Most recent public comments by Dr. Fox Morgan Quisenberry https://nowcomment.com/users/56309 https://nowcomment.com/documents/141908?scroll_to=1374303 https://nowcomment.com/documents/141908?scroll_to=1374303 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. Sat, 20 Jul 2019 23:17:46 -0400