How Schools Should Use Social Media

While some schools are embracing social media and technology in their classrooms, far too many others are taking a much more drastic approach: Complete and utter banishment. It is clear, however, that such draconian measures are not working—trust me, I know. I battled for years against cell phones in the classroom. Cell phones bring it all in—Facebook, Twitter, email. Students aren’t paying attention to teachers because they’re too busy paying attention to their web-based social lives. Recently, I’ve changed my mind, and explored ways to transform social media from a distraction to a learning tool.

Many teachers and principals hesitate to change—but the transition from an anti-social media school to one that makes use of it is easier than you think. The irony is that most of the faculty and staff are probably already engaged in some facet of social media—it’s just that for some reason, the idea of bringing into class is terrifying. I believe this hesitation to be rooted in fear—fear of unsupervised teacher to student communication (the times we live in, right?). However, it is easy to prevent inappropriate communication. Here are easy ways to safely and quickly bring social media into the classroom:

1. Teacher Facebook Fan Pages:

Instead of using their personal Facebook pages, teachers should create fan pages for their classrooms. This circumvents the need for teachers and students to be ‘friends’ in order to communicate via Facebook. Facebook Fan pages are free and take seconds to create. Students ‘fan’ the teacher, and will receive any messages the teachers posts about class directly into their Facebook news feed.

Do Check:

• 6 Reasons You need a Facebook Fan Page

2. Twitter:

Twitter can be used for every club, activity, and event in the school. At the very least, there should be an official school Twitter account used to keep parents and students abreast of school news. This would be quicker and more efficient than losing precious class time to all-school morning announcements. Students hardly listen to those announcements, anyway—they’re too busy checking Twitter.

3. YouTube:

Take class projects and events public—with parents’ permission, of course. The quickest way to get students hooked into learning is to make it real, and the quickest way to make it real is to make it public. Showcase accomplishments, class videos, school events. Students frequently make their own videos with their friends and post them to their YouTube accounts. Why not make use of skills they already have to enhance your class?

4. Forums:

Class forums are a great way to keep students engaged even at home. Using a class forum, students can ask questions and get answers quickly from their teachers and peers. They can collaborate on projects and brainstorm ideas. Such a tool is especially useful for students’ ever-busier schedules. They can get group work done even when they aren’t able to find time to get together.

Schools don’t need to fear social media—they need to take control of it and make it work for them. Incorporating students’ interests into lesson plans is the best-known way to boost student engagement and learning.

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Tagged as: Facebook, Schools, Social Media, Twitter

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