When considering the usefulness and consequences of using social media as an educational tool I cannot help but refer back to a quote from one of this week’s readings.
Social media can be used to build people up or tear them down. It’s not the tool but the user of the tool that makes a difference. - Jennifer Casa-Todd Social media is a powerful tool. Like any other tool in a teachers arsenal it is up to us to determine how to best utilize social media as a mechanism for helping our students bridge gaps in their understanding. The ethical issues that come with the utilization of social media may seem completely foreign to those who have never used social media in their own lives but when more closely examined I would argue that the issues we face are more familiar. Teaching students how to use tools in positive and respectful ways is nothing new. Given a pencil and paper, some students will focus on taking notes and others will commit to distracting others by drawing inappropriate pictures. Teachers have been helping students to interact in positive and respectful ways since the onset of education; now we are simply changing the platform through which they engage with one another. As a millennial I had the extreme fortune of being in high school in the early 2000s. The tech boom had taken place and many of my peers were fluent in the language of technology. This was the pre-IPhone era, a magical time before students were constantly carrying personal computers in their pockets. Despite a lack of such technology students found ways to pass notes in class, write cheat sheets on the reverse side of their water bottle labels and even pre program their TI-83 calculators with video games so we could play Tetris and Mario in Calculus class. Technology and more specifically social media was not the means to distraction, it was something intrinsic in students. If given a tool to distract oneself and placed in a situation where the student is not stimulated by the activities in the classroom, students will find a way to misbehave. Using social media in our classrooms comes with the caveat that students must be shown how to properly use the tool. Time must be spent familiarizing students not only with the use of different social platforms but also how to engage with others in positive and respectful ways. Teachers must be intentional in their instruction and realize that full digital fluency requires digital citizenship to be at the forefront of every social interaction utilizing educational technology. Social media is a wonderful way to foster communication between students who would normally not be able to collaborate. Thinking of my ELLs and their hesitation when it comes to speaking in class, the use of online platforms that let them communicate digitally using translation software, has given them the confidence to share out ideas in class. Social platforms can also allow students to give feedback to one another in ways that are meaningful to them; likes, comments and shares often to more to boost students confidence than the reward of a high mark on an assessment. Video sharing platforms like Youtube are an amazing way for students to show skills or to learn from skilled posters. There is a world of information online and our students must be shown how to access that material in and outside the context of our specific content. A point to consider when using these platforms as instructional tools is: students are who they are perceived to be by the online community; they sometimes do not have the benefit of being known IRL (In Real Life) so what they post, like and RT speaks volumes about them as people. All to often students forget that their online persona is forever linked to their actual self and is sometimes a more accurate representation of who they are. Students should be held to a different standard of communication because their conversations are eternally preserved online and derogatory comments will follow students far longer than they will remember making them. If I came across inappropriate activity taking place on one of my students profiles outside of the classroom I would make the same considerations as if I were seeing this activity take place in front of me in any other public forum. What is the danger? Who can be negatively affected? What message is the student conveying about themselves? If the student’s activity is not appropriate I would have a conversation with the student, discussing the danger of posting such inappropriate material in a public space. Depending on the severity of the students actions and the potential danger it poses to others, parents and other authorities should be made aware, then it would be up to them to decide further punishment.
7 Comments
Catalina Goldstein
3/9/2019 12:45:04 pm
You made some great points. There will always be those mischievous kiddos using learning tools to spell out naughty words. We can only model and cross our fingers that students follow the example that we set for them.
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Jona Sandau
3/9/2019 01:53:15 pm
Brandon, I love your posts. I LOVE your connection to EL students and how social media can be an important way for them to communicate when they struggle with speaking. I was also LOVING your connection to the rewards of likes and recognition on the social media platform as a replacement for the reward of a grade. You are brilliant, and I love reading your thoughts!
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Scott Marsden
3/9/2019 06:27:59 pm
Brandon,
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Monica Knecht
3/9/2019 07:04:25 pm
Brandon, You surely did go through high school and college at a unique time with the boom of the personal technology era. It's fun to hear your perspective on what years you were learning and what games you were playing. I love the idea that teachers have always been role models and trying to teach right from wrong and appropriate from inappropriate and acceptable social behaviors. As teachers, we have many roles and we wear many hats and that is not going to change. Actually, it seems that the roles of teachers just keeps getting piled onto. It is crucial to teach and train our students to act with kindness and put their best foot forward always.
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Tess Giner
3/9/2019 10:09:10 pm
Wooo! I love how you started the blog with that first quote. I love that quote. I think I will print it and post it up in my classroom for all my kids to see. I think you're right. Social media is a very powerful tool for kids who otherwise would NOT participate in class. Teach them how, and teach them how respectfully and responsibly... and you're good to go!
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Julie Lovie
3/10/2019 05:09:07 pm
Brandon you are correct this is another tool for us as educators to use and engage the kids are just light years ahead of us on many fronts. I am a 1984 graduate and that was the era of Atari and the Comador 64 computer which was state of the art. We played very innocent games and left our type writers in the closet for the new technology of word processing.
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JP
3/12/2019 06:43:01 pm
I appreciate that you brought to light that teaching students to be responsible with tools is nothing new. I mean, ancient technology being used in our ceramics class still needs guidelines, how much more social media. So much consideration these days when it comes to what we post, something as simple as a selfie can be misconstrued into something nefarious. I can't believe I just used the words misconstrued and nefarious in the same paragraph.
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