I see the hot topic in education right now as less about facebook more about twitter. More and more educators are tweeting about education and their experiences inside the classroom. Teachers can use twitter to pick the brains of a world full of colleagues. Having teachers unite in 140 characters or less can't underestimated. I plan on joining some twitter chats over the summer myself just to get a toe in and see what can be learned for a new teacher. Teachers might also be able to reach parents on this commonly downloaded app as well. Having parents connected is directly related to support at home. The more supported the student, the better they do in school. Students are also being invited in on the twitter bandwagon too. If students follow their teacher's tweets they can be brought into a class discussion here as well. Twitter and facebook can be a tool for teachers to extend their classrooms. I feel it is important to maintain a community of learners in the classroom and the skill of peer discussion is of utmost importance. These social media sites are a gateway into the global community and I can't pass up the opportunity to teach kids a tool that will benefit in their upcoming careers as well as broaden their horizons and open their minds to other opinions in the meantime.Guiding students through social media is a great way to teach them how to properly utilize the technology we have that helps us reach out to the world community. We as educators need to educate our students that people care about what they have to say and they can learn a great deal from listening to other points of view as well. We need to educate students that there is more to social media than posting what we ordered for lunch.
Update 8/1/14 : I have joined the twitter groups @CAedchat and @ntchat . My twitter handle is @MBallacheyedu if your would like to follow me and my journal to becoming a new teacher!
You brought up a lot of good points throughout this post. I also believe that Social Media in the classroom can be a potentially dangerous thing if it is not done right. It is important to know what is okay and what is not okay when it comes to Social Media. I am not completely sold on the use of Facebook in the classroom. I can definitely see Twitter as a better option as far as staying connected. You can stay connected with students, parents, colleagues, and people from all over the world. You can join different chats and learn a lot of things from Twitter. However, Facebook is way different with connecting to people. So, I think that as long as you know what is right and what is wrong and you do not cross those boundaries Social Media sites such as Twitter are a great tool to use in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteHi Megan! I too have learned the value of social media in education beyond silly, meaningless posts of food. I also joined twitter as a result of discovering how beneficial it is as a support for new teachers as well as maintaining a personal learning network. Just followed you:) I think that teaching middle and high school, as I believe you are aiming for, students will naturally be drawn into things they are familiar with like Facebook and Twitter. But also, like you said, there needs to be clearly established boundaries and it is the teacher's responsibility to teach them professionalism when participating in the class's social media sites. I like that you mentioned the capability social media has for our students to reach out to the world community. From your post, it seems you will do great guiding students to make social media work for them in a way that is beneficial for their future.
ReplyDeleteI very much agree that it's important to teach students that social media can be used for more than updates on one's meals. In addition to students, though, I think that the parents will be a tough sell. As a part of an older generation, and most likely having only seen social media used for recreation, there may be some difficulty gaining support for using these resources. That doesn't mean it's not worth trying, of course; it just means that we should prepare to have to really come out swinging, such as it were.
ReplyDeleteMegan,
ReplyDeleteI am all for educators [only] using these various social media sites including Facebook and Twitter (just naming a few) but a bit skeptical and even paranoid with all this technology in the hands of young adults who brains are still in the developing stages. Don’t want to be held responsible for their negligence.