Had a great discussion with the inquiry group today. We decided to continue the divide and conquer approach, each checking out one of the resources we’d previously located then reporting back to the group. On the “pros” side of using social media in the classroom, we talked about how it gives students the opportunity to share their learning with a wider community. We also saw an example of study done with Twitter where the researchers found its use for educational purposes led to a measurable increase in student engagement as well as GPA. Social media allows classroom discussions to go beyond the time and space allowed in the school day and provides students a safe way to interact with their ideas, each other, and their instructor. On the “cons” side, we spent some time talking about face-to-face communication and that we notice, as time online increases, our students are becoming less comfortable with social interactions in person.
This tied in well with the whole class discussion on linguistic cognitive domains and structural coupling. I liked the idea that we require connection with other living entities and our environments in order to survive. The idea that words are powerful is not a foreign concept, but for some reason I haven’t made an effort to use words more appropriately to create a positive environment in my school. If we, as educators, need more practice in effective social communication, imagine how much our students could benefit from the same. It’s interesting that in searching for how to introduce social skills to students, the majority of the articles involve LD students or those with specific disorders. I don’t think the struggle with social connections is limited to this group of students (or to students at all).
If you have time, check out this TED talk on the adolescent brain, in particular how young people form social connections:
I find your discussion in this post about adolescents and their social connections to be very interesting. It seems that in our district social and emotional learning SEL is the latest popular buzzphrase. We are being asked to consider more often. ProD is being developed around social and emotional learning and our principle is convinced that we’re going to be told by the district that we need to have a social and emotional Learning school goal for the APL. Adolescence is the time to expose kids to as much as possible because I was in the video link that you provided this is the time when the brains are most malleable when they’re willing to take risks and try new things and we need to harness that in a positive way. We need to teach students how to use social media in a positive educational light. In the climate in our district in particular because of incidents such as the recent suicicides related to online bullying and misuse of social media, teaching digital citizenship and how to relate to other people online and off and provide as you said “practice in effective social communication” is very timely.
Hi Charlotte,
I like how your groups discussed pros and cons. It is important as an educator to be aware of the benefits and drawbacks of implementing social media into the classroom. I agree with the above reply that “we need to teach students how to use social media in a positive educational light.” I think it is important to model how to use social media positively. We need to inform children about online presence. There are now more and more universities that tare using social media searches to ‘investigate’ possible candidates. One negative online post and it may jeopardize a student’s future.
Twitter is a great place to start to relate social media into the classroom, for example; teachers often create Twitter hashtags specific to class projects or initiatives so that students can collaborate, discuss the subject matter anytime they wish, and then locate all tweets that include that specific hashtag.
Schools can follow a few basic guidelines for using social networking in class, and they can add to or customize the rules according to their unique needs:
◦Run parent technology nights to help parents learn about different social networking resources and learn how to use them.
◦Be aware of acceptable use policies and guidelines regarding personal vs. professional accounts and use.
◦Keep in mind the purpose for using the social media tool.
There’s a good handout on the MediaSmarts website that explains to students about building a positive online presence.
http://mediasmarts.ca/sites/default/files/pdfs/tipsheet/TipSheet_BuildingYourBrand_0.pdf
I often find this conflation of students’ involvements with technologies and a commensurate lack of ability to engage face to face conversation. What I don’t see included in this argument is the role school experiences are having on students’ social development. If schooling experiences are curriculum-driven and teacher-centered, when, and where, are schools providing students’ with opportunities to actually develop social linguistic skills? Think about how much time young people are left to their own devices and their own age groups. How many chances are they having to converse with an elderly person? A baby? A toddler? A young adult? Without diverse conversational experiences about diverse topics, it seems very unfair to blame the digital technologies that might actually be giving young people precious social contact at all. That is why I argue educators need to take responsibility for providing leadership in guiding young peoples’ engagements with ICT, and their uses of it for learning, and social connection. What would it be like if a group of youth had a project to read out loud to an elderly shut in?