Love it or hate it, social media is here to stay. Undoubtedly, I am more connected to friends and family than I would be without the use of social media. So, how is it changing education? Is it changing the learning environment?
Social media is impacting the learning environment of today's students and teachers. Learning does not and should not solely take place within the four walls of a classroom.
Students are also engaged when it comes to technology. We, as educators, should harness their interests and engage students by using social media in the classroom. I recently read an article, My Favorite Teachers Use Social Media: A Student Perspective, and the last paragraph really struck me, "I hope that educators will consider experimenting more with technology and social media in their classrooms in a way that will be intellectually challenging to students. Believe me, your students will appreciate it, even if not every attempt is successful." - Katie Benmar.
Katie makes a good point. I think some teachers don't utilize technology and social media in their classrooms because they don't know if it will be successful, they don't feel comfortable with their knowledge base of the technology/tool, or they have fear of cyber bullying and privacy concerns. The fact is, social media is not going away anytime soon. I would rather incorporate social media into my classroom and teach students how to be responsible users (digital citizenship) than to ban it out of fear of the "what if's." I ask my students to try new things all the time, so I also must be willing to step outside my comfort zone and try new things as well.
About two weeks ago, I incorporated Twitter into my classroom for the first time. The response was not what I was anticipating. The previous day, we were discussing SMART goals in terms of setting financial goals. I asked them to send me a tweet - What does the acronym SMART stand for? Some students immediately pulled out their phones and sent the tweet, but other students were hesitant. When I asked why, they stated they didn't want their friends to see it on their Twitter feed or they were worried it was the incorrect answer. I told them not to worry about the answer since it was more of an experiment for me. A few students were still hesitant and even stated "other teachers don't make us tweet to them." Despite the reluctance and protests, it was a good trial run. The more I incorporate Twitter into weekly or daily lessons, students will become more comfortable with the idea.
Vicki Davis posted A Guidebook for Social Media in the Classroom and some ways teachers are using social media in their classrooms. I would love to hear from you. What social media are you using in your classroom? How are you using it? Have you found it to be successful?
Photo: flickr.com
This is a great summary of the use of social media in the classroom. I never really thought about the fact that students might be embarrassed to post answer on their tweet feed. I can see how that would make some weary, especially if they didn't know the correct answer. Could you turn it into a game? Maybe the first person to tweet the correct answer gets a bonus point? Or possibly allowing students to get together as a group to give them more anonymity in their answers, that way they wont feel so singled out if they are incorrect?
ReplyDeleteI am hesitant to use certain social medias with my students because of the possible issues that may arise. Really this is holding me back, as my students have 1-1 iPads and we are essentially a twitter and google school. I do worry that problems will present themselves, such as cyber bullying or inappropriateness. However, there is so much that can be done with social media that this is a resource that I should try to use in my classroom and see the results.
ReplyDeleteA teacher in my department (social studies) uses Twitter for class discussion sometimes. He has an established hashtag that the students all know and are reminded of at the start, and they use it to track discussion, like a TweetChat. So far, he has found that it has drawn out some shyer students, who like that they can participate without having to actually talk. There are some drawbacks as well, though. Not all students respond appropriately, and there are some who just don't respond at all. These problems, though, are fairly typical for any classroom activity. All teachers have dealt with students who make inappropriate comments and students who just won't participate no matter what you try. Social media is just another tool, not an answer from the heavens.
ReplyDeleteYou've definitely inspired me to start thinking about using Twitter in the classroom. Maybe I'll try out a classroom TweetChat one of these days...
I had a similar reaction from my students when I tried to incorporate blogging. We started reading a novel and I thought the students would enjoy blogging their responses versus writing them on a piece of paper. My rationale thinking thought "hey, they are on their phones all the time, why not give them something productive to do?" A few have embraced the blogging, and like it, and others have done nothing but complain that they have no idea what to do or where to find the blog or any other of the million excuses high schoolers come up with. To these students, I have said to write their comments on a piece of paper. But it is interesting how we teachers think the students will embrace this idea of incorporating technology and social media and they resist it. Is it because they are used to having the two worlds separate? Like school is for school work and technology and social media are for outside of the school? It is simply going to take some getting used to for the two worlds to unite?
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