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![]() Question #2: Many are concerned about the use of social media in school. Describe your views of the pros and cons of using social media. How will you use this tool in your classroom and what are your greatest concerns in doing so? Social Media Use in School Statistics from Pew Research state that as much as 90% of children ages 13-17 use a social media platform and 71% use multiple platforms. A 2018 study found that 85% of students 13-17 use YouTube. 72% of students use Instagram and 69% use Snapchat. It is clear that a majority of the students we teach are daily using social media platforms. It has become a normal part of their lives. The real question, however, is should this platform be integrated into their educational experiences as well? The following is a 2013 list of Pros and Cons from teacherthought.com. The goal of this blog is to see if the pros and cons, which are now over seven years old, have become dated and need to be revised, or if they are still prescient for today's educators. The Pros 1. Engaged Students are More Successful 2. Social Media Teaches Important Life Lessons 3. It's 'Real World' Engagement is a top priority for teachers. If a student is engaged in the lesson they will retain what is taught at a deeper level. Social Media connects the classroom to the world around the school. Current events, trends, and ideas can easily be incorporated into the classroom. Also, many students perceive Social Media as the real world. It is what they are most familiar with, and honestly, the most stable and uniform part of life for students nationwide. One of my favorite class projects is to create a low-tech Social Media thread or profile. Students are much more engaged in creating a Facebook or Instagram profile of a historical figure than writing a biography. Both exercises are performing the same tasks, however, many students engage in the social media project while they abhor the biography. The Cons 1. The Internet Is a New Medium For Bullying 2. Social Media Can Be a Time Suck 3. The Internet Is a Dangerous Place The Cons for using social media are strangely prescient for adults as well as students. Social media is a haven for trolls and bullies. As an adult, I have a hard time managing my time and usage of social media. I know that students have more difficulty putting their phones down. Countless hours have been wasted scrolling through news feeds and camera rolls. Also, there seems to be a limitless amount of phishing scams that are pushed on social media. As I scroll through Facebook, I see numerous people everyday claiming to have been "hacked." The truth is that they are clicking unsecure links on social media that gives their information to a third party phishing organization. Adults and students fall prey to these information attacks on a daily basis. This does not even touch on the more criminal sectors of the internet like under-age pornography and sex trafficking that specifically targets teenagers across the United States. For classroom use it is important to use a neutral platform. I really like using the news stream in Google Classroom. Students can post questions, comments, photos, etc. At the beginning of the year students must be taught social media etiquette for the class use of social media. Also, the teacher should set rigid expectations regarding the class' social media page. The teacher must also constantly monitor the feed to ensure that the online class environment is being kept a safe and neutral space for learning. It is time consuming, but the benefits of having students connected to the teacher in a professional capacity throughout the evenings and weekends has been a big help for my own classroom. I am always happy to answer weekend questions about an assignment. That real, or quicktime, feedback is necessary for student success. Project 2-5 Reflection This week our group projects seemed to run very smoothly. We meet early in the week to discuss each project and our team members personal strengths, weaknesses, and choices on the week's assignments. We also set a time frame to have all of our rough drafts done so that our group members could view, make edits, and sign off on the assignments. We really hit our stride this week. I personally worked on two of the assignments this week. Amelia and I teamed up, mostly Amelia, on the project 2 assignment. We started with a general framework of the lesson and I inserted comments and suggested activities. I also worked on the project 4 assignment creating a Google Slides presentation and a reading assignment using Google Docs. Melissa assisted me with this assignment. One thing that I have yet to utilize in my own classes is the Poll Everywhere Add-on for Google Slides. This tool is an amazing formative assessment tool. It allows the instructor to add questions that can be answered in real time by the student within the Google Slide presentation. The answers can be submitted via and website or text messaging. The classes results are then displayed instantaneously. I used two of the features (Poll Everywhere has many more) within our group presentation. I started the presentation with asking students to type a one word response to what the word "Southern" brings to mind. Poll Everywhere then turns the results into a word wall that can be discussed as an attention grabber. I also had two other formative assessment multiple choice style questions in the presentation. I really like the functionality of this Google Slide add-on and plan on using it in this upcoming school year. My district has proposed that students will be able to choose to do traditional, staggered days, or fully online school this year. Teachers will have to accommodate whatever choice the student and their family makes. Using Poll Everywhere will allow me to foster classroom engagement as I have live stream and traditional settings being taught simultaneously. Students at home will be able to participate in the class just like as student in the room. Projects 2-5 Files Project 2 - Lesson Plan Project 3 - Technology Survey Project 4 - Google Doc Project 4 - Google Slide Project 5 - Podcast Week 5 Group Evaluation
2 Comments
7/5/2020 02:22:21 pm
I appreciating you pointing out the "real world" aspect of social media. To these kids, social media is a huge part of the world around them. Honestly, it's a huge part of my life as well, whether I want to admit it or not. Social media is a place where people now get their news, and even government offices provide their most up-to-date information and updates through social media. It has truly become an essential part of today's society. I think to ignore social media in the classroom is a mistake, as putting up walls between what is good and permissible at school and what belongs outside of school does not give teachers the opportunity to thoroughly teach students how to appropriately use certain websites and apps. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this, Derrick.
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7/5/2020 06:40:35 pm
Hello, Derrick
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