Social Media in a classroom?

I think using social media in the classroom has pro's and con's. On the positive aspect, most people around the world are on The Facebook, no matter their age. This will let teachers connect with their students at home any day, even when they are on breaks. I also see this as a good thing for the district, students can be involved in "groups" of their classroom and others that are in the same grade as them. This can be helpful over summer or really long breaks, it would not have to be an assignment, as not everyone is on Facebook at home. Most teachers know that their students are on Facebook at least twice throughout the course of a day. Parents can also be involved in this process and staying up to date on what is going on in the classroom.According to the Facebook page, Facebook pages can be both personal and professional, "by maintaining a page is a great way to establish a presence as a teacher without blurring the line between your personal and professional lives. You can interact with parents, students and colleagues via your page or group" (Teaching Digital Kids). According to the Educator's Guide of Facebook, it can be "Student-Centered: which shifts the learning responsibility to the student, requiring students to take a more active role in their own learning process and emphasizes teachers as providers of help as needed to overcome difficulties" (Phillips, Baird, Fogg, 2011). I believe this could be a good thing for students to also get to know fellow students who are not in their primary class but in their grade. As I know I went to school with a lot of people but do not even know some of the names of students i graduated with. Teacher's can use Facebook by posting review questions or homework assignments if the student has misplaced their original. A weekly task of commenting on something they learned in class or how they feel about something can also be done on Facebook. The teacher would have to set aside some class time in order for students to complete as some are not able to on their own time. Guidelines would have to be craved in stone as for what students can and cannot post. "Acceptable Use Policies:  Jeff Johnson, technology coordinator for the Glendale-River Hills School District, in Wisconsin, prefers to call these "Responsible Use Policies" because he "expects students (and staff) to be responsible school citizens" (Poole, 2011). Students can create videos on Facebook and post to the class, or change a piece of artwork and share with everyone. This is a way for students to stay connected to each other even when they are not together. "So many educators on the front line are seeing this great opportunity where kids are no longer just creating work for an audience of one—which might have been, in the past, a teacher—but they're able to produce work that can be shared in a much broader way," said Cindy Johanson (McMullan, 2012). Another great way that social media has helped is through text messaging, if students are somewhere and they relate it to school, they can easily snap a picture and attach it to the classroom Facebook page for all to see. Students think they are having fun on a social website but they might not understand how many skills they are acquiring through this process. One teacher in particular has reached out to his students to make sure they are putting all efforts forward, "Mr. Delmatoff would send text messages to wake chronically absent kids up before school or send messages like, “I see you at the mini-mart” when they were running late. She called the program “Texts on Time,” and it improved chronic absenteeism by about 35% without costing the school a dime (Kessler, 2010). To keep on the topic of using social media, students can find pictures, video, or audio that represents a historical event and post to the page for all to see. Teacher's can also team with a teacher from around the world and have a group where both classes interact in a variety of ways. I do not think there are many downfalls other than this being something the teacher will have to spend a lot of time monitoring to make sure everything is following policies on the classroom page. I will use a social networking site and social media in my classroom, it is just how society has changed.


http://www.facebook.com/safety/groups/teachers/

1.       http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/columnists/poole/poole018.shtml

http://facebookforeducators.org/educators-guide

http://mashable.com/2010/09/29/social-media-in-school/

https://www.facebook.com/education