Social Media in the Classroom!

While contemplating the incorporation of social media into the classroom, I decided to investigate the disadvantages. From cyberbullying to identity theft and corporate invasion of privacy, the list seemed rather extensive. Therefore, I would begin with an introductory lesson regarding social media in both my curriculum specialisations – English and Life Orientation. Setting the boundaries on what can be considered appropriate and illustrating how my learners can maintain a safe space from social media sharks, would be my first priority.

In agreement with Nicholas Provenzano, specific media tools can greatly expand learning beyond the classroom setting. Social media is inescapable, especially if your occupation involves teaching in the 21^st century. Twitter has proved itself useful as one receives instant responses from fellow followers, thus I would use twitter to tweet announcements and links that relate to the topics discussed in class.

As the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. In my English class, I would combine Instagram, blogging and Twitter as a form of assessment: students would be required to post a photo that relates to a particular theme, blog about the visual and share the accessible links via twitter. Provenzano argues that the action of commenting plays an important role, as it stimulates deeper thinking and communication. I think it would also make for a good class discussion. As an extension, students would need to read the blogs of their peers and bring their comments to class for engagement. This would provide an opportunity for students to practise their ‘social media commenting skills’ concerning sensitive topics. The advantage being that there would be no hardcopy of naïve and inexperienced comments that may create a burden in the future – Without paper, its vapour!

Life Orientation is considered an important subject, as it creates an awareness about and lays a foundation for the environment in which we live. What is social media if not communicating about the influential events around us? Social media can become an educational tool in the Life Orientation classroom, through the use of YouTube videos regarding awkward subjects like infections/diseases and anatomical changes. In order to facilitate learning, students would be encouraged to blog and comment about their responses. The environment is constantly changing, with our finite resources depleting at a rapid rate. In groups, learners can create videos about the ways in which people can intervene. These intervention videos can be posted on social media sites like Facebook, allowing learners to contribute to a worldly cause and learn in the process.

Vicki Davis said it best: “social media is another tool that you can use to make your classroom more engaging, relevant and culturally diverse.”