Social media and the classroom

Social media has taken the world by storm and as much as we would hate to admit it, but Social media has pulled us all in, in some way or the other and there is no shame in that, it just mean you chose to move with the times. So why would you want to keep your classrooms in social media darkness???

I mean that learners are already familiar with all the different platforms of social media out there, but we as teacher can help show them a more positive or productive way to use it, instead of just uploading selfies whole day.

I am going to go a step further and say it is our duty as 21^st Century teacher to makes use of the tools that social media is providing, to enhance the education of our learners even further. I mean just think how easier our lives as learners would have been if there was a way to communicate with your teacher outside of the classroom. Example using twitter as a way to see if the children understood a certain subject that dealt with in class and, then also being able to communicate with classmates regarding what they understood or not. I also like the remind app that was mentioned, it would have come in really handy when I was in school, to be able to get a reminder from your teacher about homework or if you need to bring something to school the next day, sounds awesome.

Thus I don’t think there is a way anymore that you can think of social media and the classroom as two separate entities. We need to start thinking of them as connected, in all subject fields. I also feel with the use of social media in the classroom we can bridge the gap between student and teacher, thus making learning more easily. I am not saying that we should throw out all the old ways of teaching, but we need to learn to move with the times.  And yes there are various factors to consider when bringing social media into your classroom, but those is just small obstacles, to overcome and I think that you and your learners will be able to overcome them together, because you will be teaching a language that they understand and want to be part of.

This just means that we as teacher are going to have to more creative with our lessons. And who know we might also learn a thing or two from our learners.

So my vote is, yes to social media in the classroom, just think of all the possibilities……