Social Media

Social Media is a recent technological phenomena. Although there are some risks that make people uncomfortable with the notion of bringing social media into the classroom, it can be a great tool to enhance learning. Social Media allows people to connect with individuals around the world and receive real-time news, updates, and feedback.

Risks include reliability, permanence of content posted, distractions, discouraging social skills, cyber bullying, and access to technology. Reliability as a risk includes that the available information may not be accurate or may be of poor quality. This reiterates the importance of digital literacy in the classroom to ensure students become successful digital citizens. With the ease of access and normalization of social media we would be doing a disservice to students if we do not expose students to proper education in this regard.

Students need to be aware of the permanence of content they upload or share. From a young age they are shaping their digital presence. We must educate students on appropriate ways to do so that will not hinder future employment opportunities. Another risk that arises is the potential distraction that incorporating social media into the classroom might bring. However, we cannot expect children to have exceptional attention spans when we know adults also struggle to focus for extended periods. Student distraction is already prevalent and will never be eradicated, as it is simply human nature. In contrast, incorporating social media into the classroom might help draw in reluctant learners.

Social media is criticized with decreasing social skills through limited face to face interactions. However, education around social media helps to increase different social competencies. Through this medium students learn about digital etiquette, cyber bullying, and can be exposed to other social behaviour. Again, this emphasizes the need for teaching proper digital literacies when planning to incorporate social media in the learning process. Ease of access is another difficulty for some teachers, when using social media to enhance learning it might be necessary to have devices for each student along with functional internet access.

Some examples of ways to enhance and support learning through incorporating social media are as follows:

1. Teaching empathy and resilience in the classroom and the effects of cyber bulling

2. Communication with students all over the world- Mystery Skype

3. Introducing online 'writing journals' and sharing them through a class blog

4. Communicating with professionals, such as Bill Nye, during science units and lessons using Twitter

According to Twitteracy: Tweeting as a New Literacy Practice, Greenhow and Gleason state: "Young people’s varied use of Twitter in learning settings was found to support a number of positive educational outcomes, including increased student engagement, active learning, improved relationship between students and instructors, and higher grades" (Greenhow & Gleason, Pp. 468). Therefore, incorporating this platform in the classroom as a new literacy will benefit student learning. I am particularly excited about this endeavour. An idea for using this platform to support learning is through tweeting a professional, such as Bill Nye, during a science unit to ask questions about the focus of study. This can promote student inquiry and excite students through making real world connections.

Another interesting example is using Mystery Skype to connect with another class. This is an exciting way to incorporate social studies and geography with social media. Students will communicate through a Skype call with another class in an unknown destination around the world. Students must discuss and exchange inquiries with the other class to deduce their whereabouts in the world. Again, students are able to reflect on real world examples which solidifies learning through adding meaning and relevance.

For more ideas and information check out our Preservice Teacher's Guide to Social Media

Works Cited

Bill Nye. Retrieved on March 20, 2017 from: http://billnye.com

Class Blogs. Retrieved on March 20, 2017 from: http://edublogs.org

Greenhow, C., & Gleason, B. (2012). Twitteracy: Tweeting as a New Literacy Practice. The Educational Forum, 76(4), 464-478.

Image. Social Media. Retrieved on Feb 2, 2017 from: http://cdn2.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/socialnetworks-21417.jpg

Mystery Skype. Retrieved March 20, 2017 from: https://education.microsoft.com/skype-in-the- classroom/mystery-skype

The Preservice Teacher's Guide to Social Media. (2017). Retrieved online on February 6, 2017 from: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13DgxoRmVVlIXZfMoDmlNamlztUE265HSPX0jP-4FviM/edit#slide=id.p

Twitter. Retrieved March 20, 2017 from: https://mobile.twitter.com