Social Media Education

Social Media Education

Don’t dismiss social media education just yet.  As many argue about the relevancy of social media webpages like Facebook, YouTube, or even Twitter in the classroom, there are some perks to using these sites that will not only stretch your student’s grasp of the concept but also invigorate their will to study.

Sure there are plenty of cases where social media has been a nuisance at work and even damaged careers, as you can see we’ve reported on the evils of social media education here, however when used correctly, it can be a blessing to your student’s education and really amp up your curriculum.

Social Media Education | Tools for Learning

Social media education is not only a tool for learning, its a FREE tool for learning and one in which your students are already engaged.  Social media is all about creation, so your students can take your curriculum and put in their own two cents.  Here’s what Eric Sheninger principal New Milford High School in New Jersey and contributor to The New York Times had to say about social media education:

When structured in a pedagogically sound fashion, learning activities that incorporate social media allow students to apply what they have learned through creation. This fosters higher order thinking skills and caters to a wide range of learning styles. Social media tools allow educators to authentically engage students as they encourage involvement, discussion, communication, collaboration and creativity. These include utilizing mainstream tools such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, as well as specialized ones such as Voicethread, Glogster, Animoto and Prezi.

Imagine if you were to have a classroom group on Facebook where students were required to frequently post opinions on reading materials.  Even encouraging to share other pieces of media (articles, etc.) that have relevance to a particular subject.  Have your students create YouTube videos as reports, thus incorporating educational videos and pdfs with student interaction and creative thought.  Social media education is genius, they are already there!  We aren’t suggesting that you give up your normal classroom method all together, absolutely not, that’s suicide!  Rather use social media education as a supplement to your regular techniques.

Social Media Education | Blogs

Lets focus on blogs for a minute.  Blogs are a great way for your students to shine, not only through the material they produce, but also through what media and design they incorporate into their posts.  Here’s what Sheninger had to say about social media education and blogs:

And then there are blogs, which are an incredible social media tool that can be utilized in a variety of ways. Teachers can set up a class blog to foster creative writing and reflection or as an alternative to a school newspaper. Blogs are not isolated to just writing — students can add rich media to posts such as pictures, videos, widgets and gadgets. School administrators can use blogs as a powerful public relations tool in lieu of traditional newsletters and e-mail blasts. The ability to comment on any blog increases both student and community engagement.

Social Media Education | Bottomline

What really needs to be understood here is that education is an ever-evolving force that needs to be revolutionized over time.  Just as our society transforms over the years our educational system needs to move right along with it.  Social media education is not only necessary its fun and it moves students to engage in education.  Social media education also teaches students digital responsibility, something very important in our technology influenced world.

Image attribution: http://mashable.com/2010/05/11/social-media-school/