how I felt about this very strange option of clothing for this celebrity (and how it is made of the same material my doctor’s gloves are made of…), I did not say anything. Because really, I didn’t care enough to post about someone else’s goofy-figure-hugging-blue-latex-glove-dress. No attention given (and though she/this SC was not an offensive picture/intentionally hurtful, etc…),even though it did make me laugh; but it was still not worth my attention on Facebook or SnapChat. (And I admit, it was still silly and random enough, to me, that I thought to mention it on here…). Laugh out loud
Through this master’s program I have seen that social media CAN be used for more than just socializing. I have used technology my whole life and, for the most part, there has always been some type of it to look something else which has made it very useful. With that, though, I feel that because of the rate that I grew up with technology and since I have mostly used social media for social reasons that everyone does but I have come to see that you can use these different types of social media for a variety of purposes!
As the document said, social media and future technology is coming and continuing to develop so just as ways to teach math and science have evolved over time so has the need for teaching about technology, social media, and how to use it to help one another. If this is taught to students at a young age, they will grow up with technology and social media in such a different perspective than the rest of the world which would provide endless positives to using it. One can think that if social media is being used in a classroom then it’s being used in a positive, insightful way which could, then, carry over into reality; just as the teachings of math, science, english, etc. all do! Of course, as always, in a classroom there will be those few students who will use social media in a negative way but as you discipline in a typical classroom, you can do the same for a tech class, as well. My 5th graders are already learning about cyberbullying so I feel the earlier it is taught the better chance we have at it being used for good!
If life becomes anything like the video we watched on 10/24, we do not even realize the trends that will be put in place for us one day. I am in true awe of all the creative inventors, engineers, etc. out in the world because they come up with things that are unimaginable!
I think there are more benefits than negatives when using social media inside the classroom. If you would have asked me before starting this masters program, I would have definitely said social media inside the classroom shouldn’t exist, but I would’ve been wrong. You can utilize social media to optimize student growth and development. Activities such as Mystery Skype give students the opportunity to interact with students all over the world! The negative of using social media would be if students are not using technology properly inside the classroom. I think by modeling and teaching students how to be great digital citizens is the key here. Teaching social media inside the classroom is vital to student growth in today’s society. I think we are just now entering the social media day and age and these platforms such as twitter and instagram will only continue to grow and evolve over time and will be utilized in the classroom.
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