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?
One form of writing is that powerful.
If you guessed social media, you're right.
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.
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.
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Using social media in the classroom can be used in potentially beneficial ways for teachers, students, and parents. Teachers can use social media resources to stay in touch with current trends, resources, and research in the world of education. Social media tools can be used to communicate quickly and effectively with parents, therefore increasing their involvement in their child’s educational journey and in the school on a larger scale. Teaching students how to and how not to use social media can help ensure safe usage of digital tools while providing them positive educational uses of technology, especially in light of increasing uses of YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram among youth today. Integrating social media into the classroom can not only increase student engagement in learning objectives, it can also help prepare students for future careers by teaching them how to use social media to network and find employment opportunities.
On the other hand, using and allowing social media in the classroom can be viewed as a distraction that disrupts the flow of learning among all students. With students compelled to spend time staring into the screens on their phones, social skills that can only be learned and practiced through face-to-face communication is severely limited. All students need to hone their abilities to express themselves, deliver messages through speaking opportunities, and connect with others in both formal and informal settings. In addition, the ability to abuse social media and cause mental and emotional harm to others through cyberbullying is a huge problem our students can face today. Unfortunately, bullying is known to take place through the unanimous nature of social media, which can have lasting negative impacts on students, especially younger, formative students. We as teachers must model respectful, civil, mature behavior on social media sites for our students. Ultimately, the effectiveness of social media uses in the classroom and beyond falls upon the teacher. It is our responsibility as educators to use social media in educational, developmentally appropriate ways to teach students important lessons about safe digital use and career skills they will use in the future. By teaching and practicing safe online habits with our students, we are educating them to be digitally aware individuals as they grow and mature.
There are several trends I see gaining strength in the next few years, one of which includes the creation of private groups and accounts that allow users to post live videos, share stories, and create social learning units. The growing movement toward increased transparency in ensuring privacy settings, receiving customer feedback, and reporting harassment incidents is another trend I can see continuing into the future. Chatboxes are also updating themselves, and are now being used by companies to communicate with their customers through social media sites. Overall speaking, I think that this trend of overlapping and connecting various digital communication tools with each other will continue to evolve.
I love the creativity this prompt poses about potential future uses of social media. What a great thinking question to introduce to students; I am sure their responses would be out of this world. Personally, I think that the push for greater privacy policies, more live videos and visuals, and more shareable content from company and organization view points will increase. I also think that the number of ads in social media sites will decrease, as will tasks that require excessive typing. In addition, Virtual Reality tools might be introduced to more functional and applicable applications for wider audiences. I am both excited and hesitant about experiencing the future of social media.
I think we should be teaching students about utilizing social media in positive, useful, and most importantly, safe and cognizant ways. Social media is not going away anytime soon. In fact, our world will most likely continue to become more and more interconnected as time progresses. This growing connectivity can be used in incredible ways to help learners of all ages and backgrounds glean information, understanding, perspectives, and resources from others. However, with increased connectivity and convenience comes an increased need for responsible use. We as teachers must be aware of social media purposes, ways to use social media tools in safe, digital footprint-conscience, ways, and model these practices for our students in navigating their digital worlds.
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I agree that social media can be a distraction in the classroom and can possibly affect how students develop socially. If a teacher decides to use social media as a teaching tool, s/he needs to have strong intent behind her/his decision. Teaching students how to use social media to network would be a legitimate reason for a teacher to use it in the classroom.
I found your discussion of future trends intriguing because I was not familiar with these trends of private groups using and users creating social learning units. I agree that the trend toward increased transparency is prevalent, and I hope it will increase customers’ privacy.
We have no idea where social media is heading, especially with the current generation of students growing up surrounded by social media. It will be exciting to see what future generations create.
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Social media has great potential to expand students’ awareness of what is happening in schools around the globe by giving them the opportunity to directly communicate with other students studying similar topics. Social media allows students to possibly learn from other students who directly experience whatever they are studying. Dr. Fox’s story about her son connecting with people with knowledge about the types of lizards he was studying comes to mind. I think students using video calls to connect with students at other schools has potential to get ideas flowing and inspire students to collaborate and develop their creativity. As long as students are thinking creatively, there is no way to tell how they will use social media in the future. Perhaps they will write blog posts with interactive aspects that will allow students across the world to contribute to the posts. They might then use the results of those contributions to conduct research projects. Perhaps students will develop a program that allows them to create robots with input from students across the country on how best to design those robots. The possibilities are endless!
Teachers need to find educational social media platforms that provide only the most positive services for their students. Bringing the most popular social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and other sites, may not be necessary for younger students. These types of social media often lead students down a path of self-deprecation. When social media is used to create a platform where students only post the best aspects of their lives, their friends get a false sense of what their lives are actually like. When students also compare themselves to their peers, celebrities, and online personalities, they give themselves unattainable goals of things they must achieve in order to be cool. This self-deprecating trend does not seem to be going away anytime soon. I believe this type of online presence does not need to be brought into the classroom. Instead, teachers can work to guide their students to use social media in positive ways. Educational blog sites can provide the positive resources of the more popular social media sites without the distractions of pop culture. Teachers can be role models by creating an online presence with a strong awareness of our digital footprint. We can discuss with our students what it means to be good digital citizens, and how they can protect themselves from bullies online.
Many parents use social media to post about their children’s lives, often before their children are old enough to decide whether or not they want their stories posted for all of their parents or the whole world to see. Teachers who did not grow up with social media in their lives from the beginning should be especially aware of how the youngest students are affected by its widespread presence. I predict that the trend of parents posting about their children’s lives is a trend that will increase in popularity over time. Teachers can embrace social media as a way to let parents see their children’s successes. However, teachers need to ensure all of the privacy settings are as secure as possible. Even with taking security precautions, they need to be careful about what they post to ensure that everything online has been given approval to be there from parents and administrators. Teachers can guide their students in protecting themselves in the online profiles they create for themselves by encouraging them to think about all of the important people who might see their profiles someday, such as future school administrators and employers. As social media develops over time, teachers will need to continue to assess the various social media sites and applications and weigh the positive possibilities against negative before bringing those resources into their classrooms.
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I completely agree that teachers need to find educational social media platforms. Teachers should not just use social media without looking into the benefits of it or how it connects to the lesson. Teachers should plan meaningful lessons that incorporate technology or social media into their activity. I love educational blog sites as well and truly believe it promotes a positive awareness to social media.
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Social media has been viewed as a negative tool in the classroom. However, there are ways to use social media that can be beneficial to students. As a teacher, it is first and foremost our job to model to students how to be good digital citizens. Students need to understand digital citizenship and how they should be using the internet in the classroom. When students understand how to safely use social media and technology resources in the classroom, students will benefit greatly.
There are many pros and cons to using technology in the classroom, but I believe the pros outweigh the cons. Teachers may see using social media in the classroom as a distracting piece. However, I see this as an engaging piece. Students in today’s world are built on new technology. Their minds are running a mile a minute and they receive information with just a touch of a button. By incorporating more social media and technology into the curriculum, we are adapting to how student’s today process information. Using social media can be modified in a variety of ways to fit the needs of your classroom. Last year, I used social media or Twitter as a way for students to quickly wrap up what they learned for the day. We used sticky notes where they just wrote their response in a Tweet like note and we also used FakeTweet as well. Students were able to quickly summarize what they learned in a Tweet as well as include engaging hashtags for other students to get involved in the conversation. I also showed a lot of videos on Youtube including a variety of Ted Talks where students would respond on a Blog website post or Padlet. Students loved to respond online and collaborate with their peers in this way.
Not only is social media beneficial in the classroom for students but for parents as well. I have a class website as well as a Twitter page where I am able to share different things we do in class with parents and the community. I am private on all social media accounts so I make sure that this is a safe tool for everyone involved as well.
I believe that there are several trends within technology in the classroom making gains in the next few years. I believe more teachers will be utilizing social media in the classroom whether that is through writing blog posts, posting tweets, or connecting with other classrooms through social media or Google Hangout. There are so many ways for teachers to get involved, and I believe this is extremely beneficial when used correctly and teachers model social media in a positive, safe and engaging environment.
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I agree that though social media can be seen as a hindrance, when used properly, it is an invaluable tool. I like your idea of using something like Twitter for students to write lesson summaries; what an easy way for you to gage how students are responding to instruction! I also agree that as more teachers see the benefits of incorporating social media, they will make it part of their curriculum. I’m glad you mentioned keeping profiles private to ensure safety, because that can calm new users’ hesitations.
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Claire, I think teaching our students to be digital citizens definitely will help with our use of social media in the classroom. Students, should be introduced to using different methods of technology but it is our job as teachers to ensure that we teach them the proper way to use these resources. I think that the more we begin to model the use of these platforms the better our students will truly understand the true use of them. You have some create ideas related to implementation of social media! The use of social media and technology can truly be endless!
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In an educational setting, there are benefits to being part of the social media lifestyle. Teachers are able to share informational updates with parents, keeping them aware of important details such as key dates, schedule changes, and supply lists; this is especially helpful when students forget to write something down to tell their parents. Social media also allows teachers to share photos and videos of students at work. Parents can get an inside look into what goes on in their child’s classroom and know the exact nature of the instruction being given. Teachers can use a social media account to connect with other classrooms and teachers, sharing what their students are doing and reading about another school. Both teachers can exchange ideas about a project one class is working on, or collaborate and create something as a unit. The students can be informed about how the other classroom responded to their post and decide together what to send next.
There are also drawbacks to involving social media in the classroom. A teacher could become too concerned with submitting a polished, perfect appearance of their situation. For example, in my case as a music teacher, I would want to post the best recording of my students playing the song they learned. Yet, this should not be the main focus of my instruction, and if the recording is not flawless, that should be alright, because my students are in the middle of the learning process. Social media is also prone to lead to unhealthy comparisons with others. It is not difficult to look at a colleague’s Twitter or Facebook page and envy the high quality resources she has or how fast her students are improving. This should not be the purpose of participating in social media; too much comparison is bound to become a thief of joy. Additionally, in any use of the internet there is the possibility of inappropriate content, and if a teacher is not careful about who she follows or friends, students can be exposed to material unsuitable for their age. Lastly, if privacy is not closely monitored, connections with the wrong people can be made. It is vital to monitor who has access to social media accounts to ensure the safety of teachers and students.
A social media trend in the context of education that is likely to continue is the open exchange between educators, and the willingness to share ideas. It seems that this correspondence will not only go on, but grow as technology advances, making it easier for teachers from every area to connect with one another. Live videos are another trend whose continuation is probable. This feature was slowly added to each of the social media platforms and its use has become quite popular. As a music teacher, I can record live videos of my students composing while another class tunes in and gives suggestions and feedback; thus, we have collaborated and created a new piece. A new use of social media might include using Twitter polls,which can provide up to four multiple choice options, as a form of assessment, possibly as part of a test review. The teacher can project the class Twitter account and have the students answer the poll while watching the results occur immediately.
Social media etiquette should be taught in school so that students may become aware of how to conduct themselves online. Students should know what content is appropriate to post, and who to allow access to their profiles. Social media is an incredible tool that can be used for creating invaluable experiences, but only when utilized appropriately. With a teacher’s guidance, students have the opportunity to collaborate and make discoveries through the medium of social media.
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The use of social media has been increasing more and more. It has become a part of our daily lives so much so that we depend on it for even our current events. Social media has become away for us to connect with others from around the world and provide us with an insight we may have never had. When used appropriately we can use social media has a learning tool. While there are some negative connotations related to social media, there are many positives. Some of these positive methods can even be implemented into the classroom and used to create learning opportunities for students. While many view social media as just a way to keep up with your friends we can really use it as a way for students to gain other perspectives and engage in different cultures. By using social media platforms, we can create opportunities for our students to communicate and share with other classrooms. Students can have the rare opportunity to communicate with students around the world. We can also use social media to provide students with assessment, students can use it as a form of exit ticket, or discussion board. The opportunities that social media can use can be endless. The importance is that we ensue that students are using these platforms responsibility. Many teachers may fear the use of social media due to the negative connotation it has, but when we teach our students how to be responsible and use social media in the most efficient manner we can eliminate many of these issues. I believe that using these platforms will help reach students that may have been difficult to reach and provide them with memories they can later revisit.
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