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Recently, Social Media sites have begun to play a more prominent role in lives of both adults and children. In the education world, there is a constant debate regarding what role social media should play in a classroom and child’s education. Below you will find a Pro’s and Con’s list that I created regarding this topic.
Pros:
- Allows for teacher collaboration with educators around the school, county, state, etc.
- Allows for student collaboration
- Reduces the ‘fluff’ and gets straight to the point due to the limit of characters
- Share resources
- Can learn from others which leads to self-reflect
- Easy and time effective to use once you know how to use it
- Helps create a digital footprint
Cons:
- Takes time to learn how to use
- Public information to anyone
- Private doesn't really mean private
- Lead to other outside sources and websites
- Gray area for teacher & student communication
- Potential misinterpretation of information posted
- Cannot necessarily control who students communicate with
After reading the four articles it seems as
though those in support of social media sites in the classroom really support
it and those who are against this idea are really against it. Prior to this
course, I have done some research myself and found that there are definitely
some ways other teachers have thought of to incorporate sites like Twitter and
Facebook that can help further a child’s learning and education. However, there is still some serious risk
present. My main concern regarding this topic is the liability and student safety
aspect. While we can monitor student communication in the classroom we cannot
monitor it outside of the classroom. It makes me nervous to know that there is
the potential of someone other than myself of a student in the classroom coming
in contact with the child.
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| http://www.socialmediasmarketing.com/ |
CLICK HERE - Using Twitter To Breakdown Classroom Isolation
CLICK HERE - 13 Great Twitter Chats Every Educator Should Check Out
CLICK HERE - 13 Great Twitter Chats Every Educator Should Check Out
I think you were very honest in this week's blog. You seem to do very well with technology. I really like the images you've included and the links you've embedded in your blog. They make the blog look much more attractive than ones just with text. I also like that you included bullets for the pros and cons of social media. After reading this I think the risks of social media for students outweigh the rewards. I keep thinking its not worth it. I wonder if its really responsible of teachers to ask students to give up some of their privacy by posting material online. I love the idea of teachers connecting through social media though.
ReplyDeleteJulia, I believe that social media does have a place in education. However, the concerns you brought up such as liability and safety are big concerns of mine as well. I am not sure I believe websites such as Twitter or Facebook necessarily belong in the classroom, especially for younger grades. But classroom websites, blogging, and collaborative sites such as wiki could be very beneficial to the students learning process as long as we educate them on how to properly use these tools. We can not monitor students actions 24/7 but with technology continuing to grow bigger and having such an important role in education. I believe we should do our best to teach students how to be “online”. It is more than likely that they already are or have plans to be in the near future.
ReplyDeleteHi Julia,
ReplyDeleteI thought that your post here about social media in the classroom was very thorough and organized. I especially liked your well-outlined list of pros and cons. I agree with you, the use of social media in the classroom definitely will need to take into consideration the age of your students. Generally, any young student under the age of 13 will not be able to participate in learning through social media anyways. One of your cons you listed was that it would take time for students to learn how to use it. I personally didn't feel like this was a con for the use of social media because ultimately when students are learning something new, what doesn't take time? Generally I think doing anything new takes time, especially when it comes to technology.