Activity 7 - Social Media and the classroom

Social media is a powerful and relevant tool to use in education. It's helpful for teachers, students and our communities. With such power however comes great responsibility and for our intermediate school a whole new set of problems at times.

In my opinion social media needs to be incorporated into the classroom. There are 2 main ways in which this should be occurring.

1. To model responsible social media use
2. To extend the connections a teacher can make with other educators

Responsible Use:

The classroom is already riddled with social interactions that teachers are not even remotely aware. Kids use Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, ... and the list goes on! I'm not suggesting that teachers need to know about every single platform that students can use, but instead that teachers need to provide opportunity to show how powerful social media can be. How can we expect kids to just know how to use social media in a responsible way? Would we provide students with dangerous (but exciting!) science apparatus and provide no scaffolding for safe and responsible use? Is it ethically  or professionally responsible for teachers to publically like, comment, and share content that isn't demonstrating what it is to be a Good digital citizen?

It's easy to see what some of the big issues are here that prevent teachers from using social media in class, but as articles like this one on Edutopia points out the emphasis needs to be on what we should be posting online, and how powerful this could be as a tool to improve your positive presence online.

After all... it's not like student's future jobs could be affected by social media... could it?

Professional Development:

I think back on my first few years teaching (Can't believe that was 8 years ago!) and of the professional development course I attended. Upon reflection, the aspect that made courses successful, or not, was whether I made a connections with the learning I was already doing on the job.

Professional development has changed so much. It's possible to use Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.... THE LIST GOES ON..... to better yourself as a teacher, and person! The key determining factor I suppose is whether you have taken on a growth mindset or if you are a teacher who demonstrates 21st Century learning skills. Teachers are free to discover connections and become active participants in developing other teachers across the world.

Resources:

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/modeling-constructive-online-behavior-david-cutler

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magazine/how-one-stupid-tweet-ruined-justine-saccos-life.html?_r=1

Image source: http://elearninginfographics.com/the-use-of-social-media-in-school-infographic/